Freep (sorry) Editorial Board equates UM and MSU

Submitted by M-GO-Beek on

In today's Freep, the Editorial board published an article equating the sexual atrocities resulting from the inbreed culture at MSU to the unseemly and conflict of interest-ridden (yet legal) manner in which UM invests its endowment.  This clearly self-serving editorial, based on their own expose released a few days ago, obviously didn't gain enough traction, so they felt the need to tie it to the only real story in Michigan these days, the MSU scandal.  Yet another reason to never read the Freep.

Edit: link removed

FauxMo

February 3rd, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^

He said that in a really serious way. Because he is a deep thinker with a degree from South Carolina in literature. Plus, that makes him a stern disciplinarian, somehow (dozen + 6 rapes notwithstanding). If you disagree with these things, you are Walverine slappy who lives in a trailer. 

East German Judge

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:32 PM ^

FUCK the freep!!!  That was such a horrible hit piece on Michigan's endowment funds.  It is one of the best managed among universities and you can always get "skeptics" to make comments contrary to their currrent investment practices.  Such unmitigated BS!

East German Judge

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:53 PM ^

So I guess it is a bad thing that Michigan produces a lot very good finance/investment folks who work on Wall Street and we should not use them to help with our returns for the fund?  I am not saying there should not be oversight or due diligence, but it would not be good just to avoid them all because of a U of M connection.  Do you think Harvard and Yale and Stanford avoid all of their grads to invest their large endowmwents???

Therefore using that logic, I guess staee should not have a former governor who is a huge staee fan/grad serve as interim president and come in and try to impartially clean up the athletic department of this disgusting scandal and culture, amirite???

bronxblue

February 3rd, 2018 at 2:54 PM ^

This could be written about virtually all major endowments. Columbia University got taken to task during the financial crisis because theirs took a hit while Harvard's didn't to the same degree, and basically what they found was CU's cronyism wasn't as good as Harvard's. The idea you should punish your grads and schools because one produces a high quality number of the other seems silly. If there are clear illegality going on, by all means point it out. But this type of article is concern trolling without a purpose unless the Freep wants to lead a crusade to change the laws, which of course they aren't.

UMForLife

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^

Hmmmm.... I will take your advice and never read freep including this one. I like freedom of speech but these kind of information makes it very hard to believe in it.

mackbru

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:41 PM ^

So you find it hard to believe what you don’t want to believe. Great. I wonder what news you watch. They pointed out a real ethical issue with M. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it okay. But of course the minute M is criticized fans like you get defensive and reflexively try to discredit the source of information (which you don’t even bother to read). You’re no different than fans at other schools, not to mention a certain segment of voters.

oriental andrew

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^

people are taking is with the free press comparing the legal and (intended to be) beneficial activities at Michigan with the illegal and clearly harmful activities at Michigan State.

I understand the point they are trying to convey, but it's tenuous and obviously intended to profit off the nassar scandal.

mGrowOld

February 3rd, 2018 at 2:39 PM ^

Ive been saying since the ESPN report broke-that the Detroit media will go to ANY lengths to protect their favorite sons Izzo n Dantonio.

For those hoping for further consequences for those two i would suggest a new hobby. MSU is going to stonewall this situation until the national news boys grow bored with it and move on. Cause they KNOW they have protection in both Lansing law enforcement and Detroit media.

Nothing else is going to come of this.

Nothing.

bronxblue

February 3rd, 2018 at 3:04 PM ^

But the ethical argument they are making with UM isn't the same as MSU. Michigan's counter argument is that they need to have a healthy endowment to protect against drop in state support, which has been dropping precipitously for years now. So they invest in funds that UM grads have connections to because they provide good returns and, not illogically, would have a vested interest in the school's funds doing well.

With MSU, Engler and the investigator are avid MSU fans who are tasked with cleaning up a school that failed to handle sexual predation for years. And yet, both have made comments and taken actions that would make someone questions if they are capable of doing so. There isn't really a net positive for society in zealously advocating for MSU to not be held liable.

It's not that people don't get the argument they are making; it's that they are trying to frame cozy relationships that make UM money and may not lead to properly addressing sexual assault issues at MSU as the same level of ethical violation when they clearly aren't.

UMForLife

February 3rd, 2018 at 5:10 PM ^

You misunderstood what I was saying. Just because they can say whatever they want does not make it right to link two issues where one is the worst, malicious incid3nt that happened. If they want to compare the endowment of all public schools in B1G and criticize Michigan, fine. But what they are doing is irresponsible and dilutes the severity of what went on at MSU.

bacon

February 3rd, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^

Universities act in their own self-interest. That’s not a crime. MSU was covering up for the crimes of a pedophile. That’s the difference.

crg

February 3rd, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

Well, it wasn't just the pedophile. There were various illegal and/or morally objectionable actions being obfuscated and minimized by their FB and BB programs also (and wasn't their marching band implicated in something too not very long ago?).

ikestoys

February 3rd, 2018 at 1:00 PM ^

The freep doesn't actually equate the two whatsoever. I suggest people actually read the article before getting their pitchforks. The freep, like Brian earlier this week, is attacking the large amount of institutional secrecy in both university systems. OP is massively out of line.

speakeasy

February 3rd, 2018 at 2:22 PM ^

What you've described, that the Freep is "attacking the large amount of institutional secrecy in both university systems" is the literal equating of investment management practice secrecy and the secrecy involved in extensive criminal miscounduct. 

These are not the same thing, and whether or not the Freep has a genuine interest in the former, the explicit linking of the two is meant to make them similar. Michigan could be investing with Bernie Madoff and it wouldn't be similar.

speakeasy

February 3rd, 2018 at 2:50 PM ^

Literal: representing the exact meaning of something. In this case, it modifies and adds weight to the term "equating".

Equating: to draw an equivalency between one or more things. This is what the Freep is doing between what's going on at MSU and Michigan's investment practices. When done incorrectly, we call this comparison a false equivalency.

But, you already know all of this and preferred a vapid response instead.

 

Coach Carr Camp

February 3rd, 2018 at 1:06 PM ^

While this article is trash, you are not presenting it properly. They are not equating the sexual atrocities that occured at MSU to the (relatively) minor endowment "scandal" at UM. They are pointing out that the appointment of MSU's investigator to someone with close ties to large MSU donors, as well as UM's funneling of endowment funds back into some of the same donors investment firms, are both a reflection of a sort of "boys club" mentality at both places. It does come off as an odd attempt to drag UM into the fringes of the MSU issues without aknowladging that their appointment of Engler comes off the heels of a massive institutional failure, while UM's endowment issue is likely something occuring at just about every major endowment office in the country. But no where did I see it actually mention the issues that led to the horrible sexual culture at MSU and relate that to UM in someway.