MSU faculty approve measure to initiate Vote of No Confidence in BoT
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2018/02/04/msu-faculty-s…
87% to call for vote 10% against 3% abstain.
No meeting scheduled as of yet
February 4th, 2018 at 7:13 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:02 AM ^
then move on to the dumpster, until it finally engulfs the whole city
February 4th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
They have as much confidence in the Board as the rest of us do, NONE
February 4th, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 8:18 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
....and what about the 3% cowards!
February 5th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^
bear with him, he's been having a hard week.
February 4th, 2018 at 8:35 PM ^
While I don't disagree with the outcome it's easy to stand up after a couple hundred young women have paved the way. Not one of them heard a single word about campus assaults prior to this, I'm sure.
February 5th, 2018 at 12:05 AM ^
This is both true, probably and untrue, probably.
That is, professors on the Sparty campus have, for certain, bumped against a complicit administration over the years. Simon's tone deaf approach on all things discipline and the administration's ridiculously cozy relationship with the AD has been problematic. Obviously, athletics have been prioritized over Teaching/Research/Service over the past several decades dating back to Perles. None of us would know if a faculty member or several have advocated or voiced concerns at MSU on various issues but, certainly, that would have occurred within a culture of denial, reprisal and cover-up on the administration side.
FWiW, the faculty have no choice but to no-confidence the BOT. The reputation of the school, nationally and internationally is a shambles. Attending professional conferences, presenting science and doing the day-to-day work of any academic in terms of teaching/service would be black marked by this administration and complicit BOT. The BOT answer is to just do more of the same. Sad.
February 4th, 2018 at 7:19 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 7:08 AM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
"All Michigan residents need to vote out the idiotic BoT at MSU."
Respectfully, isn't that sort of the point? We have a state constitution; not a completely dusty relic from some agrarian past but the product of a statewide convention in 1963. The legal chartering and confirmation of the governance structure of the three largest state universities is in that constitution. Our constitution. And it provides for one of the more small-d democratic methods of university governance you'll find in the nation. Direct statewide election of boards, with about as many members as, say, the state supreme court, and with an ex officio position on the boards, for the respective university presidents.
So you'll get your chance, to vote them out or vote them back in. I am indeed sorry that you can't do that next week, and you'll have to wait until there is a general election at the conclusion of each of their respective terms. Representative democracies and republics do stuff like that.
Serious question; would you and others here prefer that a board be selected by a governor and, say, confirmed by the state senate? Would it matter to you, who was the governor and which party held the state senate majority? Do you think that the faculty members should pick the leadership? Who then would represent the voters and taxpayers when the faculty went on strike, if the faculty effectively selected the Board(s)?
Do you boys know what the governance of OSU and theo other Ohio state universities looks like? I'm serious; it's not a them-versus-us thing. I've looked at it; I see a lot less small-d democracy, a lot more room for vanity/celebrity board members, but with their having less power and the real power being conentrated more in a state board of education that is less accountable to voters than, say, Michigan's Regents.
February 4th, 2018 at 7:23 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 7:25 PM ^
"The faculty does not have direct authority to unseat the trustees. Michigan voters electpublic university trustees for eight-year terms. Some have called for Gov. Rick Snyder to oust trustees under provisions in the Michigan Constitution that allow him to remove elected officials,..."
February 4th, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 7:28 PM ^
The response of the student body, athletes, alumni, and now faculty, has been commendable to say the least.
It's easy to say "it's the right thing to do" but, I mean, Penn State didn't do it.
Respect to the Spartan faculty and students.
February 5th, 2018 at 9:49 AM ^
Nobody has touched the Spartan football and/or basketball programs....yet. Penn State reacted the way it did because Joe Pa got fired in disgrace and the NCAA came along and dropped the hammer on the football program.
Let's see how commendable Spartan Nation is if the NCAA nukes the football/basketball programs and Dantonio/Izzo get shown the door. I think the reaction may be a little different.
