Trustee Dorothy Gonzales is troubled and upset by a Friday morning closed-door meeting by MSU's Board of Trustees.
Gonzales was not present at the meeting because of a scheduling conflict. She spoke out Monday night against the decision to close the meeting in which trustees were briefed on MSU's budget.
"I have always believed that meeting of public organizations should be open to the public," Gonzales said in a written statement. "Rest assured that as long as I am a member of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, I will fight to keep the boardroom door open to the public and press, especially when critical decisions about the university's financial future are considered."
Her statement comes after an American Civil Liberties Union official and editorials by The State News and the Lansing State Journal criticized the closed session.
A 1999 state Supreme Court ruling allows governing boards at the state's three constitutionally created universities - MSU, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University - to ignore the state Open Meetings Act. The court ruled the Legislature can't tell those universities how to operate meetings of their governing boards.
Henry Silverman, president of the Lansing-area ACLU, said any other public body, such as a city council, would have been forced to open Friday's meeting.
"What they did was not illegal, but it was unwise," said Silverman, an MSU history professor emeritus. "It's dangerous. It makes people think there's something hiding there."
But some university officials, including President M. Peter McPherson and board Chairperson Don Nugent, said closed-door meetings are acceptable in certain circumstances, especially when opinions could get heated and dialogue could be misunderstood.
Trustee David Porteous would not comment on Gonzales' statement, but said both he and Trustee Dee Cook were unaware the meeting was not open to the public.
He said it's appropriate in some situations, such as purchasing land, reviewing legal documents and making personnel decisions, to have meetings behind closed doors.
Porteous said no one should worry about Friday's meeting because no decisions were made.
"I think that public entities are served by their meetings generally being opened," said Porteous, who said the board voluntarily tries to abide by the Open Meetings Act. "It also recognizes a number of instances when closed meetings are appropriate."
