Similarly to the faculty open letter,
the student open letter calls on the
University to issue a public apology
on Sheng’s behalf and reinstate him
as instructor of the undergraduate
composition course.
Sheng also had no comment on the
student letter.
Cho and LaGrand told The
Michigan Daily they decided to write
the letter after noticing the impact the
incident was having on the culture at
SMTD and Sheng’s career.
Cho said while Sheng should have
provided proper contextualization
and warning for students prior to the
showing of “Othello,” the University
could have allowed students to openly
discuss the incident rather than
simply having Sheng step down.
“(His stepping down) just cuts
off any opportunity for healing,
understanding, and (the ability)
for people … to move on,” Cho said.
“That’s why in the letter we asked for
his reinstatement.”
LaGrand said it is important that
faculty members have the autonomy
to talk about and address issues of
racism without fear of administrative
repercussions.
“In order for there to be progress
in society — for us to be a progressive
institution — you actually have to
talk about the things that we think
are unjust or wrong about history,”
LaGrand said. “And if you feel like
even bringing them up might cause
you harm to your career or to your
reputation, then we’re not going to
progress as a student body or as a
faculty body.”
In a statement in an October
2021 Central Faculty Governance
Newsletter, the Senate Advisory
Committee
on
University
Affairs expressed their support
for
implementing
a
restorative
justice approach to Sheng’s case.
This approach would include a
professionally mediated discussion
between Sheng, the composition
students in the class where “Othello”
was shown and administration
representatives.
“The discussion would seek to
arrive at an understanding of each
party’s perspective, an agreement
about what happened, and a course
of corrective action,” SACUA wrote.
“Such an approach would help
Prof. Sheng and the university have
an opportunity to learn and make
amends. It would also provide the
affected students a measure of justice
and give them a critical say in how
justice is enacted.”
Cho said she noticed the effect
the incident had on SMTD culture
and community, including faculty
members who are concerned with
whether this incident is reflective of
how sensitive issues will be addressed
in the future.
“T
he students involved were
understandably talking about a
safe environment in the classroom,
but we also need to consider a
safe environment for everyone,
including the faculty,” Cho said.
“We’re a community here. It’s
not teachers against students —
we all want a holistic collective
environment.”
Correction: A previous version
of this article incorrectly introduced
Evan Chambers as the chair of the
composition department. He is a
professor — Erik Santos is the chair.
Daily
Staff
Reporter
George
Weykamp
can
be
reached
at
gweykamp@umich.edu.
Since allegations of sexual abuse
against late University of Michigan
athletic physician Robert Anderson
were first publicized in February
2020, hundreds of individual law-
suits and two class-action lawsuits
have been filed against the Univer-
sity and the Board of Regents by
survivors.
The University’s Division of
Public Safety and Security’s annual
security and fire safety report from
2020 said that 97.7% of the total
2110 reports of rape and fondling
that year stemmed from Anderson.
The allegations against Anderson
— from more than 950 people total
— may comprise the largest scale of
sexual abuse by a single person in
U.S. history.
The Michigan Daily broke down
the progress of these lawsuits, as
well as other current actions by sur-
vivors to demand accountability and
acknowledgement from the Univer-
sity.
Court-ordered mediation
The survivors — the plaintiffs of
the lawsuits — and their attorneys
have been in court-ordered media-
tion with the University since Octo-
ber 2020. Little is known of the
status of the mediation process
or expected resolution date, since
the mediation process takes place
outside the courtroom and public
records are not available. There are
also strict confidentiality measures
in place that bar all parties from dis-
cussing updates with the press.
While survivors are unable to
discuss the mediation, they have
been actively sharing the impacts of
abuse and protesting the Universi-
ty’s handling of allegations of abuse.
Anderson survivors rally outside
Schlissel’s house, demand Univer-
sity accountability
Jonathan Vaughn, a former Uni-
versity running back, is a survivor
of Anderson currently leading a
protest and sit-in outside University
President Mark Schlissel’s house.
Vaughn expressed frustration at
the nearly 14-month long media-
tion process. In an interview with
The Daily, Vaughn compared this
process to sexual misconduct alle-
gations against former U-M Pro-
vost Martin Philbert, which was
settled within a year of the Univer-
sity being made aware of the allega-
tions.
“(The case) really hasn’t gone
anywhere,” Vaughn said. “(It’s
been) a lot of game-planning by
Michigan, the office of Presi-
dent, the Board of Regents as well
as the attorneys, which we under-
stand. That’s kind of their strategy.
We understand it, but that doesn’t
mean we accept it. There really
hasn’t been any substantive nego-
tiation at all.”
