Izzo's calls for "Spartan Nation" to stand up fueled existing public criticism of the trustees on social media, where students and alumni jointly championed petitions, mass email campaigns and spreadsheets doxxing trustees' personal information amid calls for the immediate resignation of members of the Board of Trustees.  

"I think it's very easy for some people to interpret that as a call to action, that they should take adverse action against people on the board," trustee Mike Balow said of Izzo’s comments.

Balow clarified that he did not want to speculate on who on the board Izzo was referring to.

"It's all of our responsibilities right now as leaders of this university to kind of lower the temperature," Balow said. 

Balow said that public pushback has gotten "really worse since Monday" and that he has "seen some pretty ugly emails that people have sent that are threatening in nature, and even racial hatred in nature, and it's very disappointing."

"It's kind of sad, disappointing and a sad state of affairs ... that people who say they love MSU would engage in behavior like that," Balow said.

Vice President of Communications and MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said that Izzo "didn't mention board members" but that "he just expressed frustration and talked about alumni being engaged, but he didn't even say a board member's name or the board as an entity."

"The university does not condone offensive or derogatory or disrespectful language and outreach against any member of our community," Guerrant said. 

Just last night, officers from the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety were dispatched to the homes and neighborhoods of trustees living in East Lansing, trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook told The Detroit News. 

In a statement to The State News, Guskiewicz and Board Chair Brianna Scott condemned the threats to trustees' safety, while allowing for public criticism. 

"We understand that elected officials will be subjected to public critique and criticism, and that at times it may be pointed, crass or even offensive. But no person should fear for their safety or be obligated to sacrifice their sense of security in exchange for holding public office," the statement read. "The MSU DPPS is fully engaged with members of the Board of Trustees to evaluate and respond to concerns, and we thank DPPS for their continued efforts to help ensure the safety of trustees, on and off campus."

Balow, trustees Rema Vassar and Dennis Denno have faced the brunt of the discourse, with a change.org petition to have all three trustees resign from the board gaining over 13,000 signatures. 

Balow, Denno and Vassar have pinned in the board majority, though Denno did sign the board's newly revised code of ethics and conduct, breaking that historical side.

The day of his departure announcement, Guskiewicz wrote in a May 27 letter to the community that "despite this discouraging behavior by a few trustees, I am appreciative of the five trustees" who signed the code. 

Guskiewicz also said divisions among the board created an "unsustainable situation" at MSU.

Balow rejected claims that trustees leaked confidential information and undermined the president as blame for Guskiewicz's departure, saying they were false. 

"People are obviously looking for someone to lay the immediate blame," Balow said. 

In a text message sent later to The State News, Balow also pushed back against the "narrative" that the outgoing president's plans were "thwarted." He pointed to the amount of resolutions passed by the board during Guskiewicz's tenure — the majority of which were passed unanimously. 

"Everything was going his way," Balow said. "Regardless of any board friction."

Vassar did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.