ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced at a board meeting that the university will be creating an independent ethics and compliance office who will report to the Board of Regents and president’s office.

Ono said the decision is part of the university’s plans to enlist change in the school after concerns regarding UM handling compliance issues.  He is seeking input from faculty, staff, students, and the university community about how to best structure this office according to the Detroit News.

“I see this as an opportunity to widen our focus on an institutional basis,” Ono said at Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting. “I want to support the many efforts already underway and the staff who do this amazing work every day.  This will be one more step to keeping our community safe.”

UM published the University of Michigan’s Division of Public Safety and Security (DPSS) on Oct. 1 2022 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report (ASFSR) which exhibits university policies, local laws, emergency services and statistics of reported crimes on campus from 2019 through 2021.

The report includes 182 cases of abuse by former athletic doctor Robert Anderson among 17 other cases rape cases reported in 2021.  While Anderson’s abuse occurred in the 70s, the cases were only reported recently.

At a May Board of Regents meeting, several firms offered guidance in changing policies and noted issues with a lack of accountability throughout the university, fear of retaliation that leads to reluctance to come forward, a culture of silence and “siloing information” in the school according to Regent Denise Ilitch.

She was displeased with administrators and deans who in the meeting did not support the idea of implementing an ethics and compliance office.

“History has shown otherwise,” Ilitch said at the May meeting. “Is this a red flag? Why is there such opposition to this recommendation by our hired experts? It is critical that we implement an office of ethics…to properly structure ourselves so our new president has the greatest likelihood of success.”

While rape cases were just below 200 in the 2022 ASFSR report, UM’s report released in March indicated a 13% increase of total reports of possible sexual and gender-based misconduct from the 469 reports in the previous fiscal year.

Ono officially began his five year stint as the university president on Oct. 15, inheriting the annual sexual misconduct cases, as well as the more than 1,000 cases of abuse by former doctor Robert Anderson.