The University has finally made a determination that there is a preponderance of the evidence that Brendan Gibbons sexually assaulted a freshman student on November 22, 2009 [1]. Despite the fact that the University failed to investigate the assault for four years, many commenters have said that it is unfair to accuse the University of Michigan administration with covering up the assault and instead laid the blame on the victim, the Ann Arbor police or the prosecutor.
I think that the evidence of a cover up lies both with the failure of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) or the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) to investigate the assault at the time it occurred, despite the victims many requests to do so, and in the failure to protect her and make her feel safe in proceeding with a criminal prosecution.
In order to demonstrate the administration’s failure to protect the victim, I think is useful to compare the University’s response to the fears of Gibbon’s victim to the University’s response when it felt that former student body president, Chris Armstrong was threatened by an anti-gay rights blog published by former Assistant Attorney General, Andrew Shirvell.
Chris Armstrong was the University of Michigan’s first openly gay student body president. He had already been an activist for gay rights on campus for several years when he was elected president. Andrew Shirvell was a young conservative lawyer in a Republican Attorney General’s Office, who was adamantly opposed to what he called Armstrong’s “radical homosexual agenda”. He was also a UM alumnus and the former head of the UM students’ right to life committee.
In April of 2010 (shortly after Gibbons’ victim returned to campus after her rape), Shirvell began to publish a blog he called “Chris Armstrong Watch”, which attacked Armstrong with stories of his supposed sexual escapades [2]. One example would be that a friend of Armstrong’s would post a comment on Armstrong’s Facebook page saying “had a great time at your orgy last night”, something that almost everyone would understand as a joke. Shirvell would then post a “breaking news story” about Armstrong’s supposed orgy. Shirvell also showed up as a counter protester at a rally where Armstrong was speaking, he showed up at a bar where Armstrong had posted on his Facebook page that he would be at and he stood across the road from Armstrong’s house when a party was being held and called in a report of a loud party to police while taking pictures of the police breaking up the party. Armstrong complained to Facebook about Shirvell’s Facebook page and it was removed but it reappeared on a blog site. Altogether the site was up for less than 4 months.
In the fall of 2010, Chris Armstrong was assisted by UM legal services to file a protective order against Shirvell but he soon dropped the request when the judged ordered that there be a hearing to hear from both sides [3]. Instead he lobbied the UM Dept. of Public Safety to issue a trespass order banning Shirvell from all UM property but later modified the order into a sort of poor man’s restraining order [4].
At the September 2010 meeting of the Board of Regents, Regent Darlow read a statement that included “When any member of the University of Michigan community is targeted because of his or her identity, we are all attacked” (She was not speaking of Gibbons’ victim)[5]. The Ann Arbor City Council also condemned Andrew Shirvell’s blog attacks on Armstrong [6]. President Coleman single out Armstrong for praise in her commencement speech in 2011[7].
All of these expressions of support were perfectly justified and certainly made Armstrong feel stronger and encouraged to pursue his initiatives. Such expressions of support and protection would have been much appreciated by Gibbons’ victim but nothing like this came from the administration or the campus police.
There is a common misconception that Gibbons’ victim did not seek a student disciplinary hearing at the time of the incident. That is not true. She says that she has two dozen business cards from all of the UM officials who told her that they could not do anything through student discipline because she did not pursue the criminal charges. When Rick Fitzgerald says that allegations of sexual misconduct made in 2009 were “handled in accordance with the University policy in effect at the time”[8], he is lying. There was never anything in the policy that required a student to file criminal charges in order to have a student disciplinary hearing.
The victim was receiving many threats, not only those from Taylor Lewan. The campus police performed a “wellness check” on the victim, in which they passed on the report of the threats from Lewan but did not offer her any kind of protection or suggest that she get help from legal services to get a protective order. Instead, the administration moved Gibbons to the South Quad dormitory (still near to the athletic facilities) but moved his victim three times during the spring semester. She was terrified by these threats and decided not to go forward with a public trial but she wanted a more private disciplinary hearing but the University administration refused her that opportunity until four years later.
Any allegation made in good faith should have been investigated and the victim should have been reassured about her physical safety as well as her privacy in the student disciplinary process. If the allegations were proven to the standard of evidence in the disciplinary process, the administration should have publicly supported her (anonymously) against the inevitable verbal attacks of UM football fans. They may have lost a better than average place kicker but the damage to the reputation of the University is much more devastating.
[1] http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/former-kicker-brendan-gibbons-expelled-sexual-misconduct
[2] http://www.michigandaily.com/content/man-opposing-armstrong-speaks-out-msa-meeting
[3] http://www.annarbor.com/news/chris-armstrong-drops-request-for-ppo-against-andrew-shirvell/
[4] http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-modifies-order-barring-assistant-ag-andrew-shirvell-from-campus/
I think that the evidence of a cover up lies both with the failure of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) or the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) to investigate the assault at the time it occurred, despite the victims many requests to do so, and in the failure to protect her and make her feel safe in proceeding with a criminal prosecution.
