At a sexual assault survivors’ 
forum on Nov. 13, Maya Crosman, 
a 2016 University of Michigan alum 
and survivor of former U-M lecturer 
Bruce Conforth, questioned the 
University’s investigation process 
into Conforth, who retired without 
any punishment in 2017.
“I cannot be sure what happened 
at (the Office of Institutional Equity) 
when Conforth was allowed to retire 
with his reputation intact, but it is clear 
that justice was not given to the brave 
women who reported him and the 
brave women who were still getting 

abused by him,” Crosman said. 
Crosman was one of six survivors 
who spoke during the first portion of 
the forum at the Michigan League, 
titled “Survivors Speak Up Against 
U-M’s Pattern Of Enabling Sexual 
Abuse.” The event, hosted amid 
heightened community focus on 
sexual misconduct because of the 
allegations against late University 
athletic doctor Robert Anderson, 
addressed 
the 
University’s 
mishandling of sexual misconduct 
on campus and discussed policy 
changes to prevent future abuse. 
Isabelle Brourman, a 2015 University 
alum and survivor of Conforth, and 
U-M professor Rebekah Modrak 
organized the forum with help from 
Crosman and Katherine McMahan, 

a 2008 University alum and survivor 
of Conforth and Cassie McQuater, 
a University alum and Conforth 
survivor.
Conforth, a lecturer at the 
University from 2001-2017, was 
accused of using his popularity 
among the student body to abuse and 
threaten multiple female students. 
Brourman said the purpose of Nov. 
13’s panel was to share the stories 
and research from survivors of 
sexual abuse at the University.
“There have been enough of 
these stories for us to know that it’s 
not just something that falls through 
the cracks,” Brourman said. “It’s 
not a single report that was ignored, 
and it’s rather a routine pattern of 
complainants who’ve come forward 

and a pattern of being ignored, their 
information being taken and being 
filed away.”
McMahan shared that she was 
abused by Conforth in 2007 while 
attending a blues concert. McMahan 
was the first known complainant 
against Conforth.
“He waited for me outside the 
bathroom, he grabbed me and tried 
to get me to go home with him,” 
McMahan said. “It finally took me 
pushing him away and going back to 
the table to get away from him.”
McMahan first reported her 
story to the University in 2008, 
which led to the University giving 
him a “last chance agreement.” 

Jonathan Vaughn intends to run 
for the University of Michigan’s 
Board of Regents in 2022, he 
announced at a U-M sexual assault 
survivors forum on Nov. 13. 
Vaughn is a former Michigan 
football player and a survivor of late 
athletic doctor Robert Anderson. 
Since Oct. 8, he has been leading 
numerous other survivors in camping 
outside 
of 
University 
President 
Mark Schlissel’s house to protest 
the University’s handling of sexual 
assault allegations against Anderson. 
“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: 
President Schlissel is a puppet, and 
the puppet masters are the Board 
of Regents,” Vaughn said on Nov. 13. 
“Far too long now, 50 some odd years, 
this culture of rape, sexual abuse and 
cover-up has become a syndicate. It’s 
become a syndicate not only with 
the faculty being afraid of reporting 
or supporting — because there’s this 
one faculty member who told me it’s 
career suicide — it’s also a syndicate 
that the brands that support this 
University and some of the media 
that support this University say 
those things like, ‘We can’t continue 
to cover the largest sexual abuse 
and rape cover-up in the history of 
sports, because for the most part 
it’s just two Black men speaking up 
about something that happened 30 
years ago or a wrestler who couldn’t 
keep his scholarship.’ Those are the 
things that we’ve heard.”
“Well, I’m here to tell you this 
today: the Board of Regents is a 
publicly voted on position, and today 
I want to announce that I’m going to 
run,” Vaughn continued. “And there 
are seats that are available in 2023, 
2025, 2027, 2029.”

Katherine White (D) and Michael 
Behm (D) are the two regents up 
for re-election in 2022. Regent Ron 
Weiser (R) has said he is also an 
Anderson survivor.
The University’s Office of Public 
Affairs declined to comment. 
The forum, held by six survivors 
of sexual assault at the Michigan 
League on Nov. 13, also featured 
panelists such as Anderson survivor 
and former Michigan wrestler 
Tad DeLuca, survivors of former 
U-M 
lecturer 
Bruce 
Conforth 
and attorney Sarah Prescott, who 
represents eight survivors of former 
Provost Martin Philbert.
Vaughn has said he will remain 
outside Schlissel’s house for 100 days 
or until Schlissel and the regents 

speak with him and other Anderson 
survivors directly. While Schlissel 
has indirectly spoken to survivors 
at Board of Regents meetings and 
expressed his support in media 
interviews, he has not spoken to 
them directly or acknowledged their 
presence directly since they have 
been camping outside of his home.
In 
an 
interview 
with 
The 

