What’s New
Michigan State University’s board continued a nasty public fight on Friday, the latest episode of name-calling and rhetorical bomb-throwing at an institution marred for years by leadership turmoil.
A longtime Michigan State board member tried to drum up support for removing the chairwoman, Rema Vassar, in the hours before Friday’s board meeting, but was unsuccessful.
Instead, Vassar and her colleagues spent the last hour of the nearly four-hour meeting continuing their bickering, which at one point became emotional. During the board’s typical public-comment period, multiple trustees were urged to resign, including Vassar; Dianne Byrum, who circulated a petition to remove Vassar earlier in the day; and Brianna T. Scott, who sent a letter one week ago to her colleagues calling for an investigation into Vassar. Vassar, Byrum, and Scott are all Democrats on the board, which is elected.
During the meeting, Vassar defended herself against claims of bullying and ethical missteps, saying she had done nothing wrong. She also repeated her claim that this was a coordinated political attack on her.
Scott, through tears, said that wasn’t true.
“Had I not stood up, we would have continued in this chaos,” she said. “I didn’t put one damn lie in that letter. I felt the only way to handle this was to have an investigation so this shit can stop.”
The Backdrop
The latest spat started a week ago, when Scott sent an impassioned letter outlining allegations against Vassar to her fellow trustees. The State News, Michigan State’s student newspaper, first obtained the letter and reported on it on Sunday, October 22.
The letter said that Vassar had bullied Michigan State’s interim president, violated conflict-of-interest policies by flying on a donor’s private plane to a basketball game, and appeared in an ad for a private business in her official capacity.
Byrum, a former chairwoman of the board, has publicly supported Vassar’s stepping down, as have two former trustees. Some prominent politicians, including U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat and Michigan State alumna, have also called on Vassar to resign.
Scott’s letter asks Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan to step in and remove Vassar if Vassar doesn’t resign. Whitmer, a Democrat who’s also a Michigan State alumna with close ties to the university and the board, has said she is troubled by the allegations and is willing to act if they are proved true.
The Stakes
This latest leadership skirmish erupted about 24 hours after Michigan State administrators tried to distance themselves from a picture of Adolf Hitler that was displayed on the football stadium’s scoreboard last weekend before a game against the rival University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
It is the latest in a litany of black eyes that have colored Michigan State, including the firing of the football coach, Mel Tucker, after he admitted to masturbating during a call with a nationally known advocate for combating violence and sexual assault on campuses, and high leadership turnover among both presidents and trustees — who have made plain their distaste with the style of governance that emanates from the board.
Had I not stood up, we would have continued in this chaos.
Several sources with direct knowledge of the board’s workings told The Chronicle that one sticking point referenced in Scott’s letter is central to the effort to depose Vassar: 6,000 emails about Larry Nassar — the former sports doctor now in prison for sexually abusing hundreds of athletes — that the institution has kept secret for a half-dozen years. The letter accuses Vassar of unilaterally moving to release the emails, long a demand of some of the Nassar survivors, but then never holding a vote to authorize it.
Several Nassar survivors were at Friday’s meeting to once again call for the release of the emails.
One board member, Dennis Denno, made a motion, which was seconded, to release the emails, but Michigan State administrators and some trustees said that board bylaws prohibited bringing forward any motions that weren’t on the approved agenda.
What’s Next
An internal investigation has been launched into the allegations against Vassar. Board members said they would publicly release the results of the investigation when it is completed. No date has been set for that.
