MSU trustee further embarrasses the university with tone-deaf comments

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As the horrific scandal involving sexual abuse from disgraced former doctor Larry Nassar continues to unfold, Michigan State University is scrambling from the fallout from the comments from one particular trustee.

Trustee Joel Ferguson, who also serves as vice chairman of the board, was adamant in his support for maligned university president Lou Anna K. Simon, who has come under severe scrutiny for her actions (or alleged lack thereof) during and after the sex abuse scandal came to light.

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The board as a whole supported Simon in her role as president of the university, aside from Mitch Lyons, who was the lone trustee calling for Simon’s resignation. She’s served as MSU’s president since 2003, and also serves as the chairwoman of the executive committee of the NCAA. 

“That will not happen. Period. She’s a fighter. Her overall, what she’s done for this university, she’s not going to get ran out of here by what someone else did,” Ferguson said on “Staudt on Sports,” a radio program on WVFN-AM (730). “I’ve been on the board for 30 years and she is by far the best president we’ve ever had.” 

But what followed reeked of absolute tone deafness and a complete lack of empathy or self-awareness. He not only said the board spent a mere 10 minutes discussing Simon, but completely brushing aside the scandal and said the school has more things going on than “just this Nassar thing”.

“The meeting we had the other day was five hours. And talking Lou Anna was 10 minutes,” he said, later saying: “We unanimously decided in that meeting right away … we were going to support her staying as president. 

“There’s so many more things going on at the university than just this Nassar thing.”

Ferguson then proceeded to gush about the improvements made to Breslin Center and Simon’s role in it – as well as enticing donors to give the university their money – as justification why she should remain at her post.

“I mean, when you go to the basketball game, you walk into the new Breslin, and the person who hustled and got all those major donors to give money was Lou Anna Simon,” Ferguson said. “There’s just so many things that make up being president at a university that keeps everything moving and everything right with the deans, everything at a school where we have a waiting list of students who want to come.”

Still not finished with placing his foot in his mouth, Ferguson chuckled when asked on whether the NCAA should investigate Michigan State as they did during the Penn State molestation scandal involving football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and said the situations aren’t the same due to the different sports involved.

“This is not Penn State,” he said. “They were dealing with their football program. … They’re smart enough to know they’re not competent to walk in here on this.”

Nassar plead guilty to 10 counts first-degree criminal sexual conduct and is facing 25 years to life in prison. Today is the sixth day of his sentencing hearing where several victim-impact statements continue to be made by young women whom he sexually abused.