While The Daily is unable to
verify these claims due to the pri-
vate nature of the mediation, pub-
lic records and interviews prior to
the start of mediation shed some
light on how the litigation is pro-
gressing.
Individual lawsuits against the
University
Thousands of accusations of
abuse by Anderson have been
lodged since attorney Michael Cox
filed the first claim against the Uni-
versity and the Board of Regents on
March 4, 2020, on behalf of plaintiff
“John Doe MC-1.”
Division of Public Safety and
Security releases annual Security
and Fire Safety report, finds most
crimes stem from Anderson reports
In the last year and a half, more
than
850
individual
lawsuits
against the University — collec-
tively referred to as a mass tort case
— were filed by 60 attorneys. The
individual cases were filed in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan and assigned to
Judge Victoria A. Roberts.
The court named attorneys
Michael Cox, Mick Grewal, Rich-
ard Schulte and Steve Drew to lead
the mass tort case. The court also
designated a 12-attorney steering
committee — attorney Parker Sti-
nar confirmed his membership on
the committee to The Daily. Stinar
is representing approximately 200
plaintiffs.
Cox wrote in an email to The
Daily that the group of 60 attorneys
are “working together as a group or
coalition in negotiating a settlement
through mediation with the Univer-
sity.”
Cox is representing over 100
plaintiffs suing the University,
including Vaughn. In an interview
with The Daily, Vaughn said he con-
nected with Cox through a referral
from a former teammate three to
four days after the first public story
on the Anderson case. Vaughn said
he decided to use his name in the
lawsuit in order to humanize the
experiences presented.
“I didn’t look at it as bravery,”
Vaughn said. “My name’s not John
Doe and you’re not going to refer
to me as John Doe. I think that is
the number one tactic that massive
brands and powerful people use to
keep their brands out in front. When
you’re faceless, nameless and voice-
less, the general public can’t really
identify with someone that’s anony-
mous.”
In April 2020, Cox and attorney
David Shea submitted an emer-
gency motion to depose Thomas
Easthope, the former associate vice
president for the Division of Student
Life who worked with Anderson at
the University in the 1970s and 80s.
The deposition, a court process held
to collect evidence, occurred in July
2020.
During the deposition, East-
hope said he fired Anderson in
1979 following complaints of sexual
abuse, but his boss, Vice President
for Student Services Henry John-
son, rehired Anderson. Anderson
remained at the University until
his retirement in 2003 — he died in
2008.
Cox emphasized how much this
deposition revealed about the Uni-
versity’s efforts to hide Anderson’s
abuse.
“The deposition of Tom East-
hope demonstrated the long-run-
ning comprehensive cover-up of Dr.
Anderson’s predatory conduct at the
highest levels of UM’s administra-
tion,” Cox wrote.
A lawsuit from March 2020
also alleged that Assistant Athletic
Director Paul Schmidt knew of
Anderson’s abuse while Anderson
was employed by the University but
did not speak out against him.
In May and September 2020,
the University’s defense counsel,
Jones Day, submitted a motion to
dismiss the mass tort case entirely,
citing Anderson’s death in 2008.
Day also sought to dismiss the
case due to the fact that more
than three decades had passed
since some of the abuse allegedly
occurred.
In October 2020, Judge Roberts
ordered the University to withdraw
its motion and prohibited further
motions to dismiss from being sub-
mitted.
In March 2020, the University
hired the law firm WilmerHale to
conduct an independent investiga-
tion into the Anderson allegations.
WilmerHale is the same firm used
to conduct an investigation into alle-
gations against Philbert.
Independent report finds 37
years of sexual abuse by former
U-M doctor Robert Anderson
As part of the investigation,
letters were sent out to around
300,000 alumni, asking them to
provide information to Wilmer-
Hale. During the investigation,
Judge Roberts ordered the Univer-
sity to clarify to the alumni notified
about the Anderson abuse that there
was ongoing litigation regarding
the allegations. In May 2021, Wilm-
erHale released its report, which
detailed decades of abuse by Ander-
son and attempts by the University
administration and athletic depart-
ment to suppress these allegations.
In
the
WilmerHale
report,
Schmidt told the firm that he held
Anderson “in high regard” and
“would have given Dr. Anderson
the benefit of the doubt” if a stu-
dent raised concerns of Anderson’s
examinations.
Judge Roberts ordered the par-
ties to enter mediation, a method of
reaching a resolution between par-
ties without going to trial, last Octo-
ber. The court-appointed mediator
is attorney Robert F. Riley.
