Michigan State President Resigns After Torrent of Anger Over Nassar Scandal

Lou Anna K. Simon, the Michigan State University president who has faced a barrage of criticism for the university’s failure to respond to sexual abuse by Larry Nassar, resigned on Wednesday night, the university said in a statement.

“As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable,” wrote Ms. Simon in a university news release. “As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger.” In a separate statement, the chair of the university’s Board of Trustees said that the board would accept Ms. Simon’s resignation and that it was “now time for change.”

The announcement quickly followed news that a second of the university’s eight trustees had called on Ms. Simon to resign. And that call quickly followed the passage of a resolution by the Michigan House of Representatives urging the embattled president to step down. Only 11 of the 107 voting representatives voted no.

“We have lost confidence in the ability of President Lou Anna K. Simon to lead a transparent investigation,” read the resolution, in part, “to implement changes that will ensure it never happens again, to protect students, and to lead Michigan State University forward.”

The rapid erosion of support for Ms. Simon followed a lengthy sentencing hearing for Dr. Nassar, the former team physician for USA Gymnastics and an associate professor in Michigan State’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual assault and has been accused by nearly 200 women of sexual abuse. For days, Dr. Nassar’s victims read passionate statements to a packed courtroom in Lansing, Mich. On Wednesday he was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.

As national interest converged on the sentencing hearing, calls for Ms. Simon’s resignation intensified. Several of Dr. Nassar’s victims urged her to resign, as did the university’s student newspaper. On Friday the Board of Trustees issued a unanimous statement of support for Ms. Simon, but that was quickly undercut by Mitch Lyons, a trustee, who called on the president to resign.

What followed was a mess of confusion about the board’s intentions, with one trustee emphatically denying that the board had talked about Ms. Simon’s future for more than 10 minutes, and referring to the controversy as “just this Nassar thing.” Those statements were widely ridiculed and then publicly refuted by two trustees, who said the board had spent a majority of the meeting discussing Ms. Simon’s future and a possible succession plan. (The trustee who made the statements, Joel Ferguson, later apologized.)

The board has invited an investigation by the state’s attorney general, and the NCAA has also opened an investigation. The Detroit News reported on Wednesday that the board was discussing a possible succession plan for Ms. Simon in greater detail.

Ms. Simon’s support among students and faculty members had also appeared to be waning. On Wednesday the university’s faculty athletics representative, Sue Carter, stepped down from that post, citing a telephone conversation with the president about a critical statement Ms. Carter had made about the administration’s handling of the Nassar scandal.

“I no longer have the desire or the heart to support this administration going forward,” wrote Ms. Carter, who is a professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State.

Andy Thomason oversees breaking-news coverage. Send him a tip at andy.thomason@chronicle.com. And follow him on Twitter @arthomason.