The Michigan State University Board of Trustees wrap up their meeting at Hannah Administration Building in East Lansing, Michigan on Friday, April 10, 2026.
Sweeping changes to Michigan State University's Board of Trustees code of ethics and conduct that aim to restrict public dissension among members of the university's governing body will be subject to a vote Sunday night, following months of public disagreements among trustees.
Showing “loyalty” to Michigan State University in public settings will be required of trustees if the changes are approved, according to a document obtained by The State News.
According to the resolution, which has yet to be linked to the meeting’s agenda, trustees can no longer speak to the public in their individual capacities regarding disagreements with decisions made by a majority of the board.
Trustees will not be allowed to divulge “confidential” information to an “unauthorized person” before the information is made public, according to the document.
If the resolution is approved, trustees will need to sign a “statement of acknowledgement” within a week. If a trustee chooses not to sign it, they will be met with consequences such as being blocked from MSU events that don’t require them present in their formal board capacity, loss of tickets to games, loss of reimbursements and loss of university-funded legal representation, the document says.
The special meeting to approve these changes will be held tonight at 8 p.m. via Zoom. The board is also set to consider a personnel action, but it has not yet been publicly disclosed what that action will be.
A press release announcing the meeting was sent to The State News at 8 a.m., just 12 hours before the meeting start time, a rare occurrence for the board. Michigan’s Open Meetings Act generally requires at least 18 hours public notice for meetings, though state law gives universities broad authority to schedule special meetings.
"The MSU Board of Trustees complies with the spirit of the Open Meetings Act but is not subject to its provisions," MSU spokesperson Amber McCann wrote in an email to The State News early Sunday afternoon.
McCann told The Lansing State Journal that the meeting notice was posted at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night to the university's website.
The agenda does not yet include hyperlinks to any of the documents that the trustees will be reviewing, which are typically attached.
Past special meetings
The last time the board held a special meeting on a Sunday night was in March 2024, hours away from the start of President Kevin Guskiewicz' tenure. Prior to accepting the role of MSU's president, Guskiewicz wrote in a letter that he would only accept the job if he could lead "without undue interference" from the board.
The meeting was held to censure then-board chair Vassar and trustee Denno after a third party investigation verified allegations of misconduct, finding that the two trustees had violated multiple clauses within the board’s codes of ethics and conduct.
Trustee Brianna Scott was also censured after alleging the misconduct in a letter she sent to trustees. The letter sparked the investigation, which ultimately found that some, but not all, of Scott’s claims against Vassar were truthful.
Public disputes
In recent months, trustees have taken their concerns with the board's decisions public, often choosing to pen opinion pieces in major Michigan outlets.
In February, trustee Rema Vassar published an opinion essay in Bridge Michigan protesting MSU's decision to curtail its diversity, equity and inclusion programs in response to pressures from the Trump administration, which had failed to gain the legal backing to pause federal funding at universities that continued DEI initiatives.
“It’s time for MSU to reinstate everything it destroyed,” she wrote.
The op-ed was met with immediate pushback from other members of the board, including Guskiewicz, and university administrators, who said that the piece mischaracterized the efforts of the university.
"Like many on our leadership team, we were disappointed by the Op Ed," Guskiewicz said at the February board meeting.
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During the board’s April meeting, trustee Mike Balow said he and fellow trustees, Vassar and Dennis Denno, wanted a resolution to be added to the meeting, but that it was blocked by their colleagues.
The resolution would have heightened transparency for MSU’s for-profit athletics enterprise Spartan Media Ventures. It would have dictated that Spartan Media Ventures be subject to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act law and allowed trustees to view organizational documents without signing a nondisclosure agreement.
Following this, Balow and Denno cowrote an opinion piece in The Detroit News publicizing their frustrations.
If the changes to the board's code of ethics and conduct are approved Sunday night, outward expressions of dissent from trustees would be minimized.
