EAST LANSING — As Michigan State loses its president and athletic director, a “proud Spartan” has started a petition at Change.org demanding the resignation of Board of Trustees members.
The change.org petition, which has more than 4,000 signatures, calls for the resignation of board members Mike Balow, R-Plymouth, Rema Vassar, D-Detroit, and Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing.
“This petition is not driven by anger. It is driven by love for Michigan State University and a belief that we can do better,” Victoria Bell, who started the petition, wrote in the description. “If you believe Michigan State deserves accountable leadership, renewed stability, and a governing board that puts the university first, I ask you to add your name and join thousands of Spartans who are calling for change.
“I never thought I would find myself writing a petition calling for the resignation of members of Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees. But after years of controversy, dysfunction, and failed leadership, I believe enough is enough,” Bell added.
MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz will be leaving MSU to serve as Clemson University’s president, he announced on May 27, blaming board turmoil as part of the reason he is leaving. The timeline for his departure has not been finalized yet.
MSU athletic director J Batt on Monday, June 15, accepted the job as the University of Kentucky’s next AD.
The petition’s traction grew after MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo called on the university’s alumni base to “stand up.”
“I’ve had it. This is self-inflicted,” Izzo said on June 15. “We just lost the best president that may have ever been here, maybe. One of the best and there’s other dominoes that get affected when things go wrong like that. I’m very upset about it and I’m sick of it.”
The MSU Board also includes trustees Rebecca Bahar-Cook, Renee Knake Jefferson, Sandy Pierce, Brianna T. Scott and Kelly Tebay. The petition does not mention them or provide a reason why they are not targeted.
What happens if a trustee resigns?
If a trustee resigns from his or her seat, the sitting governor would appoint a replacement to complete the remainder of their term.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer most recently appointed Pierce, an executive at Huntington National Bank, to serve the remainder of former trustee Pat O’Keefe’s term.
O’Keefe resigned in November 2022, two years after he was elected, saying he did not trust the board any more after having concerns about Title IX reports. His term began in January 2021 and runs through December 2029.
Can trustees be removed?
Trustees can be removed from their position, but it happens very rarely. At present, the only option boards have to remove a member is to refer the matter to the governor.
In March 2024, the MSU Board of Trustees voted 6-2 to censure and refer misconduct allegations against Denno and Vassar to Whitmer, asking her to remove the two from their positions after a $2.4 million independent investigation found that both violated the university’s ethics code.
The report found that Vassar, who was sitting board chair at the time, accepted free tickets and travel on a donor’s plane for herself and her daughter, and met with former Dean Sanjay Gupta to settle a lawsuit following his forced resignation, among other issues. She has repeatedly said the report was flawed.
Denno was found to have been too involved in the review of the mass shooting on MSU’s campus Feb. 13, 2023.
More than a year later, Whitmer declined the request to remove the trustees, though “by no means indicates a condoning of the conduct alleged in the referral,” Whitmer’s Deputy Legal Counsel Amy Lishinski wrote in a letter to then-MSU board Chair Kelly Tebay.
Changes to legislation could be coming
After Guskiewicz announced his plans to leave MSU for Clemson, blaming trustee dissent and tension as one of the reasons, legislators pushed for a change in the state constitution regarding how board members are seated.
Michigan is one of just four states in the country that elects its university board members, seating the MSU, University of Michigan and Wayne State boards through a statewide vote.
A joint resolution gaining bipartisan support could get an item on the ballot for voters to decide whether the state constitution should be amended, aligning the three universities with the the state’s other 12, which seat trustees through an appointment process.
The joint resolution would need to pass with a two-thirds majority in both the house and senate before being placed on the ballot for the Michigan electorate to vote on. If the measure receives a majority, the Michigan Constitution would be amended.
Elected trustees could be recalled by citizen vote
If citizens wanted to put in the work for a recall on any specific candidate, signatures need to be collected from at least 25% of the number of electors from the most recent gubernatorial election, according to the Michigan Bar Journal.
During the 2022 gubernatorial election, more than 4.4 million votes were cast, meaning a trustee recall process would require more than 1.1 million valid signatures from registered voters.
Signatures must be collected within a 180-day period.
Contact Karly Graham at kgraham@lsj.com. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Change.org petition seeks MSU trustee resignations. Why that’s unlikely
Reporting by Karly Graham, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Karly Graham, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
