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Students react to Board of Trustees lack of transparency on Stanley's contract

September 14, 2022
President Samuel L. Stanley alongside Trustee Kelly at the Michigan State University Board of Trustee's first meeting of the fall semester on Sep. 9, 2022.
President Samuel L. Stanley alongside Trustee Kelly at the Michigan State University Board of Trustee's first meeting of the fall semester on Sep. 9, 2022. —
Photo by Jack Patton | The State News

With varying information being released on the discussion over President Samuel L. Stanley Jr’s contract, students are left defeated and confused about what to believe is true.

It’s not just students that are frustrated. There are several student organizations and faculty members that have been demanding transparency and open communication from the MSU Board of Trustees.

However, many students, like game and interactive media senior Jordan Latta, haven’t heard any information on Stanley’s contract at all.

“Sounds like there’s just a lot of miscommunication going on; a lot of differences in understanding,” Latta said. “I think it's even more shady that information is passed around selectively, it seems.”

On social media apps like YikYak and Twitter, students are believing and spreading misinformation about Stanley actually being fired. Other MSU students, like business sophomore Holly Ebner, have seen various social media memes and vague misinformation about the situation.

“It was very surprising, it was like really sudden,” Ebner said. “It was something that I saw on Instagram on Sunday and was like, ‘Is this fake?’ Because it really came out of the blue.”

Political science sophomore Summer Adeyemi is frustrated on the lack of communication and awareness from Stanley himself.

“Why doesn’t Stanley come out and make a statement on this as well?” Adeyemi said. “He’s the one in the whole crossfires of all of this so I feel like we should be hearing from him. It’s just kind of ridiculous in the grand scheme of things.” 

Shocked after hearing the news, computer science freshman Sid Satish thinks that Stanley will resign and hopes that MSU will investigate further.

Many students also feel left out and behind on crucial information that should be coming from the MSU Board of Trustees.

“You just wish there’d be more transparency,” German senior Michael Kappe said. “It’s in people who are in charge's nature to keep it close to their chest before everything breaks loose … You go here. I go here. You wish that people running the place can be honest. It’s kind of a letdown when they don’t, but it’s not surprising.”

With the information rapidly exploding on social media accounts, information science sophomore Grady Frankhouse believes that students shouldn’t believe everything they see on the Internet.

“Like me that doesn’t know what happened, I don’t know if people should speak on him yet," Frankhouse said. "If you don’t know every single detail, don’t put your two cents into it.”

Business-preference freshman Jiwon Shin agrees and believes that students need to rethink their actions before speaking out about them.

“Before people raise the issue, they must consider whether it is appropriate and reconsider whether it has gone through the right reason and procedure,” Shin said in a text. “Opinions without evidence are just loose thinking and there are no limits to defining unnecessary assumptions.”

Following the resignation of two past presidents, MSU students believe that they deserve to be informed on important university information and are frustrated with how the MSU Board of Trustees has dealt with the lack of information revolving around Stanley.

“Since this has happened a lot with MSU presidents and the way that the whole university handles sexual misconduct cases, I hope that the Board of Trustees will figure out the proper way to handle it and the proper misplacement so this doesn’t keep happening,” journalism sophomore Sabrina Seldon said. “Because the fact that this keeps happening is pretty concerning for how big this university is.”

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