UA faculty committee report blasts school’s safety efforts
The University of Arizona has failed to implement an effective risk management system to assess and communicate threats to safety on campus, according to a faculty committee looking into the fatal shooting of a professor and other allegations of harassment and intimidation.
The panel was formed by Faculty Chair Leila Hudson to look into Professor Thomas Meixner’s death and the university’s response to other high-profile conflicts.
“These failures, in lockstep with an institutionalized conscious disregard for known violence risks, has and will continue to have devastating consequences for the safety and security of the UArizona campus community,” said the report, titled “Oversight and Response Failure: Broken Trust.”
Thomas Meixner, the head of the Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences Department, was shot and killed Oct. 5 at the university’s Harshbarger Building. A former student, Dervish Murad, is accused in his death.
The shooting occurred after almost a year of harassment and intimidating and threatening behavior not only geared toward Meixner but four other faculty members in the hydrology department, a female undergraduate student and a dean of students administrator, the report said.
Meixner and the others who were targeted persistently contacted the dean of students, the Office of General Counsel, which provides legal counsel for the university for faculty and staff, and the University of Arizona Police Department to report the threats and harassment, the report said.
The offices failed to address the harassment, focusing instead on how the evidence could violate law or policy, the report alleged.
The subjects of the threats eventually took it upon themselves to protect their own lives by “purchasing a bulletproof vest, relocating offices, temporarily changing residences, installing home security systems, possessing non-lethal weapons while on campus
and keeping a loaded gun while at home,” the report said.
Members of the panel, called the General Faculty Committee on University Safety for All, conducted interviews with those who were subjected to threats and with community members.
The committee found that in response to violence and harassment, the university failed to implement an effective system to monitor and evaluate risk. The report called the university’s internal communication channels “ineffective.” The university’s approach “disregards employee and students’ safety concerns,” the report said.
Hudson, the faculty committee chair, said as an elected leader it was her “statutory responsibility” to convene the committee.
A university spokesperson urged the community to wait for findings and recommendations from an outside consultant before coming to any conclusions.
Other situations raise concerns
The committee also looked into sexual harassment allegations in the university’s James E. Rogers College of Law between male law students and two
female law students in 2019 and 2020.
One female law student was harassed, while the second was raped, both by male law students, according to the allegations. The woman who was harassed — when the perpetrator, a former romantic partner, stalked her and distributed lewd photos of her taken without her knowledge — pursued legal action.
She informed the university police as well as other university departments, according to the report. The lengthy review period for the incident allowed the man to continue to enroll in classes and harass her, the report said.
After a group of law students met with President Robert Robbins to inform him about the “culture of toxic masculinity” and to demand action, no action was taken because of “federal and state laws that prevented the institution from acting,” the report said.
Another situation investigated by the committee involved a Black student who uses a wheelchair. The student had an encounter with the interim associate vice provost of diversity and inclusion that made the student feel uncomfortable.
While the student tried to report the incident to the Office of Institutional
Equity, the department informed her officials would not investigate the encounter and sent her to the Human Resources Department, which referred her back to the previous office.
The administrator with whom the student had the encounter proceeded to submit a report to the university‘s police department claiming the student was “aggressive and weaponized her wheelchair,” according to the report.
A second interaction between the student, who is also the president of the Black Student Union, and the administrator, took place to discuss Black Student Union matters. However, the administrator refused to speak with her, and the interaction became contentious, the report said.
After the student left, the administrator called university police and several police officers arrived at the building.
“The Black and Disabled Community members especially expressed experiences of over-policing and inappropriate responses from UAPD as well as feeling that they are unjustly profiled as threats to campus safety,” the report states.
The report also discussed the harassment of a student journalist after she wrote a story about a TikTok influencer who attended the university. The influencer was unhappy with her story and published her contact information. Institutional response to her safety concerns was minimal, the report said.
Report: University has ‘chronic trust problem’
The committee concluded UA has a “chronic trust problem” with the university community, with many people doubting the competency and integrity of administrators. Many are skeptical about the university’s willingness to address safety issues, especially those involving marginalized communities. In addition, they say, victims fear retaliation and consequences if they speak out.
The report also identified gaps in how the university addresses risks and violence.
One is the failure to install a risk management system.
“The Committee identifies the lack of a central risk management system for violence risks as a glaring institutional failure whose consequences are both highly anticipated and catastrophic,” the report said.
Another is the university’s handling of safety concerns and enforcement. The report claimed that reporting violence and harassment on campus involves a complicated and fragmented process, made more confusing as multiple departments are involved.
The report noted that the “intricate maze of formal policies and websites” to figure out how to report an incident, makes it challenging for victims to come forward. The complicated structure also makes it difficult for administrators and the reporting agencies to be willing to help, said the report.
“The burden of negotiating the reporting system can especially undermine the willingness to support fellow UA persons,” the report said. “This is particularly cumbersome for victims, when the receiving units express that they are unable or unwilling to help.”
According to the report, the university has a Threat Assessment Management Team to promote campus safety, but the committee found it is unfunded and relatively unknown to the university community.
While Meixner and others were being harassed in the year leading up to the shooting, the threat assessment team concluded the shooter did not pose a threat but that the team would continue to monitor the situation, the report said.
The committee’s work is independent
of an investigation commissioned by the university to look into campus safety and security and provide recommendations. That investigation is being led by the consultant Pax Group LLC.
In an emailed statement about the report, university spokesperson Pam Scott said the university reviewed the report and said it was not “comprehensive and exhaustive.” Scott said the report has reached “sweeping conclusions” based on “misleading characterizations and the selective use of facts and quotations.”
Scott urged the community to wait on the comprehensive report from PAX Group LLC.
Hudson said, in a phone call with The Arizona Republic, “I feel we have not only a statutory responsibility, an ethical responsibility to our community, but also a moral responsibility to Tom Meixner and his family.”
She noted that she chose the members of the committee based on their expertise in higher education policy, risk management and compliance, and community health.
The university is a public institution, and there is “no time to lose” to have a public conversation about safety on campus, she said.
“As long as there isn’t a concerted effort on the part of all university stakeholders to improve the risk management and threat assessment capacity of the institution, our community members continue to be at heightened and unmitigated risk,” she said.
The final committee report is expected to be published in May with input from the community and further recommendations.