DETROIT
A U.S. Department of Education review found that Eastern Michigan University’s handling of information about a student’s slaying violated the Clery Act, which says colleges and universities must disclose campus security information, the school announced Tuesday.
A copy of the 18-page report was provided a day earlier to the Board of Regents and Eastern Michigan President John A. Fallon III. They said they planned to review it before making public comments.
“By making this report immediately available, we are continuing our commitment to total transparency,” Regent James Stapleton, chair of the subcommittee that oversaw an earlier independent investigation on behalf of the Board of Regents, said in a statement accompanying a copy of the report on Eastern Michigan’s Web site.
The investigation by a Detroit law firm found the school did not provide a timely warning to the campus community of potential safety concerns following the December 2006 slaying of a female student in her dorm room.
Conclusions made by the independent investigation “are consistent” with findings in the Education Department review, the report said.
The Education Department said it conducted a focused security program review at Eastern Michigan, and its review team visited the Ypsilanti campus from April 3-5.
Fallon last month announced initial strategies to address safety and security after school officials were accused of covering up information about Laura Dickinson’s slaying.
Dickinson, 22, was found dead in her dorm room just before Christmas break. University officials told her parents and the media that she died of asphyxiation but there was no sign of foul play.
It wasn’t until a suspect was arrested in late February that her family and fellow students learned she had been raped and killed.
Many in the university’s administration were accused of covering up the truth and endangering students to protect the school’s image, which has been marred in recent years by tensions with faculty, students and the community.
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