I never expected that this would need to be said, but please stop threatening to kill President Stanley. It’s not funny. It accomplishes nothing. And it cheapens the discourse.

He’s only been on the job thirty-six days, but President Samuel L. Stanley, Jr.’s life has been threatened twice.

President Stanley, who might be having some second thoughts regarding his new job right about now. Photo via MSU.

The first was early last week, when two shockingly stupid freshmen made it all of one day into their college careers before allegedly posting a “joke” about killing Stanley on the MSU subreddit. The boyfriend-and-girlfriend duo are now out on bail, facing charges of making a threat of terrorism and using a computer to commit a crime.

Then came today’s bomb threat. At 10:45 a.m.—about an hour after Stanley’s first Board of Trustees meeting ended—MSUPD received a call describing a threat to the Hannah Administration Building. The building was evacuated, and its occupants were allowed back inside about two hours later. Police are still investigating the incident.

I never expected that this would need to be said, but please stop threatening to kill President Stanley.

It’s Not Funny

A group of administrators and staff wait outside Hannah for clearance to go back in.

Look, I get it. Kids make mistakes. When I was seventeen, I tied a rooster to the porch of some guy who cheated on my friend so that it would wake/confuse him the next morning; that was kind of funny, and it was definitely dumb. But whatever, kids will be kids.

You know what’s a good deal less funny than that?

Terrorism.

If you want to make fun of Stanley, go for it. Let me tell you, some genuinely excellent memes have been made out of the man. But threatening violence against him—even “jokingly”—isn’t clever, funny, or smart; it’s messed up, and it’s unacceptable.

It Accomplishes Nothing

Then there’s the bomb threat, which was a hoax that was no joke. Given the timing of the threat (i.e., immediately after the Board of Trustees meeting and the day after the Department of Education fined MSU $4.5 million for failing to properly address Nassar’s and Strampel’s behavior), this person was clearly motivated by some level of outrage with the University.

But here’s the thing: All of the stuff that made this person mad are still here. MSU screwed up, and that’s something that we can (and should) talk about. But this stunt changed nothing.

All it did was scare a lot of innocent people and ruin a lot of folks’ days.

Some students who left class early due to the threat.

I spoke with one student who works in Hannah about how terrified she was when she was told to evacuate. She described a woman sprinting through the stairwell shouting, “We need to leave now! There’s a bomb threat!” She told me about how she started crying as she left her phone and wallet behind before running out of the building. And, still holding back tears nearly an hour after the incident, she couldn’t help but cast furtive glances at the building the whole time she talked to me.

What did she do to deserve that? And what did the hundreds of others in that building who probably had similar experiences do? What about the students who were just in Hannah to pay their tuition or get transcripts from the registrar? These aren’t even the people who did the things we’re upset about. They’re Spartans, just like us, who were terrorized for no good reason.

It also disrupted those in nearby buildings. Classes in the next-door Olds Hall were evacuated, and I saw many very nervous faces shuffling out. I talked to a few of the displaced students, and all of them were at a loss as to why they had to go through this; one said that he was leaving whether or not class was canceled because, in his (iconic) words, “slides are online.”

Even around 2:00, well after the building had been searched, I saw a young woman think long and hard about entering the building, clutching the door handle for a full fifteen seconds before nervously walking in.

And what was all that fear for? Nothing.

It Cheapens the Discourse

I understand being angry with MSU. I write and talk about it a lot. It gives me no great pleasure to stick up for a school that has failed its students the way MSU has. But violence (threatened or carried out) is not the way to air your grievance.

Take your issues to the ballot box. Last November, we managed to elect two trustees who I think are some of the students’ biggest allies on the Board. Trustees Joel Ferguson and Brian Mosallam are up for re-election in November 2020, and Spartans should vote for or against them based on their actions, words, and impact on our community.

Signs calling for the trustees’ resignations that were posted outside Hannah before this morning’s meeting.

You can protest if that’s more your style. I don’t love a lot of what Reclaim MSU does (and, for the record, I don’t think that it’s a great idea for five of the eight trustees to resign at once), but I love that they have the right to do it. The group has been a legitimate thorn in the Administration’s side since it began, and its members have actually accomplished some things (see, for example Engler’s resignation; compare with, for example, their utterly impractical policy proposal). But I was very happy to see that they had the decency to retweet a post saying, “Violence is not the answer to anything.”

Or write about your problems with Michigan State. Send your criticism to Stanley or the Board or whoever else you want. If it’s well-reasoned, I’ll let probably let you post it here, even if I disagree with it. But let’s fight our battles with words, not weapons. Whether an expression of violence is a joke, a hoax, or (God forbid) actually carried out, it has no place on the banks of the Red Cedar.

A note from MSUPD’s statement: “If you have any information related to the [bomb threat] incident, please contact the MSU Police Department at 517-355-2221 or you can submit a tip by texting MSUPD to CRIMES (274637) along with your message.”

Tyler Silvestri Tyler Silvestri is a third-year law student at MSU who received his bachelor’s degree in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy from MSU’s James Madison College in 2017. He spent one year as the Assistant Director of ASMSU’s Student Rights Advocates and two years as a Resident Assistant. He is the Chairperson of the University Committee on Academic Governance. He can be reached at Tyler@onthebanksmsu.com. See author's posts