THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
INSIDE
SPORTS Jessica Washington looks
GTAs got a pay raise, but still want more p. 3
to bounce back from season-ending injury
A study found Lawrence to be the eighth least-stressed city in the country p. 4
in 2017 The University Daily Kansan
vol. 137 // iss. 14 Thurs., Oct. 4, 2018
SEE WASHINGTON • PAGE 7
Read more at kansan.com
Chief of staff expected to resign
After an impeachment committee brought forth six charges against Daniel Lee, Student Senate voted to proceed with the impeachment process. NICOLE ASBURY @NicoleAsbury SYDNEY HOOVER @SydHoover17 Student Senate Chief of Staff Daniel Lee is expected to resign on Thursday, following an investigation by an impeachment committee that presented six charges Wednesday night. In its investigation, the committee found that Senate Chief of Staff Daniel Lee was negligent of his duties, as well as biased toward people and organizations. Twelve other charges were not presented to the full Senate body, which Senate cited as not being presented due to legal and security reasons. Zach Thomason, the chair of the investigation committee, said the charges weren’t included as Senate is not an authoritative body and cannot report on allegations of sexual misconduct. Thomason also said these charges were the more “telling result” of the committee’s investigation. The charges and the committee’s findings are as follows: Charge 1: On Feb. 23, an anonymous survivor who was formerly a “close friend” of Lee reported to him that an “unknown member of the KU community threatened her life if she
Sarah Wright/KANSAN Zach Thomason, chair of the impeachment committee, holds a Q&A session regarding the impeachment hearing with those present at the Student Senate general assembly on Wednesday evening. did not provide oral sex” the previous day. The charge was only included to provide context for Charge 2, as it does not incriminate Lee and at the time he was not a mandated reporter. The charge was therefore not relevant to impeachment. Charge 2: Lee was confirmed as Senate chief of staff on April 25. It is alleged that Lee “participated in the mocking of the situation” in Charge 1, though the initial situation was considered egregious. The committee did not have
any findings to report on this charge. Charge 3: Lee failed to schedule a mandatory Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center (SAPEC) training, required by the chief of staff in the Student Senate Rules and Regulations. Because of his absence from Lawrence over the summer, he tried to delegate the scheduling to Sneha Verma, Senate policy and development director, despite the capability to schedule the training online. The committee described that
“a clear neglect of his duties occurred.”
“There’s a very specific process for how these investigations take place, and it is not within these chambers.” Noah Ries Student body president
Charge 4: On April 28, Lee communicated to Thomason that during his
time as Interfraternity Council president, he decided to combat hazing over sexual assault as Lee said it was an “easier target.” The committee found this was inconclusive and did not relate to the impeachment proceeding. Charge 5: Lee said to four members of Student Senate he wanted to eliminate specific members of the Senate body. A document obtained by the impeachment committee corroborated this allegation. The
committee found Lee discussed this plan, but never acted on it, though the presence for bias was noted as an act of concern. The committee recommended Lee should be removed from his role as chief of staff due to a “lack of belief in Lee’s ability to perform his duties.” The Senate Body voted 52-4 to proceed with impeachment protocols. Vice President Charles Jetty is expected to call a special session within the next five to 10 class days, should Lee not resign. It is uncertain whether Lee will officially resign Thursday. Lee was not present at the meeting on Wednesday night and did not respond to request for commen from the Kansan. The Student Senate executive staff declined any comment, as well as comment on behalf of any other student senators. However, Student Body President Noah Ries did provide a statement during the officer report portion of the meeting. “Student Senate takes allegations of sexual misconduct very seriously and we want to ensure privacy is respected by any victim,” Ries said. “There’s a very specific process for how these investigations take place, and it is not within these chambers.”
City Commission questions validity of assessment
NICOLE ASBURY @NicoleAsbury The Lawrence City Commission questioned the assessment review from Allegro Training & Consulting on the Lawrence Police Department at Tuesday night’s city commission meeting. Allegro issued a survey to gauge the Lawrence community’s perceptions of the local police department, specifically from a multicultural perspective. The report showed the results of 774 respondents to the survey, which is about 1 percent of the Lawrence population. The sample size and presentation of the results — which were mostly graphs — frustrated those on the city commission. “I’ve spent hours looking at this, and I still don’t know what I’m looking at,” City Commissioner Matthew Herbert said. “The whole point of this is to provide transparency to the public about policing, and I don’t think we’ve achieved that goal.” Beth Clark, the Allegro director, said she was confident in the reliability
of the survey. Statisticians and mathematicians overviewed the results to ensure they accurately captured the Lawrence population, Clark said. The city of Lawrence paid Allegro $20,000 to conduct the needs assessment review and find ways to improve policing in Lawrence specifically. The results recommended more interactive community events to improve engagement with the police department, as well as more police officers to be integrated into the community. City Commissioner Jennifer Ananda said that these results were still not specific enough, particularly after the city invested $20,000 towards this assessment review. “I want to make real change — not just get information on things we already know,” Ananda said. Clark said the assessment does not provide the specific responses given by those who were surveyed; rather, it only assesses patterns. Clark said the police department requested the specific responses, but it
Hope Davis/KANSAN At a meeting on Tuesday, city commissioners expressed dissatisfaction with the results of a city-wide survey on police relations. was promised in the survey the exact nature of the responses would not be reported. The retirement of former LPD Chief Tarik Khatib caused some trouble in the process of providing the survey, Clark said. Once Khatib retired,
communication between Allegro and the LPD was not as frequent. “At the expense of sounding however this sounds, there was a break in the process with the retirement of the chief,” Clark said. “We typically don’t work in a vacuum
like that. It changed the course of this. There’s no question.” Clark said, however, she found many police officers who were still committed to the process. City Commissioner Leslie Soden said that even with the small sample
size, the City Commission should look further into the results of the assessment and begin to initiate action. “We need to take these seriously. I think regardless, these are still [774] people we need to act on,” Soden said.