“Changing the culture is tough.”
— Jill McCluskey
———
The University of Utah has flunked intimate-partner protection 101 — again!
Less than two years after it failed to protect student Lauren McCluskey from a man she had formerly dated a few times, the university botched another intimate-partner violence case in which the victim was murdered.
In both cases, the University of Utah failed to act promptly upon receiving complaints.
Were it not for the university’s systemic failure to educate and act promptly, Lauren and Xhifan Dong likely would be alive today.
Lauren, whose parents live in Pullman, was shot and killed on Oct. 22, 2018. Two years later, the university settled her parents’ lawsuit for $13.5 million, including a donation of $3 million to the Lauren McCluskey Foundation, established to honor Lauren and provide financial help to underprivileged high school athletes who want to compete in sports.
Xhifan reported intimate partner violence, but no steps were taken for nearly a month later, according to the Washington Post (July 23). She died Feb. 11 in a Salt Lake City motel. Her boyfriend, Haoyu Wang was lying next to her. The Post reports that Wang confessed to giving Dong a fatal dose of heroin and fentanyl.
Five University of Utah women have been killed in domestic violence cases since 2016, reported the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Tribune had to sue the university to obtain documents regarding the Dong murder. They were only released on July 19, five months after Dong’s death.
To the university’s credit, when it finally turned more than 100 pages of documents over to the Tribune, officials acknowledged dropping the ball after Dong and others reported that she was being abused.
While admitting fault, the university also tried to shift blame to others.
The report said: “The timeline and related actions reveal a complex mix of behavioral health challenges, underlying staffing shortages, intimate partner violence, off-campus events, missing persons and alleged criminal actions.”
And, “ ... the university acknowledges shortcomings in its response to this complex situation, including insufficient and unprofessional communications, a need for clarity in the training of housing workers and a delay in notifying university police and the Office of Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Title IX of indications of intimate partner violence. These immediate deficiencies have all been addressed, including corrective actions with employees.”
Here, the University of Utah marketing staff has put heavy makeup on an ugly face.
Co-mingling marketing with communications (news), as the University of Utah, Washington State University and many other educational institutions now do, is a root communications problem; but that’s another column for another day.
Society in general is guilty of ignoring and downplaying and giving a low priority to intimate partner violence. In the Utah cases, state legislators share in responsibility for failing to provide adequate funding for universities, but that doesn’t excuse university administrators for their priorities in the allocation of funds.
The same is true in other states across the nation, and voters also are part of the problem as they keep electing politician to cut taxes.
Intimate-partner violence is a broad, systemic problem across the nation. Indeed, it is worldwide.
Victims will continue to die until we as a people change our national, political priorities.
It’s far past time for voters to get their dander up and vote for politicians who give a damn about this horrific crime.
Day has lived in Pullman since 1972. He served on the Washington State University faculty for 32 years as science communicator. He enjoys a life-long interest in agriculture, history, law, politics and religion. He encourages email — pro and con — to terence@moscow.com.
