LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - MSU Trustee Rema Vassar announced Sunday that she
is stepping down from her role as board chairperson.

During the Sunday night special meeting conducted via Zoom, trustees also
discussed an outside law firm�s report recommending penalties against
Vassar and trustees Dennis Denno and Brianna Scott for what the report
called violations of the MSU�s ethics policies and bylaws.

The board agreed to follow recommendations on improving trustee governance
by improving onboarding and professional development.

Vassar resigns as board chairperson

Vassar sent the letter to the Board of Trustees and incoming MSU President
Kevin Guskiewicz just hours before a special meeting Sunday night. Vassar,
who is a professor at Wayne State University, says she intends to stay on
the board as a trustee. She was first elected to the board in 2020. Her
term ends at the finish of 2028.

�Throughout my career, I have been an advocate for education as an elixir
to cure all that ails our society,� Vassar wrote in the letter, according
to the Detroit News. �I have been and will always be especially dedicated
to advocating for those who are marginalized, victimized, ignored, and
suffering in educational spaces. This has been and will continue to be my
focus and life�s work. Please accept my resignation as Chair of the Board
of Trustees of Michigan State University, effective upon the naming of a
new Chair. I have been honored to serve as Chairwoman, and I look forward
to continuing to support the University�s land grant mission as a
Trustee.�

Vassar�s resignation ends 14 months of leadership by the first Black woman
to chair the MSU board.

Succeeding Vassar as board chairperson is Dan Kelly. Kelly Tebay will
become vice chairperson.

Vassar and Denno both voted no on resolutions that remove them from their
committee assignments, censures them, suspends them from board activities,
and refers them to the Governor for further review. Vassar called the
action �premature� and �over the top�.

The board approved censuring Scott, which she accepted.

Independent report blames Vassar, Denno, Scott of wrongdoing

Sunday night�s special Board of Trustees meeting comes after Friday�s
release of a 63-page report into allegations of wrongdoing by the Michigan
State University Board of Trustees.

MSU hired Washington-DC based law firm Miller & Chevalier to conduct the
investigation after Scott alleged Vassar violated board rules and bullied
other board members and administrators. Scott urged Michigan Governor
Gretchen Whitmer to intervene and remove Vassar if the chair didn�t
resign.

The report said Vassar acted outside her authority after trying to
negotiate a settlement with former business school dean Sanjay Gupta. It
also found that Vassar and Denno worked to bully interim President Teresa
Woodruff. The report said Vassar got courtside tickets for a basketball
game from an MSU doner and accepted other special benefits.

Denno was also accused of interfering in the review of the Feb. 13, 2023
mass shooting on campus. The report says he tried to get the firm hired to
analyze MSU�s response to alter its report.

It found that their actions �created fissures that have weakened the
governance structure of the University and encouraged and created openings
for members of the MSU community to also circumvent the Administration and
reporting protocols, by leveraging individual Board members to act on
their behalf.�

It also recommended Scott be censured for releasing a letter of
allegations against Vassar that contained confidential information, which
triggered the investigation last October.

The Miller & Chevalier report found three trustees violated board bylaws
and policies and recommended Whitmer consider removing Vassar and Denno
and censure Scott for violations of board rules and ethical violations.

Whitmer press secretary Stacey LaRouche said the Governor reviewed the
report. She called the findings �concerning� but didn�t indicate if any
action would be taken. The state constitution gives the Governor the
ability to remove members of university governing boards for misconduct.

Denno criticizes report

Denno issued a statement Sunday where he implied the law firm looking into
the trustees didn�t do a comprehensive investigation. Denno said he asks a
lot of questions and that rubs some administrators and trustees the wrong
way.

He said he would accept a censure, but not more severe punishment.

�What has been proposed is overly punitive in nature, I do not believe the
board has legal grounds or ability to impose such extreme restrictions,
which would limit my ability to represent this great school, speak for my
Arab-American community, and the survivor community, and I have legal
counsel reviewing a potential lawsuit should this board not do the right
thing here as I have agreed to do,� Denno wrote in the statement obtained
by the Detroit News.

Guskiewicz begins Monday as new MSU President

Guskiewicz begins his tenure as MSU President on Monday.

He�s the latest leader for the East Lansing campus, which has seen five
presidents in six years.

Former President Lou Anna Simon left in 2018 over concerns of her handling
the Larry Nassar sex abuse case. She was replaced by former Michigan
Governor John Engler, who left as interim President in 2019, after he was
criticized for comments he allegedly made of sexual assault survivors.
Satish Udpa was named acting president until Samuel Stanley was hired as
President in 2019, a role he resigned in 2022 over disputes with the Board
of Trustees. Teresa Woodruff, who was Provost under Stanley, took over as
interim President. She decided not to seek the fulltime President role and
saw the campus through the mass shooting that left three students dead in
February 2023.

Guskiewicz previously was the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He
is a neuroscientist and concussion researcher.

MSU begins handing over Nassar documents to Attorney General�s Office

MSU announced Friday that it began transferring Nassar documents to the
Attorney General�s office.

Back in December, trustees approved releasing thousands of documents
connected to Nassar, a former MSU and US Olympic team physician who was
convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of athletes. The school
previously withheld the documents for years under attorney-client
privilege.

Mel Tucker investigation doesn�t find wrongdoing by MSU officials

The investigation into MSU trustees is the second such probe in the past
year.

Law firm Jones Day looked into who leaked Brenda Tracy�s name. Tracy
accused former MSU head football coach Mel Tucker of sexual harassment.

The investigation said it could not find that any university official or
employee leaded Tracy�s name. But Jones Day noted that Denno refused to
turn over his cell phone as part of that investigation.

https://www.wilx.com/2024/03/04/rema-vassar-resigns-msu-chair-board-
discusses-investigation-into-trustee-misconduct/