Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Engler’s imminent resignation, according to multiple media outlets.
LANSING (WHTC-AM/FM) — MSU’s interim president, former Michigan Gov. John Engler has resigned. In an 11-page memo to MSU’s board of trustees, he noted his love of the school and said he’d remain on the job until Jan. 23, 2019.
Thursday morning, trustees named Satish Udpa as the new interim president, effective immediately. Udpa, with MSU since 2001, is currently executive vice president for administrative services and a professor. He is the College of Engineering’s former dean.
On the front page of the Michigan State University’s website for Engler, is a quote:
“I give my commitment to do everything in my power to fix the situation, protect our students, repair the damage to MSU and plot a course forward so we can all hold our heads up high and call ourselves Spartans.”
Engler meant the massive scandal caused by disgraced and de-licensed doctor Larry Nassar, now serving decades in prison for sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women, many of them gymnasts.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019, faced with being fired during a special meeting of MSU’s board of trustees, Engler indicated he would resign, according to a social media post by Gongwer News.
Engler’s last remark on Twitter, where he is identified as @MSUPresEngler, was to re-tweet Know More MSU’s tweet saying “MSU is creating a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program that will offer 24-hour-a-day, first-response medical care to sexual assault survivors on campus.”
That’s the kind of support students, alumni, staff, faculty and fans expected. But it wasn’t consistently delivered. Engler repeatedly made public comments suggesting he didn’t take Nassar’s survivors seriously, at one point suspending a fund intended to help the women get medical and mental health treatment for their trauma, and, most recently, suggesting that survivors somehow enjoyed being in the spotlight as a result of their shared tragedy, including accepting awards for bravery and persistence.
His public comments drew widespread derision on social media and elsewhere for being tone deaf.
Engler’s role as MSU’s interim president started Feb. 5, 2018, given the job by the MSU Board of Trustees. His time in office followed Lou Anna Simon, who resigned from her seat in light of the Nassar scandal and its fallout, which includes her own criminal charges related to the case: two felonies and two misdemeanors for allegedly lying to police about her earlier knowledge of Nassar’s crimes.
Engler, an MSU alum, originally made a splash as the State of Michigan’s youngest-ever elected Representative.
The former 20-year veteran Republican of the Michigan Senate, seven of those as majority leader, went on to serve three terms as Michigan’s 46th governor, 1991 to 2003. Michigan State University’s interim president John Engler will be resigning from his position.
His resignation comes after a second round of calls for him to be fired. The MSU board of trustees is expected to use Thursday’s special meeting to name a replacement.
In a comment on WHTC’s Facebook page, Dennis VanHartesvelt noted, “He loves MSU and is trying to protect the University, but he’s gone about it in the wrong way.”
Fellow MSU alum and Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s reaction, posted on Twitter: “As I said before, John Engler was the wrong choice to lead MSU, and it’s past time for new leadership.”
The Rev. Sue Carter — an MSU alum, an ordained Episcopal priest, and a journalism professor at MSU with an award-winning career as a professional journalist — wrote on Facebook, “John Engler, through his own admission, willingly and wrongfully used me to test a system. I welcome his dismissal — for that is what it is.”
Carter had served as MSU’s faculty athletic representative to the NCAA, until she resigned one year ago this month, telling The Detroit News she witnessed “a lack of compassion” in MSU officials’ reponse to suvivors; her resignation letter stated the school had failed them.
