(Alex) It's Thursday, October 5, and this is the 1909, the state news weekly podcast featuring our reporters talking about the news. I'm your host Alex Walters. This week I'm joined by administration reporter Theo shear to talk about backlash to comments made by the chair of MSU is Presidential Search Committee. And then campus reporter Owen McCarthy will tell us about an expansion of accessibility for families hoping to enjoy basketball games at MSU Breslin center. With that, let's start the show. All right, my next guest is a very talented reporter. And also, as I've just learned, unofficially the number 19 Ms. PacMan player in the world. Welcome back to the show. Theo Scheer
(Theo) thank you so much for having me again, Alex. I feel like I'm a regular at this point.
(Alex) I know you are. And you're not lying about the Pac Man thing, right? Because no, I mean, the news show. So
(Theo) yeah, it is unofficial. I'm not on the register. But I
(Alex) just comparing your score to the people. Who are you?
(Theo) Yes, I would be around the 19. Mark.
(Alex) That's impressive. But alright, a little less fun than Miss Pac Man, I got to ask you a couple of weeks back. You're on the show. We talked about a story that you and I wrote about this ongoing presidential search and MSU. Before we get in any of the new stuff today, for those who for whatever reason, are not dedicated weekly listeners to the 1909 vo Can you give us sort of a brief summary of that story? What was in it what we talked about before?
(Theo) Yeah, so that story. I think the main part of it was Dennis Denno. He's a trustee and also the head of the Presidential Search Committee. He told us that they are. So they're in the middle of searching for a new president. They're they're reviewing applications. They're looking at candidates. They're doing all of this. But what then, what Denno said, was that the committee, whoever they choose might not be the president. It's ultimately up to him, the Board of Trustees to choose who's going to be the university.
(Alex) So for those of you not familiar, there's two groups here, you've got the board of trustees. They're elected statewide, they run MSU all the time. But now we've got this second kind of group, this Presidential Search Committee they just put together that's supposed to put forward candidates for the board to pick his President. Well, you're saying as Dan said, that's not necessarily the case.
(Theo) Exactly. And this this committee is representative are supposed to be of faculty, staff, students, and and also their trustees on the committee as well. So they're trying to sort of make a sort of democratic, you know, choice of President. But that's not exactly how it might pan out.
(Alex) Yeah. And that story that we talked about a couple weeks ago, you know, it's a broader story, secrecy in the search the process who a potential candidate might be, whether they might be deterred by some of the recent sort of tumult and turmoil at MSU, all of that, but a couple of things in it, like you're kind of alluding to, in the last week or so have created quite a stir. And it's really, you know, it's a couple of things. It's comments by Dennis Denna, where he said, You know, one that the next president of MSU, doesn't necessarily have to be an academic, I think his words were that it could be someone from the business world or with a very strong military background. And the other thing was what you said that there's a world where, you know, the committee recommends one person, and the board decides, actually, we're gonna go somebody else, and that he's comfortable with that. And there's been quite the reaction. Do you want to?
(Theo) Yeah, so yeah, it's definitely caused quite a stir among a lot of groups. I think the faculty senate released the statement a little bit ago saying, started, yeah, exactly. They were basically telling the board of trustees, the person that you choose, it's got to be an academic. And it's got to be elected by a committee, search committee. Now that they did that, in a resolution and these resolutions that the faculty senate puts out there are non binding, they're basically just sort of voicing an opinion of the faculty, but it really doesn't have any effect necessarily, exactly. It just shows what people are generally thinking about this
(Alex) just sort of advisory. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. And then even you know, a couple days after that, I was sitting down with Theresa Woodruff, the Interim President right now, who said that she's not seeking the permanent role. And we're talking about something relatively unrelated to him with a male Tiger situation. But I asked her about, you know, what sort of affecting her decision to not seek the permanent presidency, who she wants to see as her successor. And it's the first thing she says, you know, she looks at me, she goes, Well, I just want to see someone who's, you know, an academic with a real research background. And then she went on with other reasons. Rather, that was interesting that she's also kind of pushing back on these comments about Danau. But other administrators have since you know, after what Woodrow said after the fact that the Senate said, also push back. You got a letter last week. You're not talking about that.
(Theo) Yeah. So I got a letter from let's see all of the deans, seven vice provosts, and one associate dean and the director of the crib, and they were all basically sort of backing with the Faculty Senate said like just saying they're hoping the board is answering calls for a fair presidential search what they considered to be to be fair and prioritizes these things, did the faculty senate prioritize like academic backgrounds? And and also just elected by the search committee itself?
(Alex) Well, yeah, and you know, and we should be clear to that letter that was sent to the Board of Trustees. You know, we wrote about the faculty senate resolution Woodruff that was another piece we wrote, you know, I've given Denno a couple texts and calls have not heard back from him. I don't know what he's thinking. I'm not sure if he's considering this feedback, maybe think about changing his mind, or if not, but either way, this has been interesting. You know, since we published that piece, the last couple weeks, there's been a big reaction to those comments. So yeah, well, thanks for coming on the show and talking about it. It's great to have you.
(Theo) Thank you so much, Alex. Yeah. I'll see you again soon.
(Alex) All right. Our next guest is here. And he is a newcomer to the 1909 his first time going to introduce yourself.
(Owen) Yeah, for sure. My name is Owen McCarthy. I'm a general assignment reporter on the campus desk. I just got started here at the start of the semester, and I'm loving it so far. And thanks so much for having me on today.
(Alex) Yeah, well, I'm excited. I love the story. And you know, but before we get into the specifics, you wrote about a new sensory room at MSU. For people with no preconceived notion, no idea what that is, what is the sensory room?
(Owen) Yeah, so a sensory room is a quiet space for anyone with sensory needs. And when we think sensory needs, we often think of people who have autism. But it can really be for anyone who can be overstimulated by a large event with, you know, lights and loud music and people all around. Sometimes, people with sensory needs just need a place to go to, to unwind and to decompress. And in these rooms, there's usually a lot of different sort of, like fidget toys, comfortable furniture, the lights are like really easily adjustable. So there can be different colors and shades, just depending on people's needs at that time.
(Alex) So like during, you know, a sporting event or concert, a movie, that kind of thing. You can go and just a place to kind of I guess reset a little bit. Yeah, that's the and so this one that you wrote about is a brand new one just opened up in the Breslin Center, which is, you know, MSU is basketball arena. Yeah, team plays volleyball plays there, too. There's concerts, all kinds of events. And do you want to describe, you know, it's an audio format that can't see, give people an idea of what this room looks like? You know, you've seen it.
(Owen) Yeah. So I'll try to tap into my ability to sort of describe a picture here, but I'm looking at the picture actually on our story. And there's these really cool, sort of green lights that it almost looks like there's some like water inside these lights, and there's like bubbles, and it's really cool to look at, actually. And there's just like, you know, every color you can imagine there's this. He's really comfortable, like plush toys. There's actually like a slice of pizza was not a it's not a real slice of pizza. Yeah. And then there's like a bouncy ball there. Yeah.
(Alex) Yeah, you know, it's like a it's, I guess, a very soft room. And if you as much as you did a wonderful job, oh, if you do want to see it state news.com. You can check out the story. Yeah, but anyway, this is I think a rare thing. You know, there's a survey from Forbes of professional sports stadiums, and intuitive and 50 that they looked at in the country, only 70 have sensory rooms. And you know, I couldn't find a similar study of college stadiums, but I would guess that they're probably less equipped and these larger pro arena. So how did this, you know come together at MSU? Why was this a priori priority? It's such a rare thing.
(Owen) Yeah. So I actually talked to a gentleman named Anthony I Annie, who is he played on MSUs team from about 2010 to 2014. And he was the first division one basketball player to be diagnosed with autism. And after he graduated, he's basically dedicated his career to being like an advocate for autism and also anti bullying. And he, you know, when I talked to him, he really emphasized that the basketball community at MSU and Tom Izzo, there really is a culture of, you know, inclusion and community. And basically, Anthony, went to the Breslin center administration, about four years back and said, Hey, I think we should put a sensory room here. It's an important, it's an issue that's really important to me. And he actually told me, he coaches a yearly basketball clinic for kids with autism. And he had a parent, multiple parents tell him that they couldn't take their kids to events at the Breslin because there was a lack of sensory accommodations. So he heard that and he said, I want to get this done. So he went to the Brooklyn center administration, and they started working on it.
(Alex) Wow. And there was another, you know, he sort of I think, inspired this but my sense from the story was that some of the the funding and some of the more kind of professionalized guidance came from another group who you talk to.
(Owen) Yes, so I talked to a gentleman named Freddy bello who has been in pizza he's, he's been in pizza. He's been in the pizza business for about 33 years. He told me and he actually it's funny. He you know, Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports. Yeah, he does. You know, he kind of got put on the map for doing like pizza reviews, and he went to Freddy's store. Back Can like 2020 and gave him an 8.7 rating. And that's good. And ever since critic Yeah, ever since then, Freddie and Dave are kind of friends and Freddie's business has just been off the charts ever since then. Yeah. But basically, Freddie bellow, for a long time wanting to, he wanted to make the world a better place. He wanted to find some sort of, you know, charity effort that worked for him. But he told me, he's not the kind of person who's just going to do something to do something that's actually a quote in the story. But in 2017, his son was diagnosed with autism. And at this point, he knew that that was the cause that he wanted to put his time and effort into. So he created a foundation called Freddy, the pizza man Foundation. And what they do is they equip sensory rooms across the state of Michigan. So at this point, they've done 72 schools. And he told me that they buy the equipment they delivered to the school, and then he and his family set it up, rather than just writing checks. Yeah, and the Breslin center is the first like, large venue that they've equipped a sensory room at. And they're actually opening one at Ford Field to pretty soon.
(Alex) And so he's sort of with you know, his experience with his son can inform not just paying for it, but how to kind of best set it up so that kids can feel comfortable with the game.
(Owen) Absolutely. And he actually he told me that on Father's Day, in the summer, this last summer, he and his family, including his son and his other kids, they actually went to the browser and and they were there for 10 hours just getting a feel for the room and setting it up the way that they thought was the best. So yeah,
(Alex) well, this is this was a fascinating story. Someone you know, someone like me, I think a lot of our readers who are neurotypical, it's not something I'd ever really thought about. I go to the Breslin center. It's not something on my radar, but to see them do this was I don't know, it was fascinating. It's cool to see something new like that. Thank you for coming on the 1909 and sharing it.
(Owen) Yeah. Thank you for having me.
(Alex) Yeah, of course. That's all for this week. We'll be back next Thursday with more until then the stories we discussed in plenty more available state news.com. I've also got to tell you about a new podcast we're launching this week going deeper. It's a love and sex podcast hosted by our podcast director Anthony Brinson and copy editor Elle Fromm the first episode is available wherever you're listening to this on Friday. Thank you to Anthony for putting our show together our guests Theo and Owen, and most of all, to you for listening for the 1909 I'm Alex Walters.