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'We check every box in terms of failure': Trustee O'Keefe condemns state of Title IX at MSU

October 28, 2022
ASMSU President Jo Kovach speaks to Michigan State University Trustee Pat O'Keefe after the Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 28, 2022.
ASMSU President Jo Kovach speaks to Michigan State University Trustee Pat O'Keefe after the Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 28, 2022. —
Photo by Devin Anderson-Torrez | The State News

Among tense and emotional trustee comments at the Oct. 28 board meeting was Trustee Pat O’Keefe’s passionate remarks condemning the state of Title IX at MSU. In reference to the NCAA definition of lack of institutional control, he said, “We check every box in terms of failure.”

O’Keefe criticized the Faculty Senate’s resolution calling for the end of the board’s external investigation into the Title IX office and departure of former dean of the Broad College of Business Sanjay Gupta. 

“This vote and resolution to drop our investigations is a little bit like the fox telling the farmer not to fix the locks on the henhouse,” O’Keefe said. “We are asked to accept that the processes have improved because the fox is eating only four chickens instead of eight. Both are unacceptable.”

Referencing the number of reports in the Office of Institutional Equity, O’Keefe said it is easy to argue that MSU is an unsafe campus. 

“I am tired of reading about the sexual transgressions of the faculty, which are like reading "50 Shades of Grey" and are as long as "Gone with the Wind," without knowing what the outcomes are of such behavior,” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe defended the Title IX compliance investigation, saying that there are several weaknesses in the department. He said the responsibility of Title IX compliance falls solely on the president.

“This is about corralling the unchained sexual promiscuity of the faculty who seems to have unfettered access to our most vulnerable student population with little to no repercussions in some instances,” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe stressed the importance of handling cases of sexual assault on campus with a clear plan and improving the processes currently in place.

“We are not, as a board, going to get pregnant with the information and the sexual transgressions of the faculty without a plan to remove this excrement from this campus,” O’Keefe said.

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Concluding his comments with remarks on the impact of the Nassar sexual assault cases on campus culture, O’Keefe donned a hat with the phrase ‘No more Nassar.’ 

His statement is as follows:

“750 million growing to a billion dollars in 2030. As I told our deans, this is not our aspirational goal or annual research dollars. This is the cost of projected Nassar victim settlements by 2030. To think those resources we have lost due to faculty sexual transgressions and cover up has impacted our international research capabilities, our ability to attract talent. You know what comes to mind when I hear those numbers? No more Nassar. I see smart, articulate swimmers and divers who fight every meeting for reinstatement and the university tells them they have to be collateral damage for poor stewardship at this university, I respond no more Nassar. When I hear the anguish among our coaches who mentor and mold the Spartans of tomorrow, and they hear from the parents of recruits of the concern around the culture of this campus at MSU, I say no more Nassar. When alums don’t want to part with their hard-earned money to support the university’s research or athletic programs because of their concern that their dollars are going to be used to compensate victims with sexual transgressions with the faculty, I say no more Nassar.”

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