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University President Fired After Alleged Rape Cover-Up

Anyone care to guess the motive?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/16/university.dismissal.ap/index.html

University president fired after alleged rape cover-up

* Story Highlights
* School officials had ruled out foul play in rape and killing of
a student
* Laura Dickinson's body was discovered in her dorm room last
December
* Another student was arrested in February and is awaiting trial
* Next Article in U.S. »

* Read
* VIDEO

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YPSILANTI, Michigan (AP) -- Three Eastern Michigan University
administrators, including the president, have been forced out, months
after top school officials were accused of covering up the rape and
slaying of a student by publicly ruling out foul play.
art.fallon.05.ap.jpg

John Fallon, shown in a 2005 photo, was dismissed as president of
Eastern Michigan University on Sunday.

President John Fallon was fired, and Vice President of Student Affairs
Jim Vick and Public Safety Director Cindy Hall lost their jobs at the
23,500-student public university, the chairman of the school's
governing board said Monday.

Board of Regents Chairman Thomas Sidlik also said the board would put
a letter of discipline in the file of university attorney Kenneth
McKanders.

The body of the slain student, Laura Dickinson, 22, was discovered
December 15 in her dorm room. At the time, university officials told
her parents and the media that she died of asphyxiation but that there
was no sign of foul play, despite evidence to the contrary.

It was not until another Eastern student, Orange Taylor III, was
arrested in late February and charged with murder that her family and
students learned she had been raped and killed. Taylor has pleaded not
guilty to murder and criminal sexual conduct charges in Dickinson's
death, and is scheduled for trial Oct. 15.

An independent law firm investigation and U.S. Department of
Educationreport both found that the university violated the federal
Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to disclose campus
security information.

Many in the 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.

Board member James Stapleton said it became clear from conversations
with Fallon and his attorney that Fallon was planning to take action
during Monday's scheduled board meeting that would have damaged the
university. As a result, the board unanimously voted to fire him.

Neither Stapleton nor other regents would elaborate on what he said
Fallon was planning.

Fallon's secretary did not know how he could be reached for further
comment. Fallon told the Ann Arbor News that a termination letter
indicated his office had been secured and that arrangements would be
made for him to retrieve personal items. He told the newspaper he was
upset with how the board handled his firing.

"As a citizen, I am disappointed in this hastily called meeting,
without any opportunity to be present or to respond," Fallon told the
paper. "I have a story to tell and intend to tell it."

Messages left by The Associated Press at a telephone listing for the
official president's residence at Eastern Michigan and by e-mail were
not immediately returned.

A gate prevented access to the front door of the residence Monday
afternoon. A call placed to the residence from a telephone near the
gate went unanswered.

Fallon has 60 days to leave the property, board members said.

Fallon's salary was $225,000 a year. His contract was to run until
July 2010, according to university spokesman Ward Mullens. According
to the terms of Fallon's contract, he would be paid the equivalent of
one year's base salary if the board fired him.

Vick, who has been on paid administrative leave since March, told the
News: "My first choice was to come back. But you don't always get your
first choice."

The board appointed Provost Donald Loppnow as executive vice
president. In that dual role, Loppnow will serve as the school's chief
executive until an interim president is selected.
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Robert Dickinson, the slain woman's father, said anybody implicated in
the federal report "should probably expect the same" fate as Fallon.
Video Watch why the victim's parents think officials covered up the
truth »

"I fire my baristas if they do wrong," said Dickinson, who owns a
coffee house in the western Michigan community of Hastings. "The board
of this school should do whatever they need to do."

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