OT: Gov. Wittmer asked to consider removing two MSU Trustees from Board
It's more good times for MSU, as the Gretchen has been asked to be the adult in the room and bounce Vasser and Denno from the board. They have been accused of exceeding authority and ethics violations. Their fellow board trustees voted 6-2 to have Wittmer do what they can't (apparently), i.e. fire them into the sun. Who knew?
If you use a performance review as an example assuming that publicly releasing that information is against policy. Trustee A could say to a third person that Employee B was graded as unsatisfactory even if they weren't.
That releasing that information would be a breach of confidentiality and false. To force it into only one specific bucket would allow you to saying that lying about confidential information isn't a breach of confidentiality because it is a lie.
If the president's doctor falsely and without authorization says he has terminal cancer, should he be able to say its not a HIPPA violation because it is a lie?
Who cares? It's MSU.
Like it or not it's a huge part of our state's economy and culture. It's definitely relevant if you care about Michigan as a place.
It was more fun when they were just an obnoxious, insecure rival. Now that they're a moral tire-fire it's less funny and more troubling.
Because like it or not, MSU is a major state institution that does a lot of good for the people of Michigan, and it behooves all of us who live here to not have it be run into the ground.
Seriously, people, look beyond sports for even one second.
"Seriously, people, look beyond sports for even one second". If MSU took your advice more often they might not be in so many messes.
Thank you. One of my biggest pet peeves on this board are people who actually wish ill upon the university itself sans sports. Or jokes you’ll see from Michigan fans like “I’m voting for the worst candidates for MSU BoT so they get run into the ground”. Only about 3.5-4k of each incoming freshman class are from the state of MI (I’ve got a lot of thoughts on the declining % of in state students when schools of similar stature in similar sized states like UVA & UNC show it’s possible to have 66% & 80% of their undergrad in state without any tangible effect on their prestige and leads to a much more diverse student body than U-M). That means of the remaining 90k graduating high school seniors each year, 9k of them attend MSU. It’s very important to the future of the state that MSU is run well and continues to grow in academic stature (it’s come a LONG way from how it was viewed nationally from the 60s-90s whether U-M fans want to admit it or not),
I'm sure S&M Barbie will make the correct decision.....
Typical response when allegations prove you're a corrupt POS, play the race card. Sorry sweetie, but you're a corrupt POS. Your color has nothing to do with it. Be better.
S&M Barbie??
The Gretch. Always wearing black leather/pleather/etc.
Probably a fan of Desantis and his cowboy boot lifts.
Nice comment, HE. "S & M Barbie"
Not at all oozing with sexism and misogyny.
as the Gretchen has been asked to be the adult in the room
Doomed before even starting
The adult in the ... Landshark?
LOL @ the downvotes. as if any politicians are the adults in a room at any point.
How is this possible? Aren’t regents and trustees elected and not appointed?
From the article
Michigan law allows the governor to remove board members for a variety of reasons, including "gross neglect of duty or for corrupt conduct in office, or any other misfeasance or malfeasance therein...."
Bigger dumpster fire? MSU board or Warde?
Yes, I know that the question was rhetorical. But. I think that Warde is a purely paper pushing administrator. He embodies "do as little as possible" passive. Ugh.
The two from MSU's BOD? Reading some of the independently confirmed allegations? Bad stuff, bad behaviors. Ergo, I'm voting these two MSU Board members to be the bigger dumpster fire.
I think couch fire is the correct term when discussing staee...
Anytime I get frustrated with Warde and the Regents at U of M, I should remember things can be much worse, like in East Lansing.
just appeal it to the us supreme court and then we can all find out together if the fix is in.
sparticus can still play their way out of the dance. is it the ides yet?
Wut?
This doesn't even include the Trustee who took a bribe from Joel Ferguson to switch her vote on Nassar disclosure from the thing she campaigned on.
What's funny is that she's the one that brought all this crap to light.
There's a lot of irony in the whole situation, all the way down to the fact that the race card is being played. Their now former interim president had a reputation among faculty circles of supporting more minority faculty members. I mean, she was being embarrassed and publicly humiliated and she should have been an ally.
Show some respect: It's "Big Gretch".
Semi-serious question for the board: I have a high schooler. Based on the money we've saved, the kid is probably going in-state here in Michigan. Grades-wise, UM will be a reach. Assuming we get a polite Wolverine rejection letter, what is option No. 2? Based on all the drama at MSU, I'm not feeling so hot about sending my kid and his 529 money to East Lansing.
Or do you still go to MSU because (1) it's a recognizable brand, (2) they have some decent-to-very-good programs, and (3) drama in the school's administration doesn't really affect an undergraduate's life that much?
First, I detest Michigan State as an athletic brand, so of course I likely cannot be 100% objective.
However, I'm going to try to be. I would not send my kid to Michigan State, and will do everything in my power to stop them from going there. I don't know how much time you have spent in East Lansing, but I have spent more time than I would like through several different contacts, and it is frankly not a good place. It is a bad place. It is somewhat "nihilistic." You know that feeling when you enter Ann Arbor and it just seems like you are entering goodwill? People are feeling good, they are watching out for each other. East Lansing is the complete opposite. It feels dark.
Yes, they have some good programs and a young person can do well for themselves there, but the majority of other students they will come in contact with are not there for school. Like, at all. School is truly beside the point. I currently know more than one recent high school graduate who went to MSU and is home already, and depressed.
My brother went to MSU 25 years ago and went back for the Washington game this year for the first time in a long time and he could not get out of that town soon enough.
My kids won't get into Michigan and will probably have to stay in-state as well. I am going to suggest OU or UM-Flint to them. I'm not paying for them to go to MSU.
