Campus Climate: Sexual Misconduct

“It’s up to all of us to report sexual misconduct, support those who come forward, participate in education and training programs, be an advocate for the university community we aspire to be, and to create a safe, inclusive and respectful culture for all. Our goal will always be to work toward preventing all instances of sexual misconduct at our university.”

– President Mark S. Schlissel

Sept. 20, 2018 update

In March 2018, President Schlissel, Provost Martin Philbert, Executive Vice President Kevin Hegarty, and Executive Vice President Marschall Runge established a working group on faculty and staff sexual misconduct to develop recommendations for a more equitable and inclusive workplace climate by improving awareness, training, reporting and accountability regarding all forms of sexual misconduct on the Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses and at Michigan Medicine.

The working group recommended a centralized website devoted to sexual misconduct reporting, prevention and education that can be easily accessed by all members of our community.

A second recommendation is that U-M invest in a comprehensive sexual misconduct training and education approach that includes training for all faculty and staff. Currently, we train new hires and participation for existing faculty and staff is voluntary. Following this recommendation, training will be required for all. The first part of the education and training program will be released in fall of 2018.

University leaders are currently evaluating the implementation of additional aspects of the group’s work, including a second phase on developing an equitable and inclusive workplace environment.

To be as thorough as possible, U-M engaged an outside expert to conduct a broader examination of our entire community, assess the quality of our current efforts, and suggest what we can be doing better. That work is ongoing as well, and those findings will be shared when they are final.