Rebekah Modrak co-organized and spoke at Stop Protecting Predators: Survivors Speak Up, a forum addressing U-M’s failures in preventing and responding to sexual misconduct on campus. The event on Saturday, November 13, from 11 am to 1 pm centered around two panels: The first featured six survivors of sexual misconduct at U-M (Isabelle Brourman, Maya Crosman, Katherine McMahan, Jon Vaughn, Tad DeLuca and Chuck Christian), coming together to share experiences and describe the failures of the university in protecting victims, in their own words. In the second panel, Modrak and other policy-advocates described U‑M’s current sexual misconduct policies and what changes should be made to protect the U‑M community, and to center the voices of survivors. The Michigan Daily covered the event.
A recording of the event is available on YouTube.
Additional information about these cases:
University of Michigan lecturer Bruce Conforth was permitted to continue teaching after a student filed a sexual harassment report in 2008. Eight years and seven victims later, the University encouraged Conforth to retire, pre-empting a full review into several new reports against him. Another sexual misconduct case on U‑M’s campus, involving Dr. Robert Anderson, may be the largest sexual violence case in America’s history with a reported 2100+ victims; the University knew of the U‑M athletic doctor’s sexual misconduct since the 1970s, but allowed Anderson to work and abuse students until his retirement in 2003. There are additional stories of abuse beyond those of Conforth and Anderson. For, despite the University hailing themselves as radically improving sexual misconduct policies, the administration continues to fail to provide actionable procedures to protect victims, prosecute predators, and prevent future misconduct at U‑M.
