After more than a year of uncertainty, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has decided not to remove two Michigan State University trustees as requested by the board, The Lansing State Journal reported.
Michigan State’s Board of Trustees asked the Democratic governor to remove Rema Vassar and Dennis Denno last year after a university investigation found both trustees violated MSU’s code of conduct. The investigation determined that the pair had “created a fear of retaliation amongst administrators and other MSU personnel,” according to the report, which said they encouraged students to call a frequently critical faculty member a racist. Vassar also accepted gifts from donors, including flights and tickets to athletic events, the report said.
(Vassar and Denno are currently facing a lawsuit from the professor they allegedly targeted.)
The report also found the duo intended to “embarrass and terrify” former interim president Teresa Woodruff. The trustees have refuted most allegations and taken issue with the findings.
Both trustees were stripped of their duties by the board and Vassar stepped down as chair.
While Whitmer called Vassar and Denno’s actions “shameful,” she decided not to remove her fellow Democrats. (Trustees at Michigan State are elected, unlike at most institutions nationally.)
“The denial of the request by no means indicates a condoning of the conduct alleged in the referral,” Whitmer’s deputy legal counsel Amy Lishinski wrote in a letter to the MSU board obtained by the newspaper. “Rather, it only means that other considerations related to the Governor’s removal authority weigh against removal under these circumstances at this time.”
