MSU Board tries to hide behind DeVos report - scuttles independent investigation into MSU. Nassar victims furious.
What a shitshow.
Apparently this is a 5-4 vote with the newly elected “reform” members of the board voting for the cover up.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:02 PM ^
Scott and Tebay partially ran on accountability for this shit, which is why I voted for them. Despicable to be turning their backs on the survivors since Engler was ousted. I really don't get it.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
They got to see how embarrassing the truth really is and don't have the stomach for transparency anymore. Makes you wonder how bad the truth really is.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:13 PM ^
The article says those two were in favor of the investigation.
Also, there are 8 trustees. Not sure where the OP is getting a 5-4 split from.
Edit: Scott was not in favor, sorry. She is the one who is being called out for going back on her reform campaign.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:15 PM ^
Spartan math.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:48 PM ^
Yeah, Tebay looks to be in favor of an investigation according to the needs and wants of the survivors, whereas Scott wants an investigation coordinated by MSU and "independent".
September 9th, 2019 at 4:45 PM ^
Real bad look for Brianna Scott. She is apparently also the one who was pushing for the survivors on the selection committee to sign NDAs and COI forms, as well as stonewalling (with Byrum) the finalization of the committee's preferred vendor.
It's hard to read that article and not to assume she just outright lied to get elected or is on the take somehow.
https://www.brianna4msu.com/briannawill
Bring Accountability & Transparency for the Board of Trustees
Hollow words?
September 9th, 2019 at 6:49 PM ^
Looking more closely at the 4-4 vote:
Trustees, term ends on Jan 1, 2021: Ferguson against "the investigation according to the needs and wants of the survivors", Mosallam for.
Trustees, term ends on Jan 1, 2023: Foster against, Schlichting for.
Trustees, term ends on Jan 1, 2025: Byrum against, Kelly for.
Trustees, term ends on Jan 1, 2027: Scott against, Tebay for.
That's a 1-1 split in all groupings. Joel Ferguson - well, you knew what his opinion was going to be. Foster isn't really a surprise either. Scott was a surprise.
I guess it just takes time to pull out ALL the bad weeds from the root. Ferguson HAS to go. I don't live in Michigan any longer. But I certainly hope those who do get rid of him when they have their chance next year. Enough of him and his rot.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:03 PM ^
This is fucked up. And completely unsurprising.
I wonder if any of the board members have something to hide?
September 9th, 2019 at 2:40 PM ^
Two things:
1. A politician turning their back on a campaign pledge? Commence pearl clutching.
2. The MSU culture is so entrenched that it would take a nuclear bomb to even begin to erode the foundation. There is no difference between fat toad Republican John Engler and reform phony Democrat Brianna Scott. All part of the same amoral conceit.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
All politicians suck, and most have never worked a day in their life. I swear the only reason people are politicians are because they are too stupid to hold real jobs.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:58 PM ^
One edit:
"I swear the only reason people are politicians are because they get access to vast sums of other people's money."
Fixed
September 9th, 2019 at 5:19 PM ^
Post of the year, as far as I'm concerned.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:15 PM ^
Wow. Tear this place down to the studs.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:07 PM ^
Even that isn't enough. Break down the atoms.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^
So if I read this correctly, the sticking point seems to be waiving privilege for the Board. None of the board members want to waive privilege, and there is some disagreement about whether a credible "independent" report can be provided without that privilege being waived.
Question for lawyers on the board (or anyone with expertise in this sort of thing), what does "privilege" mean for the trustees in the instance? Do they not want to give up their private communications amongst themselves? Why would the new board members care about that, if they weren't around for the Nasser mess when it happened? Or is there something else that they are protecting?
September 9th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
Not a lawyer, so I actually don't know anything. But based on my read of the article, I think the privilege has to do with specific documents that MSU claims cannot be accessed for...reasons. Basically like redacting information. It's not about their own personal communications.
The four in favor of the investigation wanted to have yet another independent review of the privileged information so that they could parse out what is eligible to be reviewed by the other independent investigators.
The four who are blocking the investigation will not agree to that.
The thing that I found really funny about Scott's statement regarding the problem of privilege is it is a problem of their own making. She is saying they won't waive privilege which means that the investigators can't do a good job, therefore they shouldn't waste their money. That sounds like an admission that the "privileged" information is critical to what investigators would find.
Edit:
Detroit News version provides more information.
"Scott, a lawyer, was referring to about 6,300 pages of documents for the investigation that spawned controversy and later involved a judge. MSU deemed those documents private as part of attorney-client privilege and refused to release them to the Attorney General's Office."
Also, Scott's excuse is that she believes that because of the privilege not being waived, the survivors will reject the report (her own made up opinion) and therefore it's not worth wasting time and money on it.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:39 PM ^
Bigger question: how does a state institution get away with stiff arming the states AG?