In order to demonstrate the administration’s failure to protect the victim, I think is useful to compare the University’s response to the fears of Gibbon’s victim to the University’s response when it felt that former student body president, Chris Armstrong was threatened by an anti-gay rights blog published by former Assistant Attorney General, Andrew Shirvell.
Chris Armstrong was the University of Michigan’s first openly gay student body president. He had already been an activist for gay rights on campus for several years when he was elected president. Andrew Shirvell was a young conservative lawyer in a Republican Attorney General’s Office, who was adamantly opposed to what he called Armstrong’s “radical homosexual agenda”. He was also a UM alumnus and the former head of the UM students’ right to life committee.
In April of 2010 (shortly after Gibbons’ victim returned to campus after her rape), Shirvell began to publish a blog he called “Chris Armstrong Watch”, which attacked Armstrong with stories of his supposed sexual escapades [2]. One example would be that a friend of Armstrong’s would post a comment on Armstrong’s Facebook page saying “had a great time at your orgy last night”, something that almost everyone would understand as a joke. Shirvell would then post a “breaking news story” about Armstrong’s supposed orgy. Shirvell also showed up as a counter protester at a rally where Armstrong was speaking, he showed up at a bar where Armstrong had posted on his Facebook page that he would be at and he stood across the road from Armstrong’s house when a party was being held and called in a report of a loud party to police while taking pictures of the police breaking up the party. Armstrong complained to Facebook about Shirvell’s Facebook page and it was removed but it reappeared on a blog site. Altogether the site was up for less than 4 months.
In the fall of 2010, Chris Armstrong was assisted by UM legal services to file a protective order against Shirvell but he soon dropped the request when the judged ordered that there be a hearing to hear from both sides [3]. Instead he lobbied the UM Dept. of Public Safety to issue a trespass order banning Shirvell from all UM property but later modified the order into a sort of poor man’s restraining order [4].
At the September 2010 meeting of the Board of Regents, Regent Darlow read a statement that included “When any member of the University of Michigan community is targeted because of his or her identity, we are all attacked” (She was not speaking of Gibbons’ victim)[5]. The Ann Arbor City Council also condemned Andrew Shirvell’s blog attacks on Armstrong [6]. President Coleman single out Armstrong for praise in her commencement speech in 2011[7].
All of these expressions of support were perfectly justified and certainly made Armstrong feel stronger and encouraged to pursue his initiatives. Such expressions of support and protection would have been much appreciated by Gibbons’ victim but nothing like this came from the administration or the campus police.
There is a common misconception that Gibbons’ victim did not seek a student disciplinary hearing at the time of the incident. That is not true. She says that she has two dozen business cards from all of the UM officials who told her that they could not do anything through student discipline because she did not pursue the criminal charges. When Rick Fitzgerald says that allegations of sexual misconduct made in 2009 were “handled in accordance with the University policy in effect at the time”[8], he is lying. There was never anything in the policy that required a student to file criminal charges in order to have a student disciplinary hearing.
The victim was receiving many threats, not only those from Taylor Lewan. The campus police performed a “wellness check” on the victim, in which they passed on the report of the threats from Lewan but did not offer her any kind of protection or suggest that she get help from legal services to get a protective order. Instead, the administration moved Gibbons to the South Quad dormitory (still near to the athletic facilities) but moved his victim three times during the spring semester. She was terrified by these threats and decided not to go forward with a public trial but she wanted a more private disciplinary hearing but the University administration refused her that opportunity until four years later.
Any allegation made in good faith should have been investigated and the victim should have been reassured about her physical safety as well as her privacy in the student disciplinary process. If the allegations were proven to the standard of evidence in the disciplinary process, the administration should have publicly supported her (anonymously) against the inevitable verbal attacks of UM football fans. They may have lost a better than average place kicker but the damage to the reputation of the University is much more devastating.
[1] http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/former-kicker-brendan-gibbons-expelled-sexual-misconduct
[2] http://www.michigandaily.com/content/man-opposing-armstrong-speaks-out-msa-meeting
[3] http://www.annarbor.com/news/chris-armstrong-drops-request-for-ppo-against-andrew-shirvell/
[4] http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-modifies-order-barring-assistant-ag-andrew-shirvell-from-campus/
| 05_minutes_of_the_sept_2010_regents_meeting.pdf |
[6]http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-city-council-condemns-andrew-shirvell-for-attacks-on-openly-gay-u-m-student/
[7] http://www.annarbor.com/news/mary-sue-coleman-at-commencement-praises-chris-armstrongs-leadership-under-fire/
[8] http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/citing-ferpa-and-policy-university-declines-release-details-gibbons-case
[7] http://www.annarbor.com/news/mary-sue-coleman-at-commencement-praises-chris-armstrongs-leadership-under-fire/
[8] http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/citing-ferpa-and-policy-university-declines-release-details-gibbons-case
| 09_um_police_report_wellness_check_re_lewan.pdf |
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