The MSU basketball's student section, known as the IZZONE, will participate in a "Teal Out" at Friday's basketball game, where every member will be wearing teal shirts, the color of sexual assault awareness.
The IZZONE leaders, MSU students, have also set up a GoFundMe with a goal of raising $1,500 to donate to the Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention Team of MSU and the Firecracker Foundation.
The event and the GoFundMe page were organized to raise awareness and show support for victims of sexual assault "in the wake of the university's failure to properly address sexual assault issues in the wake of the recent Nassar scandal."
“We (the IZZONE leaders) just felt that there had been a lot of negative light being shone upon the university," chemical engineering sophomore and IZZONE leader Nick Ignatoski said. "We just wanted to show that there are still people here that do support them and we just wanted to be a light, some type of positive news for the university, something fairly simple that we could do what we could to show our support.”
On Jan. 19, men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo declared his support for MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, who resigned as of Wednesday night.
"We're trying to just focus on supporting the survivors," Ignatoski said. "We're trying to avoid as best as we can any comments on the university or athletics in any way."
Before the game, the IZZONE will accept donations for foundations that support sexual assault survivors and will hand out teal shirts.
“We’d like to see support and participation from not just the IZZONE, but any fans that might be in attendance at the game. We invite them to wear teal as well," Ignatoski said.
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