YPSILANTI, Mich. – Despite criticism from faculty, the Board of Regents and the U.S. Department of Education, Eastern Michigan University President John Fallon III has refused to resign after the institution allegedly covered up a homicide.
Last December, police found the body of 22-year-old student Laura Dickinson in her dorm room naked from the waist down with a pillow over her head. The university told her family and the press she died of asphyxiation and only admitted she had been raped and killed when a suspect was arrested in February.
A subsequent investigation ordered by EMU’s Board of Regents labeled the vice president in charge of student affairs, the public safety chief and the school’s communications office as guilty parties in the cover-up.
A faculty advisory group placed a vote of no confidence in Fallon’s leadership last Wednesday night and asked the Board to fire him.
Fallon responded Friday by sending out an E-mail outlining 16 strategies to ensure a safer campus, including a safety and security audit and bi-weekly campus incident reports for faculty, staff and students.
The Department of Education is expected to release a report next Friday, which could lead to sanctioning the school or firing Fallon.
Previous coverage of this story can be found here.
