Vassar and Balow will lose all non-essential privileges, including the revocation of complimentary tickets to athletic events, strict limits on travel reimbursement and suspensions from groundbreaking ceremonies, among other restrictions. 

The resolution passed 4-3, with trustees Dennis Denno, Balow and Vassar dissenting. Trustee Kelly Tebay Zemke was not in attendance for the meeting.

“Experts in higher education governance have stated that they're aware of no other university in the United States with the policies that mirror Michigan State University's combination of a mandatory signature deadline and automatic penalties for elected trustees,” Balow said of the revisions to the code.

Board chair Brianna Scott said that the board sought the opinion of outside legal counsel to ensure the revisions are constitutional.  

Balow called the revised code a “loyalty oath.”

The revised code of ethics bars trustees from publicly dissenting from majority decisions by MSU and the board in their official capacities. The new code was introduced during a special meeting on May 17 and passed in a 5-3 vote. 

Trustees were required to sign a statement of acknowledgement adhering to the revisions by May 24. Balow, Vassar and Denno initially did not sign, although Denno later signed the acknowledgment on May 26, two days after the deadline. 

“Any board member of a university or nonprofit has a similar duty of loyalty expectation,” trustee Renee Knake Jefferson said. “This is not a suppression of speech or dissent in any way. It means acting on behalf of the best interest of the university.”

Of the censure, Vassar said, “I’ve never voted to censure any of my colleges, I don’t think that is my role to police one and other.”

“When I became an elected board official, I did not give up my American right to freedom of speech,” Vassar said. “This is not really a governance question; it's a constitutional question, and it's not a moral question.”

Vassar and Balow had their credentials revoked from the Mackinac Policy Conference, falling in line with the code’s new policy of sanctioning board members that refused to sign the statement of acknowledgement.

Trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook rejected Vassar's claims of the code "policing" fellow trustees.

“I don't see this as us policing each other, I see this as a governing board governing itself," Bahar-Cook said.

“It is impossible if we have board members continuing to undermine majority decisions to stop us from moving forward,” Knake Jefferson said.

Vassar said the revisions to the code of ethics and conduct are reflective of “Trump-ian” policies and drew comparisons to the censorship policies of the McCarthy era. 

“What this board has done sets a dangerous precedent," Vassar said and later added. “Today it is me, tomorrow it could be anyone.”