‘Culture of Indifference’ and ‘Institutional Protection’ at Michigan State Stymied Investigation of Larry Nassar

Michigan State University’s handling of the case of Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor now serving at least a 60-year sentence for his sexual abuse of hundreds of women and girls, was “a failure of people, not policy,” says a report released on Friday by the Michigan attorney general’s office.

The report, issued by William Forsyth, a retired prosecutor who was appointed independent special counsel by the attorney general, criticizes Michigan State for what it called “a culture of indifference” to sexual assault and for stonewalling “the very investigation it pledged to support.”

The “stonewalling” was manifested by “misleading” public statements, “drowning” the attorney general’s investigation in unrelated documents, “waging needless battles” over important materials, and invoking attorney-client privilege when it was not warranted, according to the report.

“Both then and now, MSU has fostered a culture of indifference toward sexual assault, motivated by its desire to protect its reputation,” the report says.

The report also says that the university’s Title IX office did not properly investigate allegations made against Nassar in 2014. Though there is no evidence that the campus investigator looked into the allegations in bad faith, the report describes “multiple shortcomings” in the Title IX inquiry. That led, the report says, to the university’s conclusion that Nassar had not violated the campus’s sexual-misconduct policy.

The university’s conduct has made it “virtually impossible to know exactly what happend at MSU during the Nassar years,” according to the report.

And that culture of “institutional protection” continued to thrive at the university even after Nassar was sentenced, in January 2018, the report says.

The state investigative team has contacted about 550 people, including more than 280 survivors of Nassar’s sexual abuse, according to the report. The team has also interviewed 105 people who were identified by survivors, including staff members, trainers, the entire Board of Trustees, and other university officials. Thirteen of the 280 victims interviewed told investigators that they had reported Nassar’s abuse to a university employee at the time of the abuse.

The Nassar Scandal and the Crisis of Michigan State’s President

Within a year the university lost two chief executives — Lou Anna K. Simon, sank by the scathing, heart-rending testimony of the sports doctor’s scores of victims, and John M. Engler, whose interim presidency ended amid a backlash over his bare-knuckled tactics.

• With Criminal Charges Dismissed Against Michigan State’s Ex-President, Sex-Abuse Accountability Hits Skids Again
• Michigan State’s Ex-President, Who Faces Criminal Charges, Will Retire With a $2.5-Million Payout
• At Michigan State, a Disruptive Presidency That Few Could Muster the Will to End

So far the state investigation has found evidence that has led to criminal charges against three former Michigan State employees, in addition to Nassar: William Strampel, a former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and, as such, Nassar’s boss; Kathie Klages, a former gymnastics coach; and Lou Anna K. Simon, the university’s former president.

Michigan State responded to the report in a brief statement. “The university is engaged in — and investing in — an intense reform and cultural-change effort to ensure that Michigan State University is a safe campus for students, faculty, staff, and our community,” the statement said, in part. “Today’s announcement shows that the attorney general’s office has found no criminal conduct beyond those formerly charged, even after reviewing more than a half million documents and interviewing 500 people.”

Still, despite Michigan State’s attempts to update its sexual-misconduct policies, the report concludes that an overhaul of its culture is still needed for effective change.

“Policies are no better than the people tasked with implementing them,” the report says. “Until there is a top-down cultural change at MSU, survivors and the public would be rightly skeptical of the effectiveness of any set of written policies.”

Follow Cailin Crowe on Twitter at @cailincrowe, or email her at cailin.crowe@chronicle.com.