There were fewer reported cases of student sexual misconduct at the University of Michigan last year.
In the 2015-16 fiscal year, there were 157 reports of student sexual misconduct -- a drop from 172 reports in the previous year.
University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald says that's not necessarily a good thing.
"We would prefer, as we've had the last couple years, to see those numbers sort of inching up," Fitzgerald said. "One indication of a rising number is that students have confidence in the University to address the incidents of sexual misconduct on our campus."
He says it's important for students to report sexual misconduct when it happens, so the university can provide helpful resources. Fitzgerald says the university ultimately wants to get sexual misconduct cases down to zero.
In July, the University made changes to it's sexual misconduct policy to include "gender-based" misconduct, and other prohibited behaviors that were previously a part of other policies.
"What we've done is consolidated [other policies] into the sexual misconduct policy," Fitzgerald said. "So that they were all easily identifiable for our students under one policy."
There were 157 reports of student sexual misconduct in the 2015-16 fiscal year, a drop from 172 reports in the previous year.
