As Denno began brief remarks toward the end of Friday’s board meeting, Faculty Senators Jack Lipton, Justin St. Charles and Jamie Alan — who sit at a table across from the trustees — turned their chairs around to face away from him, and stared ahead looking unimpressed. 

"He turns his back on us, so we’re going to turn our backs on him," St. Charles told The State News following the meeting. 

Denno’s remarks included a message of thanks to President Kevin Guskiewicz for his leadership as well as to members of the law enforcement community, a dedication he routinely makes at board meetings. 

The protesting faculty senators — who are designated as "liaisons" to the board —  said their protest of Denno was in response to a pattern where he doesn’t attend meetings between the board and faculty representatives that are held on the Thursday before every board meeting. 

Trustee Mike Balow, in an interview with The State News, corroborated Denno's absences from the meetings since Balow joined the board in January. 

The faculty senators raised a concern over those absences in a letter sent to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in February, which they’ve now shared with The State News. A spokesperson for Whitmer did not return a call from The State News. 

That letter said Denno’s refusal to engage with faculty represents "gross neglect of duty," and therefore warrants his removal from office under a seldom-used Michigan law vesting the governor with such authority. 

It also calls for Trustee Rema Vassar’s removal from office for the same reason, saying she has either attended the meetings "only on Zoom with her camera off and not contributing to the discussion, or walking in and out of the room during the meeting, largely disregarding the business of the faculty." However, Wilson told The State News that Vassar did attend Thursday’s meeting between the board and faculty representatives and "asked a good question."

Vassar, in a written statement to The State News, denied that she has been disengaged in the meetings and said she has a "deep respect for faculty."

"My commitment to the University and my role as a Trustee is evident and at times has found me driving to a meeting during a storm and still joining via ZOOM," she said. "Real life happens. Sometimes people have to step out of meetings. Humanity and grace of one another and a united front to combat persistent attacks on Education is what we all need to prioritize in this moment."

Faculty Senator Alan, among those who protested Denno, told The State News the trustee’s absences from meetings with faculty are particularly indefensible now, amid a "critical time for MSU," referencing the flurry of Trump administration changes affecting the institution. 

"We need all the trustees at the table to engage all the constituent groups at this time," she said. 

Denno did not respond to texts and a call from The State News. 

A history of tension

Denno and Vassar’s alleged disengagement in the meetings began after the board, in March 2023, voted to take an outside law firm’s recommendation to censure them and refer them to Whitmer for potential removal from office due to findings of widespread misconduct, the faculty senators’ letter said. 

The Washington D.C. based law firm Miller and Chevalier was commissioned by MSU to investigate the board after The State News published an explosive letter from Trustee Brianna Scott alleging widespread misconduct by Vassar and calling for her removal. 

The investigators ultimately found that Vassar and Denno violated board bylaws by accepting gifts from donors, interfering in university lawsuits, and using students to orchestrate attacks against adversaries, among other things. Accordingly, Miller and Chevalier recommended that the board censure the trustees and refer them to Whitmer for potential removal — a suggestion the board voted in favor of. 

The faculty senate was wary of Vassar before the law firm got involved and corroborated many of Scott’s initial allegations. In fact, faculty members moved to filed a report in October 2023 with MSU’s accreditor, alerting it to issues raised in Scott’s letter that they believed could jeopardize its accreditation. (The university’s accreditation was ultimately recertified by the Higher Learning Commission in February.)

But after Miller and Chevalier completed its investigation, a markedly larger group of faculty members express disapproval of both Denno and Vassar: Last March, the academic congress — comprised of close to 1,500 faculty members — passed a resolution supporting removal of the trustees with 96% support. 

Still, discord between Denno and some faculty stems back even further than that. 

MSU deans and provosts, as well as the Faculty Senate, condemned the trustee in September 2023 after he suggested the board’s choice for a new president didn’t necessarily have to come from an "academic background" or be recommended by the presidential search committee. That committee was chaired by Denno and comprised of student, staff and faculty representatives.

Disapproval over a new trustee’s Denno defense

Lipton said that when he and other senators raised concerns about Denno’s absences to other board members on Thursday, Balow pushed back on them. 

In Lipton’s telling, Balow criticized the faculty senators for sending their letter to Whitmer about Denno’s absences, calling the action "unprofessional." He said he takes issue with that characterization, as Denno demonstrated true non-professionalism by not showing up to meetings. 

"Ultimately, having an additional trustee defend the absence of a colleague as justified is even more disturbing, because it shows that this is not a single individual, but a person who probably has multiple sympathetic ears on the board for his actions, which are unprofessional," Lipton said. 

Asked about Lipton’s claims, Balow generally doubled down on the sentiments and defended Denno. He said it was "childish" and "immature" for the faculty senators to send the letter to Whitmer. 

"If they have a personal beef with Trustee Denno or anyone else, there are ways to handle that rather than firing off letters and involving other people," he said. 

Balow also suggested that the faculty senators in question don’t necessarily represent faculty at large, and that Lipton may have been motivated by a personal grievance against Denno in signing onto the letter to Whitmer, noting Lipton’s defamation lawsuit against the board. (Lipton is suing the board over Vassar and Denno’s attempts to publicly label him as racist, among other things.)

Lipton pushed back on that characterization, saying "I was re-elected by the faculty as an at-large member well after filing suit against the board."

"As for the letter: The letter was endorsed by each person signing it. It was provided to the governor as further evidence of Trustee Denno’s intransigence even after censure and referral. My colleagues have their own minds and make their own choices."

Balow — who ran for trustee on a platform of transparency and open communication between the university’s leaders and constituents — defended Denno’s absence from the meetings between faculty members and the board. 

"What I would say is, I think all of us as trustees need to work hard to engage and everything, but when somebody is attacked personally, I do understand why there might be a personal issue with certain members of the faculty senate," he said. 

"I don’t want to condemn him for that."