Class action lawsuits against the
University
The first class-action lawsuit was
filed March 9, 2020, by lead attorney
Annika Martin of Lieff Cabraser
Heimann & Bernstein, along with
law firms Sauder Schelkopf and the
Miller Law Firm.
The class-action lawsuit was
filed on behalf of all survivors of
Anderson’s abuse under the repre-
sentative plaintiff and anonymous
Anderson survivor, John Doe. It
was amended on Sept. 10, 2020,
to include another representative
plaintiff and anonymous survivor,
Richard Roe, in addition to the
information gathered during the
deposition of Easthope.
In an interview with The Daily
in September 2020, Martin spoke
of the differences between class-
action cases and mass tort cases.
Martin said individual cases are
limited to monetary settlements
and often provoke a first-to-
come-forward mentality among
survivors, highlighting the com-
pensation disparities between the
first group of survivors of Michigan
State University Doctor Larry Nas-
sar to come forward as opposed to
later groups.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 — 3
ADMINISTRATION
It may be the most sexual abuse allegations
against a single person in U.S. history. What’s
happening with Robert Anderson case?
ELISSA WELLE
Daily Staff Reporter
Survivors of former athletic doctor have filed individual, class-
action lawsuits against University and Board of Regents
BRIGHT SHENG
From Page 1
When Ann Arbor Public Schools
announced a shift to remote learn-
ing for students in A2STEAM
schools on Oct. 25, AAPS parent and
LSA junior Patrick Gallagher said
the announcement’s short notice
was hard to work around. Gallagher
said his first-grade son was not able
to complete school work that day
due to the online format.
“We were notified at 7:30(a.m.),
which was 40 minutes before the
start of the school,” Gallagher said.
“I know a lot of parents who are
coming from different parts of Ann
Arbor and different parts of Washt-
enaw County, and they leave the
house way before 7:30 to get out
here. They were already on their
way, there were people getting ready
at the bus stop. It was a nightmare.”
The announcement cited a high
amount of staff illness and short-
ages, leading to a move to remote,
asynchronous learning. Gallagher,
however, said the shift to remote
instruction was not well-thought-
out, especially without proper
learning equipment.
“They said, ‘Hey, you can do
remote learning?’ but he is in first
grade,” Gallagher said. “They didn’t
hand out any devices. There was no
real plan. They were not prepared
for this. This was not a day of learn-
ing. My son didn’t do any school
work.”
Prior to the Oct. 25 closure, the
district announced on Oct. 21 that
three of its schools — Skyline High
School, Huron High School and
Forsythe Middle School — would all
have an emergency closing on Oct.
22 due to staff shortages. Parents
and students were notified at 9 p.m.
the previous night.
“This is an emergency measure
made necessary due to numerous
unfilled positions across the dis-
trict and an inability to fully staff
our schools for tomorrow,” AAPS
Superintendent
Jeanice
Swift
wrote. “Taking this step to remote
learning with these three schools
that were most critically impacted
by staffing challenges, will allow
the AAPS to redeploy substitute
personnel to assist with the short-
age of staff across other buildings
and stretch the resources to staff the
remaining schools.”
Most recently, on Oct. 27, Swift
announced that all schools in the
district will be closed on Nov. 1 to
“safely staff” the buildings. Swift
said this time of year also typically
experiences low attendance rates
due to Halloween and the Special
Election school holiday on Nov. 2.
Ann Arbor resident Lena Kauff-
man is the parent of a 10th-grader at
Skyline High School and a seventh-
grader at Forsythe Middle School.
She said her youngest had a hard
time with the shift to remote learn-
ing, especially after experiencing a
full year of remote instruction.
“It was a huge surprise, espe-
cially to my middle schooler who
reacted very strangely, which I later
heard from friends that their middle
schoolers also had a hard time with
it,” Kauffman said. “She didn’t trust
the school was going to be back the
next day because she had this expe-
rience from the previous year … It
made me really sad that she didn’t
trust her school district and the
grown-ups anymore.”
Ypsilanti resident Robyn Kaiser
is the parent of a 10th-grader at
Skyline High School. Kaiser said
her son was frustrated with the
move online and anxious about the
possibility of more frequent clos-
ings in the future.
“(My son) was frustrated,” Kaiser
said. “The concern was that (Swift)
was just going to keep doing this and
they are not going to be able to go to
school and they will go backwards
to where they were last year. It does
definitely provide a level of anxiety
for him.”
Swift sent an Oct. 22 update to
the AAPS community, in which
she said 112 teacher positions were
unfilled, leading to a shift in remote
learning.
“We take any decisions to tem-
porarily transition to remote learn-
ing very seriously as we continue to
prioritize daily in-school learning in
the AAPS,” Swift wrote.
Some AAPS parents, frustrated over recent school
closures, criticize administration’s planning
CAROLINE WANG
Daily Staff Reporter
Superintendent cites staffing shortages as reason for school closures
Investigators at the University
of Michigan’s Institute for Social
Research and Graham Sustainability
Institute
launched
the
sixth
Sustainability
Cultural
Indicators
Program survey on Oct. 12. The
survey tracks the degree to which
members of the campus community
are
aware
of
the
University’s
sustainability measures and also asks
about respondents’ personal actions to
reduce their carbon footprint.
The University began sending
these annual surveys to students and
faculty in 2012. The last version of
the survey was in 2018, before the
COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 survey
was sent to more than 20,000 students
and 7,000 faculty and staff.
This year’s SCIP survey included a
new section about carbon neutrality
and was the first survey of its kind
to be sent to students, faculty and
staff on the U-M Flint and Dearborn
campuses.
John Callewaert, director of
strategic projects in the Office of the
Associate Dean for Undergraduate
Education
in
the
College
of
Engineering and an investigator at
the Institute for Social Research, said
the SCIP survey is unique because
it is a longitudinal study, meaning it
measures attitudes over time.
“What we really wanted to do
is measure any changes over time,
particularly if there are ways to test
new initiatives in part of campus and
see if there’s a change there as a way
to inform action in other places,”
Callewaert said.
Alexandra
Haddad,
strategic
communications manager for the
Graham Sustainability Institute,
said the survey aims to find out
how the campus community feels
about the University’s sustainability
practices.
“What we’re measuring is not
sustainability, like reduction in carbon
footprint (or) … quantifiable outcomes
and lower greenhouse gas emissions,”
Haddad said. “We’re measuring
how the culture of sustainability has
changed over time at the University of
Michigan.”
Since the survey was last sent in
2018, U-M President Mark Schlissel
and the Board of Regents committed
to achieving total carbon neutrality
for the University by 2040, achieving
net-zero
carbon
emissions
from
purchased electricity and creating a
plan to fully divest from fossil fuels by
2050.
In the 2021 winter term, the Board
of Regents voted to disinvest from
fossil fuels following years of sustained
student activism on campus. As a
result, the University will no longer
invest in the top 100 coal and top 100
oil and gas publicly traded companies.
Some student organizations, such
as the Climate Action Movement,
said the move does not go far enough
because it still allows the University
to invest in natural gas projects. CAM
also criticized the slow timeline for
divestment, because the University
does not have to sell their existing
fossil fuel holdings until 2050.
Callewaert said though many parts
of the SCIP survey remained the same
from the previous iteration, including
questions about waste prevention,
conservation and transportation, the
addition of questions about carbon
neutrality are especially relevant:
“The major change this year is
the whole set of questions on carbon
neutrality, given the objectives and
priorities that the University set
recently for getting moving towards
carbon neutrality and setting some
goals around really increasing efforts
around climate action,” Callewaert
said.
The surveys differed slightly
between
the
three
campuses,
Callewaert said, in order to reflect the
campuses’ unique sustainability plans.
“Particularly with the carbon
neutrality initiative, there’s been a big
push for the three campuses to work
more collaboratively around some
sustainability issues,” Callewaert said.
“We created very similar surveys,
but we adapted them in ways to best
address the activities and the interests
of the Dearborn and Flint campuses …
We tried to make sure we were only
asking questions that made sense at
each campus.”
Engineering sophomore Sophie
Cronk, a collective impact coordinator
for
the
Student
Sustainability
Coalition, said the addition of a section
on carbon neutrality will help people
learn about the University’s carbon
neutrality efforts and the President’s
Commission on Carbon Neutrality,
which released its final report this past
March after two years of research.
“It’s a really helpful addition
because it spreads awareness about
the PCCN to people that might not
already know about it,” Cronk said.
“One of the great things about the
SCIP survey is that it goes out to … a
broad group of students and not people
who just engage with sustainability on
campus.”
Daily Staff Reporter Justin O’Beirne
can be reached at justinob@umich.edu.
Climate change survey
tracks attitudes toward
campus sustainability
JUSTIN O’BEIRNE
Daily Staff Reporter
Sixth annual questionnaire sent to more than
20,000 students, 7,000 faculty and staff
ADMINISTRATION
ANN ARBOR
KEITH MELONG/Daily
A group of survivors and students gather on the Diag calling on the University to take
action for a safer campus Tuesday afternoon.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com