EAST LANSING — Michigan State University was named the most secretive public agency in the United States by the nation's largest organization of investigative journalists, recognizing what award committee chair Robert Cribb called MSU's "unