Failed Vassar ouster leads to emotional MSU board meeting filled with outbursts

East Lansing — A failed attempt to remove Rema Vassar as chair of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees on Friday led to a nearly four-hour, emotional board meeting filled with long speeches, audience outbursts and calls for order.

Trustee Dianne Byrum said she couldn't get three votes to bring a motion to the floor to remove Vassar as chair, while Vassar said she wouldn't resign. Trustee Brianna Scott choked up as she spoke of racist overtures she endured this past week after a seven-page letter she sent Sunday to trustees calling for Vassar's resignation became public.

The board agreed to have an outside investigator review the 10 allegations in Scott's letter instead of going with the in-house probe that board Vice Chair Dan Kelly announced Monday.

The emotional meeting came after Michigan State University’s Faculty Senate on Thursday voted to join the call for Vassar to step down, saying the school could risk its accreditation over her alleged conduct. But university officials said Friday it was premature to say what the risks might be. The university is scheduled to have its accreditation examined next year, with a comprehensive evaluation visit set for November 2024, according to the university.

Scott accused Vassar of violating the board's rules of conduct and ethics, and bullying board members and administrators. She urged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to intervene and remove Vassar if the chair didn't resign. Vassar, the first Black woman to chair the MSU board, responded two days later, calling the allegations "fabrications," "inuendos" and a "hit job."

On Friday, Vassar addressed numerous points of the letter, saying she was unaware of improprieties in some of them.

"I am looking for a review of my conduct because I am not aware of any policies I have violated," said Vassar, who made clear after the meeting that she isn't going to resign.

She said the allegation that she will not give her phone to investigators for review “is a lie," referring to an item in Scott’s letter that Vassar had yet to allow a forensic review of her phone in an investigation to determine if an MSU trustee had leaked to the media the identity of Brenda Tracy, the woman who accused former MSU football coach Mel Tucker of sexual misconduct.

Tracy attended Friday's board meeting but didn't speak.

"Wednesday, we were given a mandate around phones. Thursday, we all agreed to give our phones," Vassar said. "All of this before is a lie."

The board chair made several suggestions in response to Scott's letter, including the development of a travel policy on private jets for board members since there isn't one, guidelines for congratulatory ads since several board members have participated in such ads, and training for new trustees. She also called for a culture and climate assessment to figure out why so many controversies plague the board since the scandal involving serial predator Larry Nassar.

"Protracted, compounded persistent traumas have not been identified and healed," Vassar said. "We need an outside firm to provide a diagnosis, prognosis, treatment plan and progress monitoring to that we can not continue to have the same problems over and over again."

Scott responds

For her part, Scott spoke of the numerous efforts she undertook at MSU for the Black community, such as the campus' first Juneteenth celebration, but added that she represents all constituents. She then stated that she has endured threats of physical harm and racist remarks after the letter she wrote about Vassar became public.

"I am here for what is the best interests of Michigan State University," said Scott, who then choked up.

"The reason why nobody else wants to come forward and talk about everything in my letter is because what has happened to me over this last week: threats of physical harm to me, bullying, being called anti-Black, being called a house Negro, that I am playing plantation politics, that I am not Black," Scott said.

"You have no idea the stuff that has been said about me this week, and all I wanted to do to stand up for people who don't have a voice because they are so afraid to do what I have done, and that is to take the darts that have been aimed at me for standing up for what is right."

Had she not stood up, the Muskegon attorney said through tears, "We would continue this chaos, and I cannot watch it."

When Vassar was elected in January as board chair, she became the first Black woman to hold the leadership role when Scott cast the deciding vote. Ten months later, Scott wrote that if Vassar didn't resign, her removal should come from Whitmer, who appeared to call for a review of Scott's letter in a Monday statement and said the allegations are "deeply concerning" if true.

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Others in the MSU community have also called on Vassar to resign, including many MSU alumni, such as fellow Democrats U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Lansing and former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard.

Scott also insisted at Friday's meeting that no other trustee was involved in writing the letter. She added that there was no ulterior motive to call for Vassar's resignation in a bid to keep interim President Teresa Woodruff as president.

"We want what's best for the university," said Scott, as she teared up during her speech and insisted there were no lies in her letter. "To be silent is complicit. ... The only way to get through this is to have an investigation so this (expletive) can stop."

Trustees speak up

Others weighed in, including Byrum, a longtime trustee who acknowledged there was a proposed motion to remove Vassar as chair, but it didn't receive the three votes needed to get a motion on the agenda.

She noted that other issues were also at stake.

"We have a presidential search underway, and MSU will not be able to achieve a successful presidency and stable leadership that this university so desperately needs until and unless the board can correct its behavior," said Byrum, who on Sunday had backed Scott's letter and suggested perhaps a pause in the search might be appropriate.

The call for Vassar to resign came one month before MSU's board said it would introduce a candidate to hire as the new president in a bid to quell years of leadership turmoil following a succession of five top leaders since 2018. MSU also fired Tucker last month over the allegations of sexual misconduct.

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But when asked after the meeting whether the presidential search might be delayed due to this controversy, Trustee Dennis Denno, who is chairing the search committee, said, "Hell, no." The committee is on track to announce a presidential candidate by Thanksgiving, said Denno, who publicly backed Vassar after Scott's letter went public.

Kelly, the board's lone Republican who also chairs the board's Audit Risk and Compliance committee, said the allegations in Scott’s letter will be investigated by a third party.

“We will move forward with a complete and fair independent investigation of the allegations, not only contained in that letter but if there are any other allegations involving board members, violation of our code of ethics,” Kelly said. “We need to follow the rules. Otherwise, it’s chaos."

During the public comment period, several audience members spoke in support of Vassar. Black students also attended to show support for the board chair, with many of them taking a photo with her after the meeting.

In a letter read to the board and written by Ty'Rianna Leslie, president of the MSU Black Students' Alliance, she said calling Vassar a bully is antithetical to who the Detroit trustee is; she is about love.

"This is nothing but a diversion," Leslie wrote.

kkozlowski@detroitnews.com