Michigan State’s board of trustees meeting was interrupted by angry and vocal students in response to new facts surrounding the school’s handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case.
Upset that the enrollment had no say in who would take over the MSU presidency following Lou Anna Simon’s resignation last week, one frustrated student jumped atop a table immediately following the board’s approval of ex-Governor John Engler as interim president.
Said MSU senior Connor Berdy to WZZM, “It came as a surprise to us, that you know not only that he was the choice but that it had been done so quickly without any input from faculty and students.”
Though students served as the vocal interrupters during the board’s proceedings, several professors, such as Liam Brockey, felt the same frustration as the school’s decision was hastily made with little input from stakeholders in the decision.
“We’re here frustrated that we can’t attend the meeting, they have stopped people from going upstairs to the meeting,” he said. “I’d like to attend this meeting it concerns the administration of my university where I work, I am a faculty member as far as I know this is not a corporation, this is a university and it should be run like a university.”
His complaints were echoed by his peer, professor Andaluna Borcila, who felt that the university was more interested in avoiding the fallout than taking hosting a candid discussion about failures. Despite a press release from the newly appointed president ensuring his only goal is to address the scandal’s fallout, Borcila isn’t buying the rhetoric in the absence of student input. Nor are many others, who pejoratively categorize Engler as a “politician” rather than an earnest agent of change at the school.
“I don’t think they listen and I don’t know that they care that faculty and students who want to be there can’t be there,” she said. To that end, Faculty Senate member Laura McCabe has threatened a vote of no confidence in the board. If successful, they would demand their wholesale resignation.
