Michigan State Faculty Senate calls on entire Board of Trustees to resign

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University's Faculty Senate called on the university's entire Board of Trustees to step down Tuesday.

A majority of Faculty Senate members present at its Feb. 20 meeting voted in favor of asking the trustees to resign. Forty members voted in favor of the measure, while seven voted against it, according to At-Large Steering Committee Chair Laura McCabe.

Faculty Senate is the representative body of the faculty at MSU, composed of 73 members from all of the university's colleges. Members overwhelmingly voted no confidence in trustees earlier this month. The vote was symbolic, as the Faculty Senate has no role in appointing trustees, who are elected by Michigan voters. The board was notified by email Tuesday.

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No specific reason was included in the Faculty Senate's email. An effort to specify that the request was being made over trustees' failure to stop abuses perpetrated by former university doctor Larry Nassar failed at the Feb. 20 meeting. Opponents argued there are myriad reasons why faculty members are dissatisfied with trustees. The board's handling of the Nassar case and the lack of faculty input prior to the appointment of interim President John Engler have been discussed previously .

Board Chair Brian Breslin didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. At the board's Feb. 16 meeting, Breslin said he would spend the remainder of his term working to rebuild the trust lost.

"I do believe what trust you don’t have in us, what confidence you don’t have in us, can be restored," he said.

Breslin continued, “I got into this because I thought I could give something back to my university and still believe I can.”

Breslin's tenure on the board ends Jan 1, 2019. He is not running for reelection

More: Breslin 'committed' to restoring trust, confidence in MSU Board of Trustees

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.