Gupta violated MSU policy, but discipline against him was 'disproportionate,' report says

Former Michigan State University business school dean Sanjay Gupta violated the university's reporting policy by not reporting alleged sexual misconduct at a gala last spring, but personnel actions taken against him for that failure were "disproportionate," according to an outside report released late Friday night by the university.

The investigative report conducted by the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP law firm, released by the university late Friday, showed interim President Teresa Woodruff's treatment of Gupta over the matter ran counter to the university's discipline policy and differed from others who violated the mandatory reporting policy. Gupta resigned as dean amid pressure to do so from Woodruff.

MSU’s Discipline Policy states that in “certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to consider the faculty member’s record as a whole when contemplating the imposition of disciplinary action," according to the report.

“During her interview, however, Woodruff stated that she did not consider Gupta’s prior track record when he was disciplined,” the report says. “Gupta’s record as a whole might have weighed against such significant personnel actions. Prior to this incident, Gupta had never been investigated for violating the Reporting Protocol or the RVSM & Title IX Policy. During his interview, Gupta stated that he had diligently reported alleged misconduct that he learned about from potential claimants in at least two other incidents.”

Investigators also reviewed 19 cases between 2018-22 that included personnel actions taken in each case. There was no discipline imposed in eight of the cases. In nine of the cases, the respondent was either required to get verbal counseling or do additional training on the reporting policy, which is the same discipline recommended for Gupta by the Office of Institutional Equity.

"Because no one from OIE agreed to a live interview with Quinn Emanuel, the firm does not have insight into why OIE often recommends training for those who commit a mandatory reporting failure, or why those recommendations appear to be commonly accepted by those responsible for imposing discipline," the report says.

In the remaining two cases, one person received a verbal warning file for 12 months; the other received a three-day suspension.

“Several of the respondents in those cases claimed they did not understand that the Reporting Protocol required them to report third-hand information or information that others had already reported,” the report says. “None of the nineteen cases involved a dean-respondent.”

Of five violations Woodruff accused Gupta of related to the matter, the Quinn Emanuel report found only one to be accurate. Even that allegation — failure to report a business school leader who allegedly got intoxicated and acted inappropriately at an end-of-the-year gala last April — was questionable. It had been supported by Woodruff in part as a responsibility given Gupta's senior position, but the report concluded Gupta as dean had no extra duty to report outside of what's required of any other employee covered by the reporting policy.

Despite this, the report did not show "definitive evidence either supporting or disproving" that Woodruff was trying to eliminate Gupta as a presidential candidate when she gave him an employment review while she was the provost, a dominant narrative around Gupta's resignation as dean last August that is outlined in a lawsuit he filed in February against the president and other university officials.

"Woodruff stated that in evaluating Gupta’s actions, her 'primary goal' was 'zero tolerance,'" the report says. "She also stated that young women should be able to attend celebratory events without being harmed at MSU, and that the perpetrators should not be able to go to other institutions and repeat the behavior that MSU knew about."

The report documented recommendations for improving how the university handles Title IX complaints and investigations, including changing the policy Gupta was accused of violating policy that states university employees must "report relationship violence and sexual misconduct of which they become aware in their (professional) capacity." Gupta, who remains an accounting professor at MSU, took a $160,000 annual salary cut when he resigned as dean, according to his lawsuit.

"Gupta violated the Reporting Protocol in failing to report to (the Office of Institutional Equity) what he knew regarding the RVSM Respondent's alleged misconduct, but Quinn Emanuel reaches that conclusion based on facts and analysis that differ in material ways from Woodruff’s August 18 Letter," the report says.

In that letter, Woodruff told the board Gupta violated university policy, the report said. She told them he violated reporting protocol, failed to investigate alleged misconduct of then-Associate Dean Charles Hadlock at the gala, caused a two-month delay by not reporting the misconduct, failed to notify the Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (FASA) of the misconduct along with Hadlock's leave to retirement request, and failed to prevent a violation of outside work for pay policy.

