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Letter from the Editor Dear Reader, Like the giant block M that radiates over Ann Arbor from both ends of the football stadium, everything is bigger at the University of Michigan.
Its budget, at more than $9 billion in annual revenue. Its enrollment, at nearly 50,000 undergrads and graduate students. Its systemwide workforce, at more than 48,000 employees.
Even the scandal stories are giant-sized.
On Jan. 15, university President Mark Schlissel was fired on a Saturday afternoon by the Board of Regents for having a relationship with a subordinate. Two days later, the university announced a $490 million settlement with more than 1,000 survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Dr. Robert Anderson.
“Between the dismissal stuff and the Anderson stuff and then COVID hitting record highs at Michigan, that's three – boom, boom, boom – things that have kept it very, very busy from a reporter's perspective,” said Sam Dodge, higher education reporter for MLive and The Ann Arbor News.
Dodge has been reporting on the effects of the omicron surge on the campus for the entire school year. In October the university reported 410 cases of COVID. Last week, it had risen to 1,800 and preliminary reporting this week had it at 1,200.
But even a pandemic was no match for the breaking news that rocked the school when the Board of Regents terminated Schlissel and released more than 100 pages of emails that the former president exchanged with the subordinate employee.
To journalists, the immediate public dump of the emails may have been as surprising as the news of Schlissel’s termination.
“I have so many open requests (for information) that just get delayed and delayed and delayed at the University of Michigan,” Dodge said. “It’s indicative that (the regents) really understood the gravity of the situation and they wanted to respond to it.”
But a plugged-in reporter knows there’s always more to the story. Schlissel had been under heat from “many, many different corners of the university,” Dodge said. “The regents really tried to micromanage Schlissel to doing a better job because they didn't want to fire him without cause, because then they would have to pay him.”
One element of the Schlissel story is that, as university president, he presided over institutional response to sexual harassment and assaults. That took on added importance because the university was embroiled in the Dr. Anderson scandal, in which the doctor for the athletic department abused athletes and staff members for decades.
“In this climate, it was to (the regents’) benefit to really come down hard on this stuff in a really – at least by all appearances –transparent way,” Dodge said.
Two days after Schlissel’s dismissal, the Anderson scandal also reached a milestone: The announcement of the settlement between the school and the victims.
Even with the payout, that story is not over. Jon Vaughn, a former U of M football player and one Anderson’s victims, is running for the Board of Regents and is campaigning on the issue of addressing sexual misconduct on campus.
Dodge said he regularly receives emails from other people claiming to have been Anderson’s victims, and he notes $30 million has been set aside for future claims. And a federal court case is ongoing, with plaintiffs asking the court to order reforms to the university’s misconduct policies.
“There are further steps that are going to impose changes on Michigan, and Michigan does not like to be told what to do,” said Dodge.
That alone should keep Dodge and his reporting peers very, very busy for some time to come.
Editor's note: I value your feedback to my columns, story tips and your suggestions on how to improve our coverage. Let me know how MLive helps you, and how we can do better. Please feel free to reach out by emailing me at editor@mlive.com.
John Hiner Executive Editor Vice President of Content Mlive Media Group
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