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| Photo by WXYZ.com |
Can the board be as naive as President Lou Anna Simon, who missed the point of her big bucks salary in her resignation letter ($750,000 a year, which she continues to receive as a tenured member of the faculty plus season tickets, don't forget), by choosing to whine about how picked on she was rather than recalling that her responsibility is to all who interact at the university and with its staff, not just fund raising and sports records.
Surely these elected board members where informed of their collective responsibilities to the university and its community members. Surely they understood going into their terms that they were indeed responsible to protect children from victimization by their own employees. Surely 260-and-counting victims of Larry Nassar (Michigan Radio reported yesterday that another 60 victims reported to Campus Police in January) would signal to them that it was time to honor the responsibility they held. Surely there was no doubt in their minds that something was wrong and children were at risk. Surely.
What could they have possibly been doing all of these years --- since the 1990s? --- OK, well, since 2015, when the reports finally captured attention and were treated as legitimate?
Ignoring their responsibility, collecting their season tickets, and circling their wagons around the president. Yup, that about sums it up. It's amazing to me that they haven't suffocated after all this time with their heads stuck so deeply in the sand of denial.
There are no words to fully express Larry Nassar's culpability here, but his criminality has finally been decided.
I have no doubt that there is a word that describes the selfish intent and indifference of Lou Anna Simon and the board --- Criminal.
The MSU Board of Trustees must go now.