In failing to report the Hadlock case, Gupta did not "act with bad intent or malice," the Quinn Emanuel review said. "In at least some of the prior cases where OIE found a mandatory reporting failure," the report says, "OIE took into consideration the respondent’s lack of malice or intent to violate the Reporting Protocol."

The report also opined that punishing Gupta for not taking actions that policies forbid — such as asking follow-up questions about the misconduct — or taking actions that are expressly delegated to others, such as the Office of Institutional Equity, "appears unfair and could create confusion within the university leadership as to which expectations to follow."

Gupta's lawyer, Nancy Temple, a partner in Chicago-based Katten & Temple, could not be reached for comment.

Report part of months-long Gupta saga

The findings and release of the report culminate a months-long saga at MSU that has cast questions over Woodruff's decision; stirred anger among the business school's students, faculty alumni and donors; prompted division among board members; and led to Gupta's lawsuit.

Gupta, who has been at MSU for 15 years, serving as the business school dean for seven years, alleged that Woodruff forced him to resign in August to eliminate him as a potential rival for the president's job after he told her during his review that he aspired to the position. At the time, Woodruff was MSU's provost and has since ascended to the interim presidency at MSU after former President Samuel Stanley left his post before his contract ended in October.

Gupta's resignation initially was explained as his failure to report Hadlock, though Gupta was not at the event and believed the incident was being reported by two other colleagues. Other reasons began to emerge after some noted that the university has inconsistently applied its mandatory reporting policy.

Woodruff has denied Gupta's allegation and said the work that led to the conclusion that Gupta failed to adhere to the university's policy to mandate reporting of sexual misconduct, created after the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. Woodruff said the decision was deliberate and not malicious. Through MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant, Woodruff has also said that when she first arrived in 2019 as the new provost, MSU had received an Office of Civil Rights report detailing MSU's failures to follow mandatory reporting requirements, so the school had stepped up its internal education and training.

Woodruff's controversial determinations prompted a majority of MSU's trustees to launch an independent investigation into Gupta's forced resignation as dean in August, along with the university's Title IX processes.

Business school leaders, alumni and others balked when it was leaked that a majority of the Board of Trustees were lobbying privately for Quinn Emanuel lawyers to deliver a verbal or PowerPoint presentation of their findings instead of a written report, despite calls for greater transparency on sexual assault and related issues in the wake of the Nassar scandal. But trustees voted 8-0 at their February meeting to release the report.

The report was released Friday on the university's website nearly two months after Gupta filed a lawsuit against Woodruff. It was also released despite political maneuvers inside the board room — by two trustees, The Detroit News reported — to stop its release, including suggestions that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could take steps to remove fellow trustees if they did.

The board posted a statement Friday night about the report on its website: "The Board of Trustees commissioned a review of the progress within MSU’s Title IX office as well as the circumstances surrounding the departure of Sanjay Gupta as dean. We are sharing the results of that review with the public today. This concludes our current engagement with Quinn Emanuel.  

"As we move forward, we will continue to have conversations with the university's administration in pursuit of our shared goal of creating the safest, healthiest, and most respectful environment for our students and employees. Any future action related to topics covered in the review will be handled by MSU's administrative leaders. We will not comment further on this matter."

Report pings Woodruff's findings, penalties

The report concluded that Gupta did violate the university’s reporting protocol by not reporting Hadlock’s alleged misconduct to the Office of Institutional Equity. But it differed from Woodruff’s conclusion in four other areas.

The report found Gupta was not required to ask follow-up questions about the misconduct; in fact, it found MSU’s policy barred him from doing so. It also found he was not required to report the allegations to Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (FASA) and that it was Office of Institutional Equity's failure to report it to FASA that resulted in a two-month delay in “implementing interim measures.”

