What a difference a year makes.
Beginning with a Title IX investigation that found MSU at fault, and ending with the closing of the Women’s Lounge in compliance with Title IX, MSU has changed in both massive and minuscule ways since the class of 2019 stepped foot on campus. As a new class takes up the mantle of freshman at the beginning of another calendar year, students and staff alike can look towards their future by learning from their past.
Sexual assault investigation wraps up
On Sept. 1, 2015, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, found that MSU had mishandled multiple sexual assault cases and failed to resolve two cases timely enough in accordance to OCR mandates. It also found that the university did not investigate a sexual harassment claim against a sexual assault counselor who was fired four years later after additional complaints. The OCR also found that MSU had not adequately notified its students on the name and title of the Title IX coordinator, an individual whom students may report sexual assault complaints to.
MSU has enacted several changes in wake of the OCR report, including amending policy, expanding Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence, or SARV, E-learning and the recently founded Office of Institutional Equity, or OIE, appointing Jessica Norris as the new Title IX coordinator later in the year. Norris said the OIE has had an immense impact on improving MSU’s handling of sexual assault cases.
“The increase in staffing and resources has been substantial, and has allowed MSU to be able to complete investigations in a much more timely manner,” Norris said. “(We are) making sure we have the staff in place to ensure we are meeting OCR guidelines for our investigations.”
The OIE launched a new Title IX website on Aug. 22, providing a single place for students to make reports, find information and make use of resources. Norris said the OIE will release an annual report in late September to assess its status, which will be widely available to MSU students.
“I believe that we have taken all the steps to make the necessary adjustments to our investigation and response process such that we would not be in the same position as we were in the past,” Norris said.
Women’s Lounge closes
In July, University of Michigan-Flint professor Mark Perry filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights against MSU that claimed the Women’s Lounge in the Union was a violation of Title IX and other civil rights laws, as it remained a gender-exclusive space in a publicly funded institution.
Many students were upset to find that MSU announced they had plans to convert the women’s lounge immediately after, though MSU spokesman Jason Cody said the decision was not the result of any individual’s complaints. Cody said MSU never received any notification of a Department of Civil Rights complaint being filed, but Perry had raised concerns to the university earlier.
Norris said while MSU had received many complaints regarding the lounge in recent years, Perry’s was the straw that broke the camel’s back and made the university decide change was necessary.
“The university did not respond to the complaint of one person in making that decision, it was really based on the history over the past several years of complaints being received and concerns being voiced, not only from men but also students raising concerns about the space from the transgender community as well,” Norris said. “We want to ensure that we are providing equal access to the space, but we also want to make sure that space is safe from harassment and discrimination.”
Norris said conversations regarding the renovations began in late May, with President Lou Anna K. Simon reviewing the situation after Perry expressed concerns to the university. Norris said the final decision likely came from the top down, and was made after consulting with legal personnel who determined that the space was indeed in violation of Title IX.
Norris said the lounge has reopened as a space available to both women and men, but many who used or supported the idea of the lounge as a women’s space are currently protesting the move.
“As a female student here on campus, this lounge was essential to my success my freshman year,” zoology sophomore Alyssa Maturen said in a previous article by The State News. Maturen started a petition on change.org titled “Allowing women on Michigan State’s campus to have a safe lounge to study in,” which now has more than 5,000 signatures.
“It was the one place I felt I could go and truly relax, not to mention I was able to focus way better when among fellow women as I was not being approached by male students,” Maturen said.
Football drops in rankings
After beginning last year’s football season ranked fifth in the 2015 AP Preseason Poll and ascending all the way to No. 2 during play, the Spartans have fallen to 12th place in this year’s preseason poll. MSU finished with a No. 6 ranking after falling to Alabama 38-0 in the Cotton Bowl, and will hope to prove their critics wrong when play begins against the Furman Paladins on Sept. 2.
Tobacco ban goes into effect
Tobacco use on MSU’s campus went up in smoke on Aug. 15. After the Board of Trustees voted to ban the use of all tobacco products, including cigarettes, chewing tobacco and vaporizers on June 17, 2015, MSU spent the summer between spring 2016 and fall 2016 preparing to convert campus into a smoke-free zone. More than 400 cement ashtrays have been removed by Landscape Services or are in the process of removal.
Tobacco use on campus is now a civil infraction conferring a fine of $150, but MSU spokesman Jason Cody said MSU police will not be actively enforcing the ban and won’t seek to give out tickets to students.
“This is going to be a sustained educational effort to try to create a healthier campus culture. ... We are not looking at this process through an enforcement lens, but rather an educational one,” Cody said in a previous article with The State News. “That said, with any ordinance that’s on the books here, of course there’s going to be enforcement mechanisms.”
Student Government sets priorities looking ahead
Both Associated Students of Michigan State University, or ASMSU, and the Council of Graduate Students, COGS, underwent regime changes late in the spring. International relations junior Lorenzo Santavicca and graduate student Dee Jordan have assumed the presidency of their respective organizations, and each have their own ideas and goals for the coming year.
Santavicca said he plans to focus his efforts on student engagement during his tenure as ASMSU president. His three areas of focus for ASMSU are outreach, resources and advocacy. He hopes to encourage the student body to get involved with the political process by promoting voter registration, expand the ASMSU bike share program, and advocate on behalf of students on the issues of college affordability, health and wellness, and others.
Jordan, the first black student to become president of COGS, said the council’s main goal is for their full council to represent as many programs and departments as possible.
“The primary goal for COGS this year is to have a complete ‘full council,’ meaning that we have representation from all departments and programs,” Jordan said. “We’ve had some departments that are historically unrepresented.”
Jordan has undertaken meetings with department chairs and program directors over summer to encourage involvement in COGS and emphasize the importance of representation in the full council. She said that every meeting she’s attended has yielded a representative for that program or department, and orientations the organization has held have drummed up significant interest towards getting involved.
“Only when we’re completely full and unified can we have a complete picture of the landscape for graduate and professional students, and when that’s done we can do our best advocacy,” Jordan said.
