SALT LAKE CITY — Brooke Martin readily admits she doesn’t have trouble saying what she thinks. But Monday, she stood on the steps of the University of Utah’s Park Building and used her voice to speak for someone else.
“One year ago, my teammate Lauren McCluskey woke up like she does every day,” said Martin, a senior sprinter and hurdler for the U.’s track team, at a student walkout and rally organized by a student group — Unsafe U — one day before the one-year anniversary of McCluskey’s murder on the Salt Lake City campus.
“She went to school, she went to practice where she actually worked on her high jump skills, next she went to the weight room, where she did her strength and conditioning program, a typical Monday lift.”
As she spoke, the sun briefly warmed the group of nearly 200 students who gathered to discuss what more they want from university administrators, who have accepted and begun implementation of 30 recommendations that came from an independent review of how McCluskey’s complaints to campus police were handled.
“Everything was routine,” Martin said. “But the difference is that one year ago tomorrow, my teammate Lauren woke up for he last time, went to class for the last time, practiced high jump for the last time, lifted weights for the last time, and was with her teammates for the last time.”
“Life is unpredictable, but when a young woman calls over 20 times to report feeling unsafe, it can be predicted that the lethality of her situation is only increasing with every call,” Martin continued as some students in the crowd cried.
“Lauren seldom spoke, but when she tried, for the last time, no one was there to listen. Lauren was not responded to with urgency, and I stand here before you today to demand change so that every student can comfortably wake up and go through their daily routine, without desperately fearing that it will be their last time.”
The walkout and rally attracted about 200 students who gathered in frigid temperatures outside the university’s administration building. The group, which also has an Instagram account with the same name (UnsafeU), shared 10 stories of issues students have had accessing help as they have dealt with harassment, assault and domestic violence.
One woman talked about being forced to attend classes with her abuser for an entire year, while another said she endured six hours of questions and demeaning assertions from campus police when she reported a sexual assault. Some stories detailed harassment from staff or other students that wasn’t taken seriously or was dismissed because it wasn’t “severe enough.”
The first story was a woman saying she called police because a former partner had assaulted her and was now stalking her. When she told police that she was seeking a protective order, the officer disregarded her pleas that he not tell the young man what she had planned, as her attorney and advocate advised her that often that becomes the most dangerous time for domestic violence victims seeking to escape an abusive relationship.
“I was lucky that he didn’t come after me in anger before he was served with the papers,” the woman wrote in a story read by Devon Cantwell. “With his past violence against me, they knew that this was a possibility and they went against my wishes and my safety anyway. ... We need to feel safe at the U., believed by officers whose job it is to protect us.”
Several speakers talked about their experiences of accompanying McCluskey as she went to different campus entities trying to find help for an ex-boyfriend who was extorting and stalking her.
“There is no point in having all of those bystander intervention classes when the university knows that I was with her for the report and some calls,” Martin read from one of the stories. “And that other friends went to housing. ... And the university still did nothing (for Lauren).”
Shelby Gonzales said she was a mentor to McCluskey and talked about her pleas for help during their last meeting at the Marriott Library last year.
“What started as a conversation about not procrastinating ended as Lauren asked me if I could help her,” said Gonzales, who is in the master’s program for biomedical science. “She said she didn’t know what to do. She and her close friends had spoken with the police on multiple occasions, and she told me that they didn’t care.
“She’d decided to tell me in part what was going on, and I said, ‘Yeah, Lauren, let me talk to some resources. I know who might help. Let me brainstorm and give me a week. We can fight this.’”
A few days later, McCluskey was dead. She was shot to death as she walked from her car to her on-campus apartment by a man she briefly dated, who had used a fake name and had threatened and extorted the senior.
Gonzales, and many of those in the audience, had issues with the fact that University of Utah President Ruth Watkins talked about the findings of an independent investigation, concluding that nothing could have been done to prevent McCluskey’s death. They also had issues with the legal arguments attorneys have employed in fighting a lawsuit filed by McCluskey’s parents in a wrongful death lawsuit.
In August, the U. announced it would spend nearly $1 million to implement multiple recommendations from a campus safety task force, including hiring a senior-level chief safety officer, clustering evening classes in quadrants and serving those areas with security patrols, providing courtesy escorts and transportation options that include an on-campus on-demand ride service.
The task force recommendations were in addition to 30 campuswide improvements made following an independent review of the university’s response to events surrounding McCluskey’s death.
Rebecca Hardenbrook, one of the organizers of the UnSafe U group, said some of them met with two vice presidents earlier Monday, and they were hopeful, but still asking for three things. They want a permanent student oversight board that would give students say in new policies regarding safety, as well as having students involved in all decision-making aspects of the process and more funding for the student wellness center.
“We can’t wait another month,” Hardenbrook said of an offer the administration made to meet with student leaders in November. “We can’t wait another day.”
University of Utah Vice President for Academic Affairs Dan Reed released a statement about the Monday meeting with student leaders.
“We agreed this morning to carefully review the students’ suggestions, which groups requested actions in three areas: accountability, transparency and resources,” he said in a press release. “We agreed to a follow-up meeting with the students to respond to the petition in full, but immediately identified three of their suggested actions that can be implemented quickly.”
Those actions are: The creation of a campus safety oversight board that includes students, staff and faculty, which would be under the direction of the chief safety officer, who is in the process of being hired.
The creation of a safety data dashboard that aggregates crime statistics, Title IX reporting and other safety metrics that will be available at the SafeU website.
Reed said they also agree with the students and are taking action to provide even more training and better coordination between campus agencies and law enforcement agencies that will better meet the variety of needs and issues being raised by students.
Hardenbrook said that the traditional use of student body officers on boards and advisory committees doesn’t work because sometimes one student serves on multiple boards and that impacts the quality of his/her contributions, as well as the diversity of representation, ideas and experiences.
“Overall we just need more student voice and student vote on policy issues,” Hardenbrook said. “Students are being heard, we have listening sessions. ... But you can hear somebody talk and then choose not to go for what they ask to do. So we need to ensure that’s not happening in terms of being represented.”