Update: Monday 3:30 p.m.
MSU Spokesman Jason Cody responded to students' claims that MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon was supposed to be present at a discussion about campus racism on Friday.
President Simon absent from discussion on campus racism
International relations senior Florence Otaigbe addresses Assistant Vice President for Identity and Affinity Dr. Terrance Frazier at an open forum to discuss student concerns about campus racism on Friday.
Cody did not give specifics about where Simon was during the discussion, but said she never planned on being present.
"President Simon was never scheduled to be at that forum," Cody said. "She was at the one previously, she meet with students Wednesday at the Bill Clinton event, she has another meeting with students in her conference room on Nov. 30. She wasn't scheduled to be at the one this past Friday. This was an event put on by student affairs. It was a listening session so they could start to gather and collect the concerns of some of the member of our student body."
Students expecting to be met by President Lou Anna K. Simon at an open forum Friday were disappointed when she failed to make an appearance at the event purposed to discuss issues of racial discrimination at MSU and the demands of students from the Liberate MSU movement.
A "Black Out Day" protest occurred Nov. 18 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center during an event involving former President Bill Clinton.
The students, in an attempt to get a direct audience with Simon, joined arms and blocked staff and media from entering the room in which Clinton's speech was scheduled to take place.
Simon held a discussion with the "Black Out Day" protesters and eventually agreed to a meeting with a select number of students on a later date.
The students at the Nov. 20 event said they were led to believe by Simon she would be in attendance.
“It says that she (Simon) does not care about our problems. She didn’t hear anything we have to say. She did not support us in any way shape or form,” interior design senior Tierra Nelson said.
“It says that she doesn’t deserve to be president anymore because an effective presidency can honestly put a foot forward in the community and show that somebody cares.”
The forum was run by Vice President for Student Affairs and Services Dr. Denise Maybank and Assistant Vice President for Identity and Affinity Dr. Terrance Frazier.
“Her not being here makes us feel like she doesn’t care,” finance senior and Black Student Alliance President Myya Jones said. “She told us she was going to be here. We advertised to students to come out because she was going to be here supposedly, and for her to throw Dr. Frazier out here...is unfair."
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Political science junior Maisie Rodriguez Jr. also voiced her frustration and said she spotted Simon on campus earlier in the day.
“I actually saw her (President Simon) at 12:40 p.m. this afternoon in the Union chit chatting with her friend or whoever that was, they were having coffee,” Rodriguez said. “She’s not out of state or off campus. She just doesn’t want to talk to us because she would have to come to the fact that she laughed at the Black Out students. She doesn’t care.”
Simon did send out a memorandum addressing some of the issues voiced by protesters, but students were not satisfied.
Neither Maybank or Frazier could confirm Simon’s whereabouts. Despite students’ frustrations with Simon’s absence, the forum continued.
It began with discussion about a racist Snapchat post from a student at MSU.
Another student described her experience with white students writing racial slurs on her door.
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Students voiced that individuals responsible for offensive and racist acts should be held more accountable for their actions, with possibility of expulsion and discussed the need for timeliness when hate crimes are investigated.
The forum was scheduled until 5 p.m, but lasted until 6:30 p.m.
Maybank agreed to stay and speak with students regarding their demands until 7 p.m. She discussed the resources and plans that need to be made in order for the demands to be carried out. Maybank said that such demands were not impossible to achieve.
Students plan to meet with Simon to further discuss the issue in her office on Nov. 30 at 4:50 p.m.
A number of students expressed that if changes weren’t made by Simon and the administration they were going to create change themselves.
"Nothing is being done to make sure they (the demands) are met," humanities-prelaw junior Alexis Adams said.
"It’s frustrating because these are real experiences that not only myself, but a lot of students on this are going through."
