President's House

Here you can see the University of Michigan's President’s house. Living here seems pretty nice right?

Last year, Jon Vaughn and protestors of the Hail to the Victims movement lived here on the street in a camper and tents for 150 days. Beginning on October 21, 2021, through March 7, 2022, they stayed through winter storms and freezing days to protest the university’s poor handling and lack of response to the sexual assault allegations against Dr. Robert Anderson, a physician who was employed by the school for over 40 years.

Over 1,000 survivors came forward and more than 2,000 allegations were brought against Anderson’s employment at the university in a class action lawsuit. The case was settled for $490 million in January of this year, but after the settlement, the university removed the protestors from the president's house. To this, John Vaughn, the leader of the Hail to the Victims movement, responded: “All I’ve done in my entire time is fight for safety on campus, I’ve told the truth, so I can’t understand why I’m being treated less than a human being and vilified by an institution that I helped build. A day of reckoning is coming, because you can only treat people so bad [for] so long.”  

After his removal, Vaughn chained himself in front of the house in protest for 17-and-a-half hours, one minute for each survivor to represent how the university continued to fail survivors. 

The administration also failed to significantly change its sexual assault prevention policy, upsetting past and current students. In fact, one student, Zachariah Farah, who attended the Regent’s meeting on February 17—the 100th day of protest and a month after the settlement—said, “they just patted themselves on the back about their accomplishment and didn't talk about what the students are worried about which is why the university is not properly responding to potentially the biggest sexual assault case in our history.” 

While Dr. Robert Anderson died in 2008, sexual violence on campus continues. In 2021 Josephine Graham, a U-M junior, filed a lawsuit against university administration, commanding it to create new policies in order to prevent sexual violence on campus. Graham argued that, in relation to the Dr. Anderson case, the university’s failure to have or enforce appropriate policies preventing sexual violence creates an environment in which current and future students face a real, immediate, and direct threat of sexual violence. This lawsuit was settled with the creation of the Coordinated Community Response Team, designed to increase the overall protection of students from sexual misconduct.

Hail to the Victims. “Hail to the Victims” (homepage). Accessed October 20, 2022. 

Hodder, Riley. “United States district judge approves settlement in sexual misconduct lawsuit, establishes Coordinated Community Response Team.” Michigan Daily, August 4, 2022.

Li, Irena. “‘I stand chained and bound’: Hail to the Victims protest held outside President’s House following removal of campsite.” Michigan Daily, March 13, 2022. 

MacDonald, Mara. “‘‘Hail to the victims’: Dozens protest outside University of Michigan president’s Ann Arbor.” A4 All about Ann Arbor (Click on Detroit), October 13, 2021. 

Zheng, Kristina. “UMich finalizes settlement with over 1,000 Anderson survivors.” Michigan Daily, September 16, 2022.