Disappointed to hear that. I only applied to MSU and Michigan from high school, and was lucky enough to get into both (obviously going to Michigan with a strong push from my parents).
My kids are young, but I am really worried that 30 years later, the bar to get into Michigan will be so high, it may not be a possibility (I don't think I could get in today). I was hoping that MSU would be a strong instate back up with other school options.
Like the poster says a couple of spots below, it absolutely CAN BE done at MSU. But think about Michigan. Nobody is going to Michigan who does not have their eye at least partially on the ball. They are applying themselves.
Michigan State has higher requirements for entry than it did 25 years ago, but frankly, it still does not take much effort to get into MSU. Be conscious, be present on test days, don’t get expelled from high school, and volunteer for a day at the Salvation Army for a day and you are basically in.
That, itself, is not a bad thing, but when you create an enormous fish bowl where 75% of the enrollees don’t even know yet if they really want to play school, and the “nothingness” of such the culture can just swallow a kid up.
If a kid wants to go to MSU, they should know specifically WHY, and put their head down and get to it. More often than not, if you go to State because “meh… party on,” you will get chewed up and spit out by what really is a pretty poor culture.
MSU had the rep back then. I remember working my ass off and barely passing Chem 130, and my MSU friends partying all the time and acing their classes. It was definitely a difference. Michigan students put an emphasis on school. (even my friends and roommates who all were way smarter than me, still studied a lot).
I thought MSU admissions had changed. I had heard that it was much harder to get in these days, so was thinking the culture may have shifted. It's a ways off, so not something I have to worry about, but they need a change.
Much easier to get in these days to MSU (85% admit rate), and MUCH MICH harder to get into UM (18% admit rate).
"That, itself, is not a bad thing, but when you create an enormous fish bowl where 75% of the enrollees don’t even know yet if they really want to play school, and the “nothingness” of such the culture can just swallow a kid up."
Oh, please! That is just the worst kind of Michigan arrogance. Where on earth did you get this crap statistic?
One of my kids went to Michigan and one went to MSU for undergrad. They both got excellent educations, both went to great grad schools in their fields, both are building successful careers. At both places they made friends with other students equally committed to their own education. I know many other parents whose kids have gone or are going to MSU who would say the same thing. Yes, Michigan has tougher entrance standards, but that doesn't mean the kids that go to MSU are any less committed to getting a good education.
Ok. I am not saying this hate on MSU. The person asked for opinions on their kids enrolling in MSU. I have mine. Looks like we have different opinions. I didn’t go to Michigan or MSU so this is not from a position of arrogance. I’ve just seen, heard and experienced enough to know I don’t want my kids going there.
To each their own. But to say that the “average“ Michigan State student is as committed to academics as the average Michigan student is a wildly untrue claim.
And two posters above this, MSU admission requirements are tougher than they were but they are not tough, at all.
Retired from a Fortune 100 company a few years after getting my BSE ChE degree from UM in the mid 80s. The MSU grads at my company were top notch people, as were the UM and PSU, Ohio, etc. grads.
The difference is the bottom half at UM could easily have graduated from MSU with at least a 3.0, but some of the bottom half of MSU would have been better going to a directional (CMU, etc.) Michigan school.
I always felt welcome at MSU when visiting for games in the 80s. Friendly rivalry, some good natured ribbing, etc. I think the whole campus culture, even down to the student level, changed for the worse when Dicktonio had his 2008-2017 run vs. UM of 8-2. That seemed to inflame even friends of mine who were MSU grads to think they were somehow "equal" or even better than UM. Even when tunnel mauling happened, the "sane" MSU fans still wanted to blame two UM players for "skipping" into the tunnel. As if somehow, getting a BRIEF (once every 40 years) edge of UM football makes MSU a better "school"
Hopefully, a continued run of dominance will bring mainstream Spartan grads back to their "hey we're good but not UM good" mindset.
Meh, no need to worry about a little nihilism.
Send them to Western. Thank me later.
The Western Front, Vladmir? F-that.
MSU and Michigan Tech are 2A and 2B in my opinion. MSU is so large that they have many good opportunities, but one can also get lost there. They have to want to succeed to take advantage of it.
Assuming here that Kalamazoo College is not part of the discussion?
The answer to your question might depend upon his or her intended major. Michigan Tech is very highly regarded for most of their engineering technology academic programs. At very least, worth consideration if your comfortable with them going to school at a location that is relatively distant and remote to most of the population of Michigan.
She is removing Izzo and appointing Patrick Ewing for same position
Not a surprise given the ongoing clown show we've seen from this group over the years. We have a neighbor who is an MSU faculty member and even she said how poor the MSU B.O.T. is. It's hard to understand how incompetence can be institutionalized at that level, given how long it's gone on and how members have to be elected. But then again, look who we're talking about.
When you use your position to bad-mouth an interim MSU President, you have lost all credibility. Glad the state has a way to remove these two buffoons.
This is why I detest when POLITICAL party ends up being the determinant in who is on your school's BoT or BOR. No reason why all public state schools shouldn't have a governor appoint a trustee/regent, with approval from State Senate, and them limit them to ONE 8-year term. 1998 was a great year to run as a "R" in Michigan given Dems had nominated Fieger as Guv nominee. None other than future UM AD flunkee David Brandon got a job on our BOR.
I don’t follow Michigan State admin politics at all, but why would Gov. Whitmer get involved ? Ethical violations should be policed by the body that sets those standards. Gov. Whither is a Sparty and has no desire to make negative headlines. Maybe I am missing something? Bad politics.