During Friday’s meeting of the university Board of Trustees, however, Valerie Von Frank, who directs Parents of Sister Survivors Engage, lambasted the selection of Guidepost during the meeting’s public comment period. She called the process by which the university selected the firm “harmful and not trauma informed.” 

MSU first announced it was seeking outside bids to conduct the sweeping assessment in May 2025 and established an advisory board with prominent survivors of disgraced ex-MSU doctor Larry Nassar. Thursday’s announcement noted that the group had spent months seeking input from the “greater survivor community and stakeholders” in making its selection.

Von Frank, however, said there was little communication between the university and POSSE during the selection process.

“There’s been no communication over the last 11 months since one zoom invite and one East Lansing coffee shop invite, despite the fact that the vast majority of survivors do not live in the East Lansing area,” Von Frank said.

Von Frank said the decision to hand pick three survivors to participate in the selection process has “completely disregarded” and divided the suggestions and opinions of the wide array of survivors impacted.

In a press conference after the meeting, Guskiewicz said he “felt very comfortable with the process by which the firm was selected.”

“It was selected through a standardized procurement process with a number of other firms that had applied and sent in an RFP (Request for Proposals)” Guskiewicz said. “I’m confident that the individuals that have been selected to work with Guidepost, they were selected based on their own professional expertise.”

Von Frank demanded that MSU create an advisory panel which invites all interested survivors and task the panel to act as liaisons, “not merely participants in session,” between the university and Guidepost. She added that this advisory panel should be included in all communications with the firm that include drafts of assessments.

“The girls must see what the company reports and what edits MSU makes, because all trust was lost after 2014 and after the way the Nasser documents were released,” Von Frank said, referring to the long-secret documentation of the university’s response to the scandal.

Before the public comment portion of the meeting, Trustee Mike Balow commended POSSE, saying he doesn’t believe the assessment would have “ever gotten done without their continuing desire to hold MSU accountable.”

“This is something that we have to get right,” Balow said.

Guidepost, in its proposal to MSU, said making a report on its findings could cost up to $2.6 million and helping implement its recommendations could cost nearly $3 million.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story attributed a claim made by Von Frank that Guidepost had been hired by disgraced film director Harvey Weinstein to investigate people who were speaking to the press about his sexual misconduct. A private investigator who would later go on to work at Guidepost was approached by Weinstein to conduct that investigation, but did not go through with it. The State News regrets this error.