The review adds some context to a murky saga that raised questions about the process behind the search that ultimately brought President Kevin Guskiewicz to MSU. 

The State News reported in March that the university's Office of Audit, Risk and Compliance was investigating Christina Brogdon, the former head of HR at MSU, over a whistleblower complaint filed against her. The revelation came days after Brogdon was terminated by MSU, though the university suggested at the time that her departure was unrelated to the alleged misconduct contained in the whistleblower complaint. 

Specifically, the complaint alleged that, in April 2023, Brogdon instructed a junior staffer to improperly pull specific MSU employee files, delete evidence she had done so, and keep her direct superior in the dark about that work. Furthermore, it suggested Brogdon facilitated the record snooping at the behest of then Board of Trustees Chair Rema Vassar and the university's presidential search committee, which was just underway.

Vassar, as well as Trustee Dennis Denno, who chaired the presidential search committee, both denied at the time having requested from Brogdon any information contained in employees' personnel files. The State News reported in April that Denno sought a "partnership" with Brogdon "on the presidential search" and communicated with her in the months leading up to the episode. 

The internal MSU review of the whistleblower complaint's allegations makes no discernible mention of any involvement by Vassar but does corroborate that it was connected to the presidential search committee's work.  

On or around April 24, 2023, the review says, Board of Trustees Secretary Stefan Fletcher called HR administrator Jacob Lathrop to provide him a list of "prospective members" of the presidential search committee and ask that their HR records be vetted for any "derogatory information."

Redactions obscure why, but Lathrop then contacted Brogdon about the instructions he'd gotten from Fletcher, "who replied that she would handle it."

The internal review doesn't detail exactly what happened next but acknowledges that Brogdon then delegated the work to a junior staffer, Courtney Hanneman.

While the review found that vetting personnel files of those proposed to be on the presidential search committee was permissible, it says the ways in which Brogdon instructed Hanneman to carry out the task were problematic.

For one, Hanneman, at Brogdon's direction, neglected to keep a record of the personnel files she was pulling in an internal HR tracking system — an issue raised in the whistleblower complaint. She also erred by pulling the files of MSU executives without requesting the information from the university's office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs. And Brogdon improperly instructed Hanneman to pull the files without a secondary "supervisory review," as is typical in proceedings of the sort. 

Brogdon was terminated by MSU in early March 2025 and could not be reached for this story. Hanneman is still employed by MSU, spokesperson Emily Guerrant confirmed.

In a statement to The State News, Hanneman said "I was put in a horrible position by people in power and having been a low-level employee at the time I complied because I love my job and am very good at it, so I was not going to argue with our Top leader and chance it." Hanneman also suggested she was put in a difficult position by the person who filed the whistleblower complaint against Brogdon, which implicated her, saying that person could have brought their concerns to Hanneman personally without involving university investigators.

Of the people whose personnel files Hanneman was instructed to scan, "all except two were subsequently on the presidential search committee as no derogatory information was located," the internal review said. None of those people's identities are disclosed.

About three days after Fletcher initially ordered the list of names be vetted for the presidential search committee, the internal review said, "Brogdon gave two additioal names to Lathrop to have Hanneman query, which he did." It's unclear who those people were.

The review's "investigative findings" section singles out one individual who was included on the list of people recommended for the presidential search committee, and apparently vetted by Hanneman, though a redaction obscures their identity.