Nassar Effect - MSU Donations Down 25%
The Detroit News reports that donations to MSU are down by 25% for the second half of 2017, something that the News is unwilling (understandably as a traditional paper) to fully pin to the Larry Nassar scandal and related investigations, but ... that's what it is. A tip of the hat to MSU donors and alums who are hitting the administration and board of trustees where it hurts - right in their pocketbooks. It's also a fitting asterisk to Lou Anna Simon's tenure that a plummet in donations would occur right when she was wrapping up her reign of error.
I hope that this gets the attention of Engler and everyone else charged with righting the MSU ship. I'm not optimistic this will do more than encourage them to whitewash the situation a la Penn State, but the public face of the victims will help, as will upcoming lawsuits.
25% is a drastic drop in donations, since a lot of donations are scheduled annual or quarterly donations. (At least that's my understanding.) I hope each donor redirected a portion of those funds to charities focusing on assisting the victims of child molesters and prevention of child molestation. And I hope many of those donors notified MSU of why they so redirected their funds.
February 12th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
I don't see any reason why it would be morally wrong (?) for someone at MSU to continue donating to something like vet med.
February 12th, 2018 at 12:13 PM ^
which is why I don't think donations will drop much further.
February 12th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^
If someone is understandably upset with the way the school handled the situation they could always donate to a specific department (business school, study abroad, whatever) - rather than general fund - that impacted them. More peace of mind the money is being used for a good cause and a part of the school that seemingly has nothing to do with Nassar/enablers.
February 12th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:54 AM ^
Leaving aside Nassar, which sadly has become cover for the sports fans at the school to not talk about the assaults in their athletic programs.
Basically it's Baylor without the apparent urgency to do the obvious: get rid of the athletic leaders who allowed everything to happen. People down there didn't want to get rid of Art Briles either. All this is nothing new. Baylor school manned up and did what had to be done.
Dantonio took the "fake news" total denial route, followed by the media dodge. Izzo now throws "survivors" into his initial comments to the media when he is confronted by questions during one of his games or immediately after. It's the diffuse the bomb strategy. He didn't do anything but care about President Simon's job until all this start bubbling to the surface with his program.
Two non-leaders dodging responsibility being given a free pass to be non-leaders by a fan base apparently made up of shallow thinkers with weak hearts. Right now I can't talk college sports with them and can't believe they care to.
I know two people down there close enough to Hollis whom I trust, who told me he jumped immediately after he was confronted by the email from OTL a couple days before it was to go on the air. Reason the retirement happened so abruptly was if that story was out there when he did his resignation press conference, he could have said things in response to the story which messed up the stories Dantonio and Izzo were going to stick to.
As for the rumor he told them they should leave to, haven't gotten verification of that.
That will be a hard one to ever verify because no one but the three of them would likely ever know or mention it.
February 12th, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
Timing of Hollis' sudden retirement = fell on his sword to protect Dantonio/Izzo
February 12th, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
In the grand scheme of things, Hollis was considered expendable. Dantonio/Izzo are not.
February 12th, 2018 at 10:54 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^
over the next 10 years. I assume that the insurance companies are going to fight taking monetary responsibility for victim compensation. I also know that there is legal action being taken to disallow $ claims against Sparty, whch is another bad PR move on their part IMO. Hopefully the tax payers aren't the ones left footing the bill bc the victims sure as hell deserve recompense for the hell they have been put through.
February 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
Username checks out.
February 12th, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 6:55 PM ^