Big PSU type troubles
Simon should resign. She should have resigned a long time ago over other SA issues but this MUST be the last straw. Mr R and I don’t give a lot to our alma mater but we give consistently and have increasingly given more as our income has risen. We have cut that off until Simon is gone. And yes, we’ve informed them via letter and every time they call.
Our RC alumni network is sending a letter with a few hundred signatures of alumni asking for her resignation.
This is a sincere question but why should she, in particular, resign? It feels to me that the people in the day to day line of fire are the ones that should be accountable. It’s a big university and she’s running a huge organization so it feels like a symbolic thing rather than a reasoned thing to want her to resign and I’m not too much on symbolic beheading as a panacea. The FBI and police investigated, the Attorney General investigated and none of those entities found any indication of criminal behavior other than Nassar himself. She has had an impeccable record of positive growth over the decade so again, I’m genuinely interested in why people think she, in particular should resign.
@romanigypsyeyes, Who exactly did the athletes complain to? Simon? Did Simon have information investigators didn’t? Should she have ignored investigators’ findings and fired Nasser without cause?
It seems there were plenty more people closer to the athletes who may have been complicit than Simon.
BTW, I’m not judging… just asking.
Oh Simon isn’t the only one who should lose her job. There’s a whole chain of people.
She knew of the complaints since at least 2014. Here’s an in-depth discussion: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/tech/2018/01/18/msu-president-told-nassar-complaint-2014/1042071001/
Knowing that there was a complaint and knowing that there was an investigation seems to be the right amount of information a head of a very large business would know at that point in time… Did she tell people not to do anything or instruct managers downline to obfuscate or hide information from the police? Did she lie to the Board? Did she lie to the media? These are real questions that should be examined if a board is seriously considering firing her. And why now and not when he was arrested or when he was fired…it’s certainly been “Michigan News” for years so I have to ask myself why now and why her? I said I knew someone in the direct line of fire here, but it’s not her so I have to wonder even more as she’s played very little part in this whole thing. between the gyms he worked for and the teams outside of MSU etc. Who is driving this cry to have her fired? Students who may not have even attended MSU in 2014? Politicians who are looking to look tough for the media? I will watch and read, but I have to wonder.
The buck stops at the top. If she was unaware of an investigation like this, there is something wrong with the system at MSU. Leaders sometimes need to go so that culture changes can be made & student/public trust can be restored.
So if a lower level employee assaults another employee, is fired and goes to jail for life the CEO of that company should be fired to make the employees feel better. To me that is the analogy. One employee is not a culture.
I am in the car with my #2 and he said that is pretty ironic that most of the time the battle cry is to replace a man with a woman and at MSU they want to boot the woman and probably end up with a new guy. There is a certain irony here thst is hard to escape.
@romanigypsyeyes – there were complaints, there was an investigation, there were no charges. Honestly, what do you expect MSU to do? Say, investigators found nothing they can charge Nasser with but I’m going to fire him anyway?
Why even have due process if it’s not going to be abided by?
What am I missing here?
mom…- your logic is faulty. You state an employee goes to jail for a crime. This case involves nothing being done when MSU knew about allegations. Vastly different scenario. The buck stops at the top means top officials need to take a stand on issues. Doing nothing makes a statement that people are objecting to. And one MSU alumnus alludes to other problems as well.
@wis75… allegations? Yes. But an investigation did not come up with enough to charge. So what is the school expected to do?
I am not following this closely. My term was used to differentiate the case scenario from the real case. I’ll let others argue the MSU case based on information. Pointing out differences.
Detroit News http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/01/18/editorial-times-msus-lou-anna-simon/109588876/
The MSU regents/board are elected, so they cannot be fired. They can fire the president, however, and ultimately it was her responsibility. What should happen is that Nassar’s supervisor, and as far up the medical administrator chain as necessary, should be terminated with cause. Apparently Nassar was disciplined 2 years ago but they did not bother to tell anyone but Nassar about his restrictions on seeing patients. That is gross negligence at a very minimum, and the university will likely end up paying huge settlements.
I agree with those that did not obey the restrictions could definitely be sanctioned including firing. But as far as the law goes if my aging brain remembers there was an investigation by police and FBI whom I assume reported findings to someone and reports that would presumably be summarized, sent up the ladder and shared with the board. So what did she do to deserve firing by the masses? Earlier this week the board gave her their support so they must not be feeling like they don’t know what is happening with Nasser.
Also it is not clear to me what and who is investigating that she is holding up as the Detroit paper insinuates. Anyone know who is investigating thst she is thwarting?
The AG doesn’t seem to be too interested in doing what the FBI and FBI have already done. So not sure what the Detroit editorial is about.
Latest news is that AG will review everything but not now while the sentencing is ongoing and victim impact statements from all the women from all the organizations he was involved with are being read. The board today announced support of Simon.
I still don’t understand why the hospital administration is not also responsible. They should have suspended him with pay while investigating the allegations, simply because there are so many of them.
The reports–or allegations, if you prefer–go back several decades. There are a number of individuals who apparently did nothing to further investigation of them, or actively warned off complainants, while some others in contrast reported the “alleged” violations up the ladder. (Personally, I am struck by the trio of female osteopaths who apparently told investigators that his “manipulations” were valid medical procedures. What a bunch of quacks!) I assume that this woman was not the president of MSU in the 90s? As far as I can tell, on her watch, an investigation was actually carried out and she directed that it be no holds barred. If the investigation came back and said there were no grounds for prosecution, I don’t know exactly what she was supposed to do about it. There are potentially–and in fact have been–many cases where good academics were made the subject of witch hunts on bogus grounds. Should a university president simply overrule investigatory bodies based on personal opinion? I really don’t understand why she should be forced out as some kind of symbolic sacrifice to atone for the sins of others.
Do I just not understand what actually happened? If so, @romanigypsyeyes , please enlighten me.
This whole incident is terrible and disturbing. MSU should have caught it, but did not.
I think President Simon is responsible to have reasonable processes in place, ensuring that employees are complying with the processes, and for disclosing information she receives in a timely manner. So far, it isn’t clear to me that she did not do those things. I mean, as @consolation said, it is incredible that three female doctors reviewed this case and concluded that nothing was wrong. However, if that is what happened, then why would the MSU President suspect anything was wrong?
If there was any attempt to cover anything up, as there was in the PSU situation, then she clearly has to go. However, I have not heard that. If reasonable processes were in place, and complied with, and there was no attempt to cover up anything, then I don’t see how she is responsible from a legal perspective. However, the board of trustees may feel at some point, under enough pressure, that they have to get this incident behind them and that requires a new President.
I think the key question is whether there is something that MSU failed to do that would have been done by peer institutions? If not then I don’t think she is responsible. If so, then she probably is.
jmho
I think it is worth noting that the investigation that MSU initiated was actually to protect their own interests. They paid for their own investigator, who found that MSU was not liable. Kind of a conflict of interest there. I think yesterday the board asked the state attorney general to investigate, with their cooperation. I believe many feel this is too little, too late. MSU should have asked for a full, independent investigation in the summer of 2016 when victims were first publicly coming forward. I don’t necessarily fault President Simon for her ignorance of the twenty years of ongoing abuse or her failure to stop it, but I do fault her and the Board for not encouraging a compete and thorough investigation 18 months ago. If there is proof that MSU tried to protect their own personnel (at the expense of young athletes), then many should be held accountable.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/01/19/msu-board-trustees-meet-morning-discuss-nassar-investigation/1047449001/