September 9th, 2019 at 4:48 PM ^
IANAL and don't know the nuances either, but there needs to be a response to this statement in the article:
The plan would be for the special master to read the documents and see what factual or nonprivileged information could be separated out and given the law firm. MSU's outside law firm, the independent law firm and MSU's in-house lawyers told the board this would be a feasible way to keep privilege.
Scott, Byrum, Foster and Ferguson flatly rejected that argument.
Three separate legal teams - including MSU's own in-house legal counsel - signed off on the approach that the four trustees are unwilling to accept for... reasons.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
MSU is an embarrassment to this state, their students, and especially those who were victims of Nassar. Burn it down.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:37 PM ^
Burn it to the ground, then salt the ground, then pee on the salt.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
FYS!!!!!
September 9th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
Extremely disappointing that new BoT Scott voted with the old guard. Can't vote those fuckers out fast enough.
Sparty gonna Spart.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
It's okay because the football team scored lots of points Saturday.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:12 PM ^
Perhaps I am wrong, but this Nassar stuff has nothing to do with the football program.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^
I don't think that was the point being made. It was just commentary on priorities at MSU (or many universities, frankly).
September 9th, 2019 at 4:25 PM ^
That's really the frightening thing is that this stance is not unique to MSU - there are universities with far wealthier donors, larger endowments and so forth that would likely fight even harder than this if they were in MSU's shoes in a similar scandal.
September 9th, 2019 at 5:50 PM ^
Either your sarcasm meter is broken or you do not know or talk with many staee fans as this is their comeback.
September 9th, 2019 at 5:20 PM ^
Directly, yes, but it's been widely rumored--and not without credibility--that Izzo and Dantonio have swept their own "issues" under the carpet.
September 9th, 2019 at 6:11 PM ^
No...
But there is a culture of assault with the football program
... and the basketball program
... and the volleyball program
... and covering all this shit up as much as possible.
September 9th, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
I have no doubt we'd be calling for heads to roll if this had happened at Michigan. I know I would.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:26 PM ^
We have never had anything near this happen... and yet we constantly call for heads to roll. So yes, I think you are correct
September 9th, 2019 at 3:01 PM ^
What could go wrong when your trustees' entire personal identity is tied to the school's image?
September 9th, 2019 at 3:27 PM ^
Joel Ferguson should be in jail. . .
He's wielded way too much power for way too long. ..
September 9th, 2019 at 3:52 PM ^
Agreed. He already had a pretty awful, well-publicized track record and now this. I can't wait to vote him out.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:41 PM ^
Going back to the 80s Ferguson was their Ed Martin.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:50 PM ^
When you get rid of him, can you throw Michael Madigan of Illinois into the same hole, please?
/OT
September 9th, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
Ever since Engler was hired to manage the s***show, it was obvious the entire MSU strategy was to bury everything as deeply as possible. They have never had ANY intention of actually investigating things.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
Yeah but they blew out WMU so nobody really cares about any of this.
September 9th, 2019 at 3:57 PM ^
It would be comical, at this point, were this something that didn't ruin so many live, but now it's shaking my faith in humanity at this point. How many different ways can they keep doing evil shit? People really will do ANYTHING if they think they can get away with it. I mean after a point you'd think this would hurt enrollment..
September 9th, 2019 at 4:04 PM ^
Why doesn't it surprise me that Joel Ferguson is still among the obstructionists in this mess?
September 9th, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
I live in a neighborhood with many of the MSU decision makers, and none of this surprises me.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:24 PM ^
Are they able to disregard the Department of Education/DeVos’ requirement for an independent investigation without penalty? And the new president isn’t going to step up and do something about the issue - not unless he wants to look for a new job.
September 9th, 2019 at 4:47 PM ^
LOLOLOL its unimaginable how BAD MSU has handled all of it..Of course they dont want the REAL Truth to come out because Izzo and Dantononio will be implicated
September 9th, 2019 at 5:11 PM ^
From a risk management perspective they are banking on the public tiring and believing that the penalties to date will suffice. We will see...this travesty has retained quite the life so far.
September 10th, 2019 at 9:14 AM ^
This just in - Dantnio and izzo found to have participated in gymnastics adjustments! Lol wut?
September 9th, 2019 at 5:39 PM ^
They are shielding Izzo and Mike.
September 9th, 2019 at 6:22 PM ^
I've always been led to believe that when there's real malfeasance (certainly like MSU in this case) the best path forward from a risk management perspective is to aggressively take your medicine - full disclosure, open process, accountability, defined plan for future.
Sure it's painful, but at least you draw a clear line. What happened is in the past, and things will be different going forward.
Obfuscation, stonewalling, delay tactics were thought to only drag out the pain and increase institutional distrust.
It seems these days a strategy of "lie lie lie, deny deny deny" is in vogue. Despicable.