Two Michigan State University trustees won’t be on Mackinac Island for the annual policy conference because the university revoked their credentials after the trustees refused to sign onto the board’s new Code of Ethics and Conduct.
The new code of conduct requires the eight trustees to sign onto a “Statement of Acknowledgement” and agree to follow the revised rules, which include agreeing to a “duty of loyalty” and supporting the majority decision of the board even if they disagree, according to the resolution approved by the board on May 17.
If the trustees refused to sign, the resolution said they would be met with sanctions, including being blocked from MSU events that don’t require them to be there in their formal board capacity ― such as the annual Mackinac Policy Conference that is sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber ― the loss of tickets to games, the loss of reimbursements and the loss of university-funded legal representation.
Trustees Mike Balow, R-Plymouth, and Rema Vassar, D-Detroit, said they are not on the island because they refused to sign onto the new conduct rules. Their nonrefundable tickets were booked months ago, Balow said, so the university will lose money by blocking them from attending on behalf of the university.
MSU spokesperson Amber McCann said she did not know how much the university spent on each individual trustee’s ticket and hotel room. The cost for members to attend the conference ranges from $3,500 to $4,000, with non-members paying $5,200, according to the Mackinac Policy Conference website. McCann said The Detroit News would have to file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how much money MSU spent.
Balow told The News on Tuesday that he would go to Mackinac Island on Wednesday.
Vassar said in a statement that she was refusing to sign the agreement because it impedes the oath of office she took when she became a statewide elected trustee.
“I did not sign the revised Code of Ethics and Conduct because the Michigan Constitution does not permit it,” Vassar said in a text. “Article XI, Section 1 is explicit: ‘No other oath, affirmation, or any religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust.’ I took my constitutional oath when I was elected by the people of Michigan. That is the oath I serve. No additional oath, affirmation, or loyalty pledge is constitutionally permissible. I will not sign one.”
Three trustees voted against the new ethics and conduct code ― Balow, Vassar and Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing. But Denno confirmed to The News on Tuesday that he signed the new policy.
Board Chair Brianna Scott, who co-wrote the resolution with MSU General Counsel Brian Quinn, said the revised code of conduct did not prevent trustees from “communicating their positions to the public, conducting necessary oversight, or asking tough questions in the pursuit of fulfilling our responsibility to the public and to MSU.”
Without the revised code of conduct, Scott said the university risked “reverting to a time when the antics and dysfunction of the Board regrettably took center stage.”
MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz was scheduled to appear on a panel titled “Workforce of Tomorrow: Aligning Education, Industry, Regions, and Policy,” but was replaced shortly before the conference by MSU Provost Laura Lee McIntyre.
The board approved a near doubling of Guskiewicz’s salary to $2 million a year at the same meeting where they approved the new code of conduct. Trustees Sandy Pierce and Scott said the increase – nearly double his salary – was because he’d received other job offers and they worried his “frustration” with the board may cause him to leave.
McCann said she wasn’t aware whether Guskiewicz had signaled his intentions to accept the increase and extended contract.
satwood@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: 2 MSU trustees punished after refusing to agree to new code of conduct
Reporting by Sarah Atwood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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