Next month, Engler enters his second year on the job as MSU's interim president following the resignation of longtime President Lou Anna K. Simon, who quit in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that hit the university.

The MSU Board of Trustees is undergoing a nationwide search for a permanent president. Engler, who was building a retirement home in Texas a year ago, has made clear he doesn't want the job.

Simon is now fighting criminal charges brought by a special prosecutor investigating how Nassar's serial abuse of gymnasts and athletes on a campus clinic could go undetected for two decades.

Since the departure of Simon and several members of her inner circle in MSU's executive ranks, Engler and his team have been putting in place new procedures for reporting and investigating allegations of sexual misconduct involving students, staff and faculty.

Starting this school year, all first-year and transfer students are required to complete an in-person sexual assault and relationship violence prevention program.

As details of Nassar's years of abuse became public in 2016 and during his court sentencing last winter, the number of sexual misconduct reports filed with MSU skyrocketed by nearly 500 percent.

The number of complaints was likely historically underreported, Engler said.

"There's an increase in people being willing to come forward," he said.

Drawing from lessons learned from the communication breakdowns involving multiple complaints about Nassar — who was a gymnastics sports doctor who worked for Michigan State and and the U.S. women's Olympic gymnastics team — MSU's new policies include new ways to reprimand or remove staff or faculty accused of sexual misconduct involving students, Engler said.

"We don't let the investigation drag on for months and not tell the dean of the college that Professor X is a problem," Engler said. "We say there's a complaint against Professor X, here's what it is. And it may be that Professor X was sending inappropriate email. They may or may not be violations of … sexual misconduct or sexual assault, but they may well violate just straight up the email policy. So he can be dealt with initially for that."

Engler likened the new way to discipline an accused professor to the way federal prosecutors were able to imprison Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone.

"Sort of like Al Capone for tax evasion, not for (murder) — I mean, crude example," Engler said. "But at least we get people involved earlier. So much of this is tone at the top. Not just the president or the provost, but what's the dean or department chair, what are they saying? And how are they acting when something's brought to their attention?"