In her capacity as Associate Director at the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women (CEW), Susan Kaufmann has been heavily involved in a number of organizations in Michigan that seek to further the rights of women and encourage diversity.
From 1995-2004, Kaufmann led the Ann Arbor Mayor’s Task Force on Increasing Safety for Women, which became known as the Washtenaw County Coalition on Gender Violence around 2000. The Task Force was founded in 1995 when Ann Arbor took a stand on the issue of violence against women. Housed first in the City Administrator’s Office and later in the Ann Arbor Police Department, the Task Force was charged with coordinating a variety of local agencies, law enforcement and community organizations in order to address and prevent violence against women. In addition to developing a public outreach and education program, the Task Force also created the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program to help improve nursing care and forensic evidence collection following sexual assaults. They also created the Sexual Assault Response Team to bring together specially trained medical, law enforcement, and advocacy professionals; placed safety phones in central Ann Arbor; and improved coordination between law enforcement, health care, and service and advocacy organizations.
Kaufmann also conducted research on the potential impact of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, drawing on her findings of impact in California and Washington following passage of similar ballot initiatives banning affirmative action and equal opportunity programs. Known as Proposal 2, the 2006 ballot initiative was proposed by the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee and endorsed by Ward Connerly, the California businessman who led a similar campaign to end affirmative action in California with Proposition 209. The executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee was Jennifer Gratz, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that ruled that the University of Michigan’s undergraduate admissions policy was unconstitutional. The ballot initiative passed in 2006 by a vote of 58% to 42% but was subsequently challenged by various civil rights organizations. As of May 2012, the full Sixth Circuit is still reviewing those challenges. Kaufmann’s research was of interest to One United Michigan, a coalition formed to defeat the proposal, as well as to many other organizations and news sources.
From the guide to the Susan W. Kaufmann papers, 1995-2008, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
