Nearly four months after a former student was indicted in the on-campus murder of a University of Arizona professor, an ad hoc faculty committee found that the university did not act on knowledge of the risks of violence, and “Consciously and consistently” ignores the safety concerns of community members.

draft report, The statement, released Wednesday by the General Faculty Committee on University Safety for All, called the killing a “clear institutional failure” and called the risk management system to monitor violent threats. I am requesting the university to create it.

In a written statement to ChroniclePam Scott, a spokesperson for the University of Arizona, said the report “researched a subset of faculty members who reached sweeping conclusions based primarily on misleading characterizations and selective use of facts and citations.” It represents,” he said.

Scott criticized the committee’s decision to share the interim report with the media before sharing it with other faculty members and the campus community at large. She advised people to wait for the conclusions of an independent investigation commissioned by the university to PAX Group LLC.

The research “includes an expert assessment based on numerous hours of interviews and a thorough review of all relevant information and documents,” Scott said.

On October 5, Thomas Meixner, head of the University’s Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences (HAS), said: shot and killed Inside the building while walking from the classroom to his office. Murad Dervish, a former graduate student who was expelled earlier that year for sending threatening messages to faculty, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault with a lethal weapon. rice field.

After the shooting, the faculty and staff dark storage A professor of suspected red flags masquerading as complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa), which protects some student records from public disclosure, said: Tucson Sentinel The university cited its privacy policy in refusing to provide him with the information necessary to obtain a protection order against Dervish.

In late October, Layla Hudson, an associate professor in the Middle East and North African Studies Department and chair of the faculty council, convened a safety committee to analyze how the university handles information about harassment. and made recommendations to improve safety protocols.

In compiling the report, the committee obtained documents and accounts from people with direct knowledge of the alleged harassment of Dervish, including the Meixner family, who provided Thomas Meixner’s e-mails. Chillingly, Meixner’s records included a “Murad Dervish” folder containing documents of his correspondence with the student.

Jenny J. Lee, chairman of the committee and a professor of educational policy studies and practice at the University of Education, said she had “asked for help for 11 months” but received limited response from the government. . “As the report summarizes, there were really no clear steps to protect these individuals. These individuals took matters into their own hands.”

The report outlines a detailed timeline of the incident and appears to reveal new information about how the university dealt with the suspect’s alleged threats.

The report alleges that Dervish harassed four HAS department faculty members, a female undergraduate student, and the dean of student administration. According to the report, all of the victims contacted the Dean of Student Affairs, the Office of General Counsel, and the Campus Police Department to report the threats, but the offices failed to address the harassment.

For example, an undergraduate female student told the commission that she had been contacted by Dervish at least 30 times between October 2021 and the date of the shooting. She reported his conduct to the Office of Institutional Investors and the student dean, but the harassment continued, the report said. After two of her Zoom meetings and her five calls to the police, she met with the university’s police department.

“I was literally begging him, ‘Can you give the department a total no-contact order?’ And he said it was not in his power,” the student said. “Then I said, ‘So you’re not going to do anything until somebody gets killed, right?’ He just looked at me and said nothing and didn’t do anything.” .”

On September 6, the associate HAS department head sent an email to the University of Arizona’s safety officer, reminding them of the threat Dervish posed. Three days later, the campus police department filed a criminal report with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, saying there were nine threats against Professor HAS and his 11 threats against the Deputy Dean, the report said. .

According to the commission’s report, the attorney’s office did not consider it until after Meixner was murdered, because the crime report was filed together with other campus misdemeanors and the police department reported it. In a statement, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said, “Law enforcement cannot connect the two cases, provide context, or assess the urgency of the case.” No attempt was made to sexually attract our attention.

According to the commission’s report, on the day of the killing, Dervish searched for four HAS department personnel, but only Meixner was found.

The report also mentions three unrelated “known risks of violence”. In the incident Daily Wildcat An incident in which reporters and employees called the police on black students with disabilities, and the commission cited them as evidence that the university was overly focused on compliance and enforcement of laws and campus policies at the expense of safety. I quoted

The report called the University of Arizona’s lack of a centralized risk management system a “grave institutional failure” and creating a cohesive system at the university to collect and communicate threats of violence. I am requesting that

Reading the report, Hudson said the university’s current risk management structure is “focused on avoiding legal risk rather than taking blatant, hateful, harassing or intimidating behavior seriously. It seems overwhelmingly dedicated,” he said. And ultimately, a deadly threat of the kind that hit the hydrology and atmospheric sciences departments. She added that they are promoting “improved administrative risk management and communication” rather than “oversight.”

The committee’s chairman, Lee, said the loss of trust would be a more difficult problem to deal with than the risk management system.

“Let alone share how they feel threatened if people don’t trust the institutions to protect them, much less,” she said.