Michigan State’s Ex-President Now Holds a Prestigious Professorship. Some of Her Colleagues Aren’t Happy About It.

When Lou Anna K. Simon stepped down under pressure last month as Michigan State University’s president, she signed her resignation letter with a nod to her new faculty title: “John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor.”

The Hannah professorship, named for one of Simon’s predecessors, is the highest faculty honor at the university. The posts are often awarded to star scholars as part of their recruitment to Michigan State.

That wasn’t the case with Simon. In fact, most people on campus weren’t even aware that she had been awarded the elite professorship, until she mentioned it at the time of her resignation. Now, some of her colleagues, including many members of the department she’s part of, aren’t pleased.

To understand their frustration, let’s back up: Simon was never formally hired as a professor at Michigan State. But thanks to an old policy that gave courtesy academic appointments to senior administrators, she has long been on the faculty of the College of Education. (That policy was axed about 15 years ago; Simon, who holds a Ph.D. in higher education, received her faculty appointment in 1985.)

Simon was awarded the Hannah professorship during a board of trustees meeting in December, but the decision passed virtually unnoticed. That’s because it came up during a discussion of compensation and was part of the same resolution that recommended she receive a $150,000 pay increase, which provoked widespread criticism. Simon declined it and directed the money to a scholarship fund.

Now that she has stepped down, Simon’s contract provides for her to take a 12-month research leave at the full $750,000 she earned as president and then to officially assume her faculty position in the department of educational administration, if she chooses. She’ll earn $750,000 in her first year and 75 percent of that amount for two more years, while holding the Hannah professorship.

Fewer than a dozen faculty members at the university hold that prestigious title, which recognizes “educators who help to strengthen their disciplines as well as strengthen MSU’s ability to solve global problems through research, scholarship, creative activity, and teaching.”

“You really reserve that for the cream of the crop,” said Sherman Garnett, dean of James Madison College, an undergraduate college at Michigan State focused on public affairs. Garnett wrote to the university’s other deans and suggested that they endorse an op-ed written by Steven Weiland, a professor in the department of educational administration, criticizing Simon’s new professorship.

This month, Weiland and most of the other faculty members in the department’s higher-education program took their concerns about Simon to Robert Floden, the dean of the College of Education.

Brendan Cantwell, an associate professor in the department, said his concerns are twofold. One issue is Simon’s presence in their unit. “There was some uncertainty about what to say to students and what it would mean for us — what it would signal nationally to colleagues around the country — that she was coming to our faculty,” Cantwell said.

For instance, one of the department’s future Ph.D. students questioned whether Simon’s large salary — more than twice as much as the next-highest-paid professor in the college, at first — would affect the department’s budget, Weiland said.

Then there’s the matter of Simon’s receiving the university’s most prestigious professorship with little or no discussion, Cantwell said.

Leslie Gonzales, an associate professor in the educational administration department, said she’s frustrated that the trustees appeared to bypass the rigorous process for awarding Hannah professorships without a second thought.

“We’re situated in this culture,” she said, “where we have a Board of Trustees that feels that it’s OK to proceed without faculty consultation, without any of the tradition of faculty governance that one would expect for a professorship like this.”

‘This Was Not Typical’

It’s not just College of Education faculty members who are upset. “She doesn’t have the credentials of a junior faculty member, academically,” said Nigel Paneth, a professor of epidemiology, biostatistics, and pediatrics, noting that she’s spent virtually her entire career in administrative roles.

Weiland, Cantwell, and several other professors asked Floden, the education dean, whether there was something the department could do to protest Simon’s new title. Weiland said his impression was that Floden “didn’t really want to get involved.”

In an interview, Floden said he wasn’t consulted by Provost June Youatt or the trustees about the decision to give Simon the professorship. “These Hannah professorships, usually there’s an elaborate search and review process before awarding them,” Floden said. “This was not typical.”

“I think,” he added, “that these are professorships that should be awarded with greater review of the credentials and faculty participation.” However, he didn’t see the need to bring up the issue with the administration or the board at this point, describing it as “a done deal.”

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What Simon negotiated with the trustees in terms of salary and other benefits in her contract isn’t up to him, Floden emphasized: “It’s really out of my hands.” Youatt, the provost, and Brian Breslin, the board’s chair, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

There’s nothing wrong with Simon receiving perks after leaving the president’s role, said Garnett, dean of James Madison College. But the trustees’ action might have the effect of cheapening what is supposed to be a rare academic appointment, he said.

“They took something that is very hard for any of the rest of us to get, and just gave it to her,” he said.

His college has had only one Hannah professor during his 19-year tenure as dean: Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who was designated as a visiting Hannah professor and gave a series of lectures about chronicling his grandfather’s life and legacy and fighting corruption and inequality worldwide.

Garnett said he eventually plans to go back to the faculty, but he doesn’t expect to receive such an prestigious professorship. “I don’t qualify for that,” he said. “It wouldn’t occur to me to ask.”

Carole Ames, who preceded Floden as dean of the College of Education, wrote to Floden after reading Weiland’s op-ed. Ames explained how, from her perspective, Simon’s appointment violated the criteria for Hannah professors.

“Not only must the individual have exceptional scholarly credentials, the nominee is not to come from current faculty but to be used for recruitment of new faculty,” she wrote in the email, which Weiland provided to The Chronicle.

“I hope the provost and deans will not shrug their shoulders as this is another instance of the BOT, under Lou Anna’s obvious leadership, overstepping their bounds and compromising academic integrity and standards,” she continued. She didn’t respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment on Monday.

As far as Simon’s future role as a faculty member, Floden said he doesn’t expect her to be teaching anything in the near term, though she has in the past taught an occasional course on planning and budgeting.

“Eventually she and I will talk,” the dean said, “and we’ll talk about what she’s going to do with her time, if she does indeed want to resume some sort of faculty role.”

Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.