February 4th, 2018 at 7:32 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 9:31 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 12:10 AM ^
We see the outcomes of this as University presidents become less about the core mission of the universities (teaching/research/service) and more about brand management.
This was Lou Anna Simon's utter failure as she ignored instance after instance of deeply concerning content across a variety of sports even prior to Nassar.
The problem is that schools have become so beholden to the revenue/exposure of their athletics and at a second tier school like MSU the desire to use athletic success to equate themselves with more highly ranked/successful institutions is too much of a draw, too intoxicating for many. Lou Anna Simon being one, the MSU board being others.
February 5th, 2018 at 12:33 PM ^
When MSU people like Valenti freak out about the stain on Nassar unfairly spreading to Izzo and Dantonio, they miss this point entirely. MSU's systemic blind eye toward the pervasive rape culture was not in place to protect the gymnastics program. It was there very clearly to protect the basketball and football programs that were in the midst of a Golden Age and the single biggest source of pride for that community. Nassar was just able to use it as cover. The fact that half the board is ex-jocks and/or coaches points directly to this. And speaking of which, I didn't know that George Perles was alive much less sitting on their board. The dude was a decent football coach but nobody ever accused him of being the sharpest knife in the drawer. And I recall how every year he would play up rumors of leaving for the NFL in order to extract more money from his beloved MSU.
February 4th, 2018 at 7:37 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 7:49 PM ^
This is the appropriate tool to deal with MSU at this point.
February 4th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 8:01 PM ^
If you are going to reference a Star Wars movie, at least choose a good one.
February 4th, 2018 at 8:48 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 9:52 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 1:20 AM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:20 AM ^
The prequels were flaming heaps of dog shit. The Force Awakens was a blatant re-packaging of A New Hope, but still good. Rogue One was great, and I don't get everyone's beef with The Last Jedi. I was entertained and personally that's all I care about with going to movies like this. I do not expect it to be The Godfather.
I don't think it's so much that the new movies suck. People just need to re-evaluate their expectations before going to the theater. If you place the original trilogy on a pedestal (as you should), you can't realistically expect the new movies to live up to that level. Those movies are timeless classics, and if you're comparing new additions to movies that defined an entire genre of film, you're bound to be disappointed.
It's the same reason you can't expect Better Call Saul to live up to Breaking Bad, or whatever GoT spinoff comes out from the original GoT series. By default, they won't be as good. But it doesn't mean they can't be great shows or movies.
February 5th, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Rogue One?
February 4th, 2018 at 10:15 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
I would hope not, as that resulted in a sith lord taking over and effectively destroying everything good and decent in the galaxy. Got to hope MSU ends up with a different result.
And how I found a good woman to marry me, I'll never know....
February 4th, 2018 at 8:54 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 8:05 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 8:44 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 10:24 PM ^
That's the takeaway I got from people I was chatting with today about this very thing - the faculty wants someone from the academic world rather than a politician, and the impression that I was getting from people is that MSU ties weren't necessarily important to them. Indeed, someone on Twitter mentioned that Mary Sue Coleman was a name that was actually batted around for a bit. Not sure how seriously, of course.
February 5th, 2018 at 8:44 AM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 9:20 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 9:25 PM ^
The most impressive thing in this article? Over 1900 out of 2776 faculty members actually read and responded to the email they got this weekend to vote. That is incredible. This is not sarcasm. They are engaged, and they are pissed off.
February 4th, 2018 at 10:34 PM ^
Comments from joel ferguson: "Am not worried about that no confidence thing!"
February 4th, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^
February 4th, 2018 at 11:39 PM ^
February 5th, 2018 at 6:01 AM ^
We'll see how much of that 87% will demand a serious investigation into Izzo and Dantonio.
February 5th, 2018 at 7:00 AM ^
Kudos to the faculty for making a stand for what is right.