The report also concluded there was no indication Gupta knew of Hadlock’s request for leave to retire, contrary to Woodruff’s conclusion, and that there was “insufficient basis” to hold Gupta responsible for Hadlock’s alleged violation of MSU's outside work for pay policy.

“… the administration argued that Gupta had higher responsibilities as a dean, and that his failure to act in accordance with those higher duties constituted leadership failures,” the report said. “However, while Woodruff had the authority to remove Gupta as dean for any lawful reason, including loss of confidence, the reporting protocol does not place greater expectations on certain mandatory reporters, such as deans, than on others.”

Gupta’s position as dean was at-will, and thus, he could be removed from his position by Woodruff and Stanley, but the decision had to be made jointly, the report said. Woodruff, according to the report, did not have unilateral authority to remove Gupta under university bylaws and under the terms of Gupta’s own dean contract.

“Woodruff appears to have consulted with Stanley several times about the decision, and Stanley made a statement expressing his support,” the report said. “However, Stanley declined an interview, and thus Quinn Emanuel cannot verify whether and to what extent Stanley participated in the decision.”

The report also concluded the university’s return of Gupta to the faculty without an endowed professorship was inconsistent with his contract. The university’s policy on the revocation of honors and awards, which was cited by MSU as the root of its authority to remove the endowment, was approved in 2021, six years after Gupta’s contract was entered, the report said.

Another policy on the discipline and dismissal of tenured faculty does not appear to have been considered, the university said. That policy “grants procedural safeguards and rights to faculty members who have achieved tenure and are facing major or minor discipline.”

As for Gupta’s mandatory training, another element of his punishment, the university, under its discipline and dismissal policy, allows for mandatory training, but it “appears the administration did not consider the applicability” of the procedure outlined in the discipline policy to mete out Gupta’s training, the report said.

The report also found, despite a 2015 decision-making the Office of Institutional Equity independent from other departments, both the Office of General Counsel and the Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs became involved when the equity office reconsidered its decision to close the investigation into Hadlock’s case.

The offices’ involvement so soon after Woodruff’s actions against Gupta raised “unanswered questions” regarding the reason for their interference, the report said.

“… the personnel actions taken against Gupta appear disproportionate, out of sequence with the underlying investigation, and based on a factual record that included errors and omissions of relevant information and context,” the report said.

“Moreover, some of these issues raise broader concerns about the Title IX investigative process itself, as well as the underlying policies under which MSU is operating.”

Broader recommendations for reporting policies

The report noted it used Gupta’s investigation as a case study in order to make recommendations for the university to increase the “clarity, efficiency, and equitable enforcement of its policies.”

The report recommended a “refining” of notification protocol, largely requiring the Office of Institutional Equity to notify the Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs within three business days of receiving a report against an employee. The recommendation also suggested considering whether there are times when an employee should report directly to FASA.

The report also suggested giving alleged violators of the reporting protocol the same due process that would be afforded to an alleged violator of Title IX. The scope of reporting protocol should be clarified as well, the report said, to improve training; to better define disciplinary protocol; to put a time frame on “prompt” responses; to state whether senior administrators are held to a higher standard; and to detail how far out the duty applies when it comes to employees who might have heard of something third-hand.

Among its other recommendations: any alleged violation of the reporting policy be incorporated into OIE’s interview reports and findings, and that the investigation into a reporting violation follows the underlying misconduct investigation. 

"While the Gupta investigation has received enormous public attention ... the issues the University should address extend beyond the Gupta matter itself," the report states.

The report also recommended clarification of policies related to revocations of honors and the discipline or dismissal of tenured faculty as well as the implementation of a policy requiring the communication of past Title IX violations of former employees to other universities or employers.

Among the recommendations were a policy to govern alcohol consumption at off-campus MSU-sponsored events and a requirement that two mandatory reporter employees are present at any MSU-sponsored event. 

kkozlowski@detroitnews.com

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