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