Trustee Faylene Owen, spent $26,319, on a 10-day trip, to Germany to see the men’s basketball team play Connecticut last year.

$26,319. That’s more than an entire year’s tuition for the average in-state student.

Owen, and the rest of the Board of Trustees, went too far in their lavish spending from university investment accounts.

Although it is expected that trustees be reimbursed for travel for fundraising and other business trips, spending up to $1,275 a night for a hotel room simply is outrageous.

Trustees Owen and Joel Ferguson’s defense of their out-of-control spending is insulting to the students working multiple jobs to pay for their education. True, trustees don’t dip into general funds for the trips and the money spent does not mean an increase in tuition. That’s no reason to blow such a large chunk of money to see athletic events.

Maybe it’s time to find other uses for the tens of thousands of dollars the university is raking in from investment accounts. It’s unfair that money that could be used for on-campus resources or even scholarships for students was spent for then-Trustee Melanie Foster’s husband to go with her on a 10-day trip to South Africa, although nine months later she repaid the university after learning about the WXYZ report.

We seriously question Owen’s argument that her trip to Germany would “be worth many multiples of the cost of the trip.” Whether or not that is true, as public officials the trustees should have to explain exactly how spending $68,000 to see athletic events last year helped students.

It’s extremely unsettling that Ferguson called WXYZ’s efforts to let students know about trustee spending a “cheap shot.” There’s nothing “cheap” about the amount of money these public officials use, seemingly without concern. And there’s nothing unreasonable about holding public officials accountable for the money they spend.

Neither Board Vice Chairperson Brian Breslin or trustees Mitch Lyons, Diann Woodard or Dianne Byrum could be reached for comment as of Monday. Although it’s encouraging to see Lyons’ comments to MLive calling the spending “excessive,” we also question the amount of money he spent going to the Big Ten football championship game in Indianapolis and MSU’s 2011 basketball game against North Carolina on an aircraft carrier, which he admitted to in an interview with MLive. Details of the total cost of those trips were not immediately available as of press time.

And it’s hard to believe Trustee George Perles did not know about the WXYZ report when The State News reached him for comment on Sunday. If he truly was ignorant about the report, that’s cause for concern as well. The trustees must step up to the plate and answer for their actions.

Even more troubling, trustee members are responsible for approving and setting limits on the amount of money they spend on travel. Unfortunately, trustees have made no changes since 1985 to a policy giving them seemingly unlimited access to funds for expenses.

The trustees have proven they are not responsible enough to sensibly spend money allotted for travel. Hopefully someone on the board is willing to take a stand against this practice and amend the current policy to limit spending. Considering their past failures at self-policing and several members’ refusal to acknowledge that their spending was overzealous, this seems unlikely.

If trustees are incapable of setting limits for themselves, it’s time for state legislators to step in and hold trustees responsible for the mismanagement of tens of thousands of dollars.

Someone needs to hold them accountable and stand up for the students they are supposed to serve.

Editor’s note: Staff representative Celeste Bott did not contribute to this edit because she was involved with news coverage on this issue.