Jennifer Beeman, the former director of the UC Davis Campus Violence Prevention Program, severely inflated the number of reported forcible sex offenses found on campus. This finding is both troublesome and detrimental to UC Davis‘ image, and we believe further investigation into the motivation behind her behavior is necessary.
Well duh, right? We think so, but the UC doesn’t agree. Assistant Executive Vice Chancellor of University Communications Mitchel Benson said in a previous article that investigation into why Beeman over-reported is unnecessary.
The university is irresponsible for putting only one person in charge of reporting the statistics and leading the program, whereas other universities have entire panels devoted to the matter. They are especially irresponsible for appointing someone with a history of unethical behavior regarding the matter: Charging travel expenses to a federal grant is, by any means, worrisome. But they know that – they admitted fault to the appointment, and now three people will head the program.
So why not ask about the motivation behind the inflated numbers? Ask Beeman herself – she’s bound to have plenty of time to answer the UC’s queries if she’s on retirement.
Was the misreporting an error? Was it intentional? The university would look a whole lot better if it came out and showed why the numbers were inflated and proved that it was, indeed, an isolated incident. UC Davis is denying itself knowledge that could benefit its image in the future – after all, this isn’t exactly a minor offense we’re dealing with here.
Furthermore, UC Davis received over $1 million in grant money from the US Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women since 2005. Since the program’s grant was received via misrepresentation and faulty numbers, the grant should be recalculated. CVPP should receive grant money based on the real figures, and any awards should reflect them appropriately.
