The sister survivors were preparing themselves for another emotionally draining meeting of Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees when an agenda item was added to the schedule at the last minute: the board was set to vote on the “Authorization of Examination and Release of Certain Documents.”
Survivors of disgraced ex-MSU doctor Larry Nassar have continually called on the board to release the thousands of long-withheld documents relating to the university’s handling Nassar's sexual abuse. This morning, their requests were finally answered.
The trustees followed through in a unanimous vote to release the documents, ending the survivors' years-long battle for transparency.
“It's clear that (our voices have) had an impact,” Elizabeth Maurer, a sister survivor, said at a press conference after the board meeting ended. “Hearing the ‘yes’ was still just so surreal.”
The decision ends the board's heavily criticized, years-long withholding of the documents, which were sought by the attorney general in hopes of reopening her investigation into “how and why the university failed to protect students” from Nassar’s abuse for so long.
Attorney General Dana Nessel commended the decision Friday, saying she will be re-opening and expediting her investigation given the release.
But the sister survivors’ work doesn’t end here. Melissa Hudecz said they’ll be watching for MSU to conduct the release “the right way.”
“We're going to have to keep fighting for transparency,” Hudecz said.
When introducing the vote, trustee Dan Kelly said the documents would come with certain redactions to remove information subject to privacy laws or covered by “third-party confidentiality agreements.”
Maurer said she hopes MSU is careful to not redact “information of the important sort,” and instead protect survivors’ identities.
The board had also promised to go about the release in a “trauma-informed” manner — a goal survivors say has already gotten off on the wrong foot by not making survivors aware of the emotionally-heavy decision beforehand.
“I wish they would have reached out to us and let us know that there was going to be a vote,” Angelika Martinez-McGhee said. “They didn't do that.”
It was additionally disappointing, Martinez-McGhee said, that the meeting was held on Zoom instead of the usual in-person format.
“I'm happy we got the news that we did get today, but imagine if we could have done that all in the same room, and everyone could have spoken their truth,” Martinez-McGhee said. “We could have had that one piece of justice.”
While the survivors did speak during public comment, the virtual format didn’t allow them to show their faces. Danielle Moore, a survivor, said that prevented their message from fully coming across.
“I think putting a face to trauma helps others understand what trauma is for that individual, and helps increase empathy,” Moore said.
“That's something, when we go home, that's gonna weigh a little heavy on us,” Martinez-McGhee said.
The group emphasized that the dominant emotion was gratitude, and they thanked board chair Rema Vassar and trustee Dennis Denno for showing up in person to attend the meeting with survivors and student activists.
“I'm just waiting for the feeling of peace to hit,” Hudecz said. “We're not there yet.”
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