Michigan Daily on Nov. 11, Schlissel 
said he has been listening to Vaughn 
and the other survivors but chooses 
not to directly approach them. 
“The way I’ve chosen to listen 
to members of the survivors’ 
community doesn’t include stopping 
by the front of the house and 
listening to a group of folks in tents,” 
Schlissel said. “But rest assured that 
myself and the regents are listening 
to not just Mr. Vaughn and the 
others who are out there, but the 
broader community.” 
Schlissel announced on Oct. 5 
that he will be resigning from the 
presidency in June 2023, leaving his 
post two years earlier than planned. 
Schlissel’s generous exit package 
has stirred backlash from across the 

University community. 
The University president reports 
to the Board of Regents. If Vaughn 
were to win in 2022, he’d start in 
January 2023 and be Schlissel’s 
superior for six months. 
Managing 
News 
Editor 
Liat 
Weinstein can be reached at weinsl@
umich.edu. Daily Staff Reporter Daniel 
Muenz contributed to reporting.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, November 17, 2021

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

 UMich sexual assault survivors of 
Conforth, Anderson speak at panel

 
CALDER LEWIS & 
KRISTINA ZHENG 
Daily News Editors

NEWS

Jonathan Vaughn to run for 
U-M Board of Regents in 2022

Anderson survivor has been camping outside of Schlissel’s house since Oct. 8

JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Isabelle Brourman, a U-M alum and survivor of sexual assault by former lecturer Bruce Conforth, addresses people gathered at a sexual assault survivors forum in the Michigan League Saturday, Nov. 13.

ADMINISTRATION

Panelists talk University’s culture of assault, policy changes needed going forward

LIAT WEINSTEIN
Managing News Editor

The Michigan Daily sat down with 
University of Michigan President 
Mark Schlissel Thursday to discuss the 
ongoing protest of former athletic doctor 
Robert Anderson survivors outside his 
house and the recent 40% growth of the 
University’s endowment. Read part two 
of the interview for Schlissel’s thoughts 
on the Bright Sheng controversy and 
University employees who remain 
unvaccinated. This interview has been 
condensed and edited for clarity. 

The Michigan Daily: Jon Vaughn 
and other survivors of late University 
doctor Robert Anderson’s sexual 
abuse have been camped outside 
your house day and night for over a 
month. They say you haven’t spoken 
with them yet, and that they are 
committed to remaining there for 
100 days or until you and the regents 
speak with them. Why haven’t you 
gone to speak with them?
Mark Schlissel: I want to 
reiterate that I do appreciate 
Mr. Vaughn. He’s a passionate 
advocate for something that’s really 
important. I admire him for the 
courage of stepping up and speaking 
out about what he went through. But 
as I said at the last board meeting, 
the regents and I are listening in 
many different ways. 
We’ve heard directly from folks 
who sign up to speak in public and 
at our meetings, and when they do 
that they’re speaking not just to us, 
but to the assembled media, so it gets 
really quite wide coverage. We’ve 
heard directly from many Anderson 
survivors. We read media reports, we 

get other direct messages from the 
survivors, and I want to reiterate how 
important it is as we work to update 
and improve our sexual misconduct 
policies and practices and we try to 
continue to make campus safer, that 
the experiences and the opinions 
of survivors of all different types — 
because survivors aren’t monolithic, 
you know, many of them have 
different opinions from one another 
— that all of our policies are vetted 
and discussed with the survivor 
community, and we promise to 
continue to do that.
We’re continuing to meet in 
mediation with attorneys hired by 
the Anderson survivors, including 
Mr. Vaughn and his attorney, and 
will continue to heed the judge’s 
advice not to discuss the process of 
mediation outside of these mediation 
sessions. I really know Mr. Vaughn is 
interested in sharing his story — he’s 
been doing it quite widely. I’ve been 
listening to him and other survivors, 
and perhaps where we don’t agree is 
how that listening should occur. But 
rest assured, we are listening. 
I can’t provide an update on the 
mediation. The University remains 
apologetic, sincerely, for what the 
survivors went through, and we want 
to treat them well. The mediation, 
as I said, is confidential, but we are 
very anxious to come to a good, 
fair closure. And all the while we 
continue to implement new policies 
and processes and procedures, all 
aimed at making the campus safer. 
We’re a long way from where 
we need to be, and everybody 
needs to contribute. Mr. Vaughn 
is contributing, the survivors of 
what happened 30 years ago are 
contributing, as well as the survivors 
of today. So we’re committed to 
doing this together and getting it 
right.

TMD: You said that you think 
that you and some of the survivors 
might disagree on how the listening 
should occur. Can you expand 
on that and what you think that 
disagreement might be?
MS: So, for example, I’ve been 
invited to attend an open forum 
up in the Michigan League this 
weekend. A panel of survivors, as 
well as an attorney representing 
some of the survivors, and media 
will be there. My concern is if I sit in 
a forum like that, I become the story 
rather than the survivors becoming 
the story, and they really deserve 
to tell the story without the hoopla 
of the president being called out 
continuously. 
Fortunately, the organizers of 
that forum are live streaming it on 
YouTube, so I can watch it here in the 
president’s house without disrupting 
the proceedings by being there. 
Others may disagree, but that’s my 
choice as the best way to get input 
from that forum without disrupting 
the forum in a way that might 
diminish the ability of the survivors 
to tell their stories.
TMD: What has it been like for 
you to have this camp outside your 
house? How has it affected your day-
to-day life? 
MS: 
Probably 
under 
Mr. 
Vaughn’s influence, this group of 
survivors and supporters have been 
enormously 
respectful, 
despite 
how aggrieved they feel and how 
passionate they are. They have made 
their points known — there are 
placards up and there’s a bulletin 
board where people can sign and 
the like, and there have been some 
demonstration-type protests with 
chanting and the like — but that said, 
I do not feel mistreated. 

Schlissel on Anderson survivor 
protesters: “I do appreciate Mr. Vaughn”

UMich President does not plan to speak directly to those outside his house

CALDER LEWIS & 
ELISSA WELLE & 
JUSTIN O’BEIRNE 
Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporters

Content warning: descriptions of 
sexual assault
More than 50 students in the Ford 
School of Public Policy walked out of 
their classes and marched through 
the halls of Weill Hall on Nov. 12 in 
protest against the admission of a 
Public Policy and Social Work master’s 
student who was found guilty of Title 
IX violations related to sexual assault by 
his undergraduate university, Eastern 
Mennonite University. 
In a Nov. 10 email addressed to Public 
Policy master’s students, an individual 
named as Ryan Decker — who The 
Michigan Daily was unable to verify 
the identity of — expressed his dismay 
that a current Public Policy graduate 
student had been granted admission to 
the Master of Public Policy and Master of 
Social Work programs at the University 
after committing sexual assault. 
The Daily obtained a copy of Decker’s 
email. Because the student hasn’t been 
criminally convicted and is not a public 
figure, The Daily is not publishing the 
student’s name. 
“I am horrified to learn that (name 
omitted) has been granted admittance 
to the prestigious Masters of Social 
Work and Masters of Public Policy 
programs at the University of Michigan, 
given his history of sexual assault,” 
Decker wrote. “It’s baffling- how was 
someone who was found guilty of 
violating Title IX at another university 
allowed into these programs?” 
The protesters have created a list of 
three demands: the immediate removal 
of the particular graduate student’s 
ability to come to campus, transparency 
on the University’s admission process 
and for communication from Ford as 
they address the situation, and for Ford 
to create safe spaces for survivors of 
sexual misconduct. 

In addition to Nov. 12’s protest, 
the demonstrators initially said they 
planned to continue to boycott their 
classes and picket outside of Ford 
every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. until 
the demands are met. However, they 
stopped their picket midday Nov. 15 after 
some in Ford raised concerns that the 
protest could create an uncomfortable 
or triggering atmosphere for survivors 
walking to class, according to messages 
reviewed by The Daily. 
The protest comes amid intense 
focus on the issue of sexual misconduct 
on campus recently because of the more 
than 2,000 allegations against former 
University 
athletic 
doctor 
Robert 
Anderson, which may be the most 
sexual abuse accusations against a single 
person in U.S. history. 
Other recent occurrences of sexual 
misconduct at the University include 
allegations against Computer Science in 
Engineering professors Walter Lasecki 
and Jason Mars and the upcoming 
trial of former interim CSE chair Peter 
Chen. In addition, former provost 
Martin Philbert retired in June of last 
year after being placed on leave due 
to allegations of sexual misconduct, 
and SMTD professor Stephen Shipps 
retired in 2019 after 40 years of sexual 
misconduct allegations were brought 
against him. Former SMTD professor 
David Daniels, former LSA lecturer 
Bruce Conforth and English professor 
Douglas Trevor have also been accused 
of sexual misconduct.
Following Decker’s email, Public 
Policy Dean Michael Barr wrote in an 
email to all Ford students Nov. 10 night 
that addressed “sexual assault in broad 
terms.” 
“I know it will be frustrating to some 
of you, but for confidentiality reasons 
I am not able to comment about the 
particular case raised or the student 
mentioned in the email,” Barr wrote.

Public Policy students walk out 
of class to protest admission 
of master’s student found 
guilty of Title IX violations

GEORGE WEYKAMP 
Daily Staff Reporter

Group of students call on Ford School 
administration to take action on behalf of survivors 

Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com

See SCHLISSEL, Page 2

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Vol. CXXX, No. 59
©2021 The Michigan Daily

NEWS.........................2

ARTS...........................3

MIC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

OPINION....................5 

STATEM ENT..............6

SPORTS......................7
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GABBY CERITANO/Daily
On Sept. 23, 2021, a crowd gathered an hour prior to the first in-person Board of Regents 
meeting since the pandemic. Jonathan Vaughn, among others, gathered to protest the 
University’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse against late University athletic doctor 
Robert Anderson. 

