The Board of Trustees has not been transparent in their approach to the crisis occurring on MSU’s campus, nor have they been responsive to students’ requests for increased transparency. Despite this, ASMSU has thrown its support behind the board.

For the last few weeks on campus, students have gotten a close-up view of what it looks like when an administration fails. The Steering Committee brought student and faculty concerns to the Board of Trustees, which were ignored with the board’s hasty selection of John Engler as interim president. That decision is representative of the administration’s unwillingness to take student and faculty voices into account.

Through its support of the board, ASMSU has continued the cycle of ignoring student concerns in favor of the convenient answer. Students on campus are clearly dissatisfied by this state of affairs, and their activism represents clear policy goals. These policy goals cannot be achieved by the current administration.

Without the resignation of the current board, the needs and perspectives of the faculty and student body cannot be properly represented by campus administration. ASMSU’s decision to support Engler and the board has further undermined our trust in the university and silenced the voice of the MSU community.

Over the past two decades, MSU’s administration not only didn’t hear student voices, but it actively ignored them. We are well past the listening phase.