EAST LANSING (WKZO AM/FM) — Larry Nassar and his perverse medical practice may be the focus of multiple investigations at MSU but the fractures it’s caused go far deeper than that.
Portage City Council Member Claudette Reid says she traveled to East Lansing to attend the Town Hall meeting and came away concerned that MSU has a bigger problem than just restoring their public image.
She says students and faculty don’t feel safe and they can’t trust the current administration to fix it. Others, including several lawmakers say they don’t see a change in the culture, only an increase in the legal and public relations staff.
Reid hopes they can restore that trust. She says it’s a question that each institution has to ask itself. Can they provide a safe environment for women, one that they even feel safe in if they have to report a sexual assault?
It was the failure at MSU to provide that environment that Larry Nassar exploited to continue his parade of perversities for over two decades and that’s why many lawmakers and critics say this Board of Trustees just doesn’t get it, and needs to go.
Interim President John Engler has just announced that changes will be made to Michigan State University’s health system to prevent a repeat of the Larry Nassar scandal. He has announced that the university’s four medical colleges will be more closely tied together and be more accessible to students along with being less expensive.
Engler says athletic trainers will now be under the health system instead of the athletic department, and there will be easier options for students to report sexual assaults and receive mental health treatment along with physical care.
The changes will be evaluated, scrutinized and judged by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Higher Education, chaired by Senator Tonya Schuitmaker. She has put all of the state’s colleges on notice that unless they can demonstrate mastery of Title IX and demonstrate that they provide programs that make campuses safer from sexual assault, the committee may recommend cuts in the amount of funding they receive next year.
She has outlined a detailed set of criteria and set up meetings with University officials to demonstrate and illustrate what is needed. Budget hearings are being scheduled over the next few weeks.
Not only has Western Michigan University won praise from Shuitmaker for their efforts to address the issue, but she has invited officials from WMU to Lansing to make presentations to officials from other state schools on how its done.
