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Host Lily Guiney recaps Broad College dean Sanjay Gupta case, ELPD use of force report, Native American Indigenous Student Organization protest and an amicus brief signed by MSU in support of the Ohio State University sexual assault case.
Welcome to The 1909, the podcast that takes an in-depth look at The State News’ biggest stories of the week, while bringing in new perspectives from the reporters who wrote them.
Lily Guiney 0:10
Welcome to The 1909, your home at The State News for everything happening on campus and around Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney. Thanks to everyone who tuned in to our special episode last week with Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin. And thanks to Griffin Wiles for filling in for me while I was sick. You can listen to Griffin's podcast, The Dinner Table, also from The State News podcast network.
Lily Guiney 0:29
So this week, we'll be recapping a lot of news so we won't have a guest interview. We'll get some updates in the Board of Trustees Sam Stanley saga, a celebration meets protests on indigenous peoples day, and the results of an East Lansing police department Use of Force Report. Then we'll be taking a closer look at a story that shocked members of the MSU community regarding an amicus brief signed by MSU in support of Ohio State University in a case that aims to prevent survivors of sexual abuse from suing universities under title nine. Let's get into it.
Lily Guiney 1:02
First up, the perennial question is Samuel L. Stanley still the president of MSU? The answer on the day we recorded this is yes, but we still have some updates for you and the ongoing tussle between the Board of Trustees and the faculty senate regarding the investigation of former Broad College Dean Sanjay Gupta, the MSU faculty senate declared a no-confidence vote in the Board of Trustees at their October 11 meeting. The vote was 55 to four.
The resolution introduced by Vice Chairperson Stephanie Anthony stated that the Board of Trustees has continued to destabilize the university since initial concerns expressed by the Senate earlier in the school year. The resolution also argued that trustees' quote compounded their intransigence, when they chose to retain a law firm to investigate resignation of former road College of Business Dean Sanjay Gupta, following a mandatory reporting failure, which in itself was outside of the administrative purview and in violation of the board's code of ethics as cited by the resolution. Another primary factor in the Senate's decision to pass the no-confidence vote was the October 6 vote of no confidence by the Associated Students of Michigan State University, or ASMSU.
Lily Guiney 2:13
A majority of the board of trustees sent a statement on Tuesday October 11, to the faculty senate and steering committee defending the external investigations of the departure of former Broad College of Business Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Gupta resigned as dean in early August following concerns with a failure in mandated reporting. According to Provost Teresa Woodruff, the board hired outside legal counsel the Quinn Emanuel firm on August 31, to investigate the departure. The Quinn Emanuel firm has recently asked MSU faculty to help in their investigation. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate sent a letter to the board on October 5, stating grave concern with the firm's contact with faculty. The board's statement says that Quinn Emanuel has been hired for two investigations. The first is an assessment of the title IX office. The statement said quote, "the board recognizes the university's efforts to improve the office are ongoing and believes an independent review will give the university senior leadership a needed progress report to make sure the office has policies and procedures aligned with best practices and ensure a safe, respectful and accountable university community."
Lily Guiney 3:18
The second investigation is around the circumstances of Gupta's departure. Board members say they quote respectfully disagree with members of the MSU community who find the review and appropriate. The statement cites several mandates that relate to the board's responsibility, including the Michigan Constitution, the Board of Trustees, bylaws, and the policy manual of the Board of Trustees.
According to these mandates, the Gupta review is within the board's rights and responsibilities, the statement said. The statement also said that the goal of the review is to provide clarity on whether University procedures were, quote, in compliance with federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations and institutional policies. That was a lot.
Lily Guiney 3:59
So shifting away from some really dense institutional news. On October 10, The North American Indigenous Students Organization and other indigenous students and faculty marched to celebrate their resilience against all odds, including their university being founded on what they call a land grab.
On the 25th anniversary of NAISO sit-in at the university president's office, the group yet again rallied their supporters. They supported signs with phrases like "Columbus, your visa expired," "you're on stolen land," and "colonial hands off indigenous lands," rallying their supporters from Beaumont Tower to the Hannah Administration Building. The group of marchers left posters that said eviction notice on the steps of the building. They hope to give the administration their message of discontent for all the times they had felt ignored.
The indigenous students not only wanted to emphasize their anger but their strength in numbers on a campus that holds so little of their community. Student and faculty speakers voiced concerns about lack of institutional support for issues like financial aid and the renaming of Moral Agricultural Hall, which gets its name from the Act, which established land grant universities. When the federal government created the land grant model to establish Agricultural College, indigenous people who lived on the land were displaced.
Lily Guiney 5:15
NAISO wants to see MSU give more attention to the problematic history of land grant institutions. Something the university often touts due to its status as the first of such universities to be established in the US. You can see the phrase the Pioneer land grant institution or the Pioneer land grant college, and blazoned on signage around campus, organizers also emphasize the importance of indigenous peoples day and expressed hopes that the university will declare it as a day off work and classes in the future so that members of the community can celebrate together.
Lily Guiney 5:45
The East Lansing Police Department's August use of force report revealed 66% of the cases in which officers use quote, reasonable force when encountering resistance or against black individuals 18 to 35 years old. The independent police oversight commission convened last week discussing six out of nine use-of-force incidents reported during the month of August where the subjects were black males. Out of the nine use-of-force incidents, five incidents in which force was used were against black males under the age of 25. According to the 2021 US census, black people make up 7.2% of the East Lansing population in comparison to 76.4% of white people in the city.
Lily Guiney 6:26
Activists have been focused on policing reforms in the East Lansing area for several years now. So this report is certainly going to stir up a lot of feelings and a lot of action. I think among an activist community that says this majority white city in this majority white police force are not are not policing in a way that serves us.
Lily Guiney 6:50
So now to get into sort of our really big story of the week, Michigan State University signed a brief aimed at keeping sexual abuse supporters from being able to file a lawsuit against universities. This brief supports Ohio State University's appeal against a court's previous decision to allow survivors to take the university to court. The survivors and universities disagree on defining the scope of title nine and the timeline to file a lawsuit. OSU is calling for what's called an on bonk review, which is rare. This review asks that all 16 judges from the Sixth Circuit Court review the case to prevent it from moving forward. Sorry, not the Sixth Circuit Court but from the Sixth Circuit in its entirety.
Lily Guiney 7:33
The amicus brief supporting OSU, which was signed by six other midwest universities, including the University of Michigan, and filed on October 3, came after a yearslong battle between OSU and survivors of sexual abuse by former university physician Richard Strauss. A 2019 investigation found Strauss sexually abused at least 177 Male Student patients in September 2021. A judge dismissed one of the cases citing the statute of limitations. But this past September, the US Court of Appeals for the sixth district court of Ohio determined the judge had erred. According to Attorney Rocky Ratliff, who is representing one of the other survivor groups and as a survivor himself, the university, MSU is arguing in favor of the occurrence rule, which would give survivors two years after the injury to file a lawsuit. However, many of the survivors in the OSU case did not realize they had been abused until 2018 because they had been told the abuse was just a medical procedure.
Lily Guiney 8:34
Because of this, Ratliff and the other survivors are arguing in favor of the discovery rule, which would mean that the time to file a lawsuit began when the survivors first became aware of the abuse. Ratliff said he was shocked and appalled that universities like MSU and U of M, both of which have dealt with the aftermath of serial sexual abuse by faculty members, would sign on to a brief such as this.
He said that the brief is spitting in the face of survivors of abuse by predators like Larry Nasser and Robert Anderson at these universities. University spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in the statement that MSU joined the brief because, quote, "There's now confusion and uncertainty among the courts and universities within the Sixth Circuit regarding title nine's rules in scope, and the clarification is needed not just for Ohio State in this particular case, but for all universities subject to title IX.
Lily Guiney 9:23
In regards to defining the scope of title nine, the brief argues the decision to allow the survivors' cases to go to trial extended title nine has implied right of action, and extends it to members of the public. It argues this extension could be harmful to the university and anyone who comes on campus, including people quote on a college visit or attending a football game argument is that they could file title nine complaints if the survivors' case succeeds. Guerrant said that MSU's involvement in the brief was a decision made by the Office of the General Counsel.
Lily Guiney 9:55
The brief also states that the original court decision, quote, put schools in the impact possible position of being forced to defend against claims where the only evidence remaining may well be the plaintiffs' own say so. If the request for an on-bonk review is denied, the case will go to trial and the plaintiffs will have access to the notes from the University's investigation. Ratliff said these unreleased notes will strengthen the survivors' case and possibly lead to revelations that high-profile figures at the university were involved in the cover-ups, which he believes is exactly why the university doesn't want them to have the records. Ratliff said that although the rehearing will likely be unsuccessful, the university's decisions to file the brief are still harmful, inflicting more trauma on survivors.
Lily Guiney 10:41
And that's it for this week's news roundup and our episode of The 1909. You can listen to us every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts. Signing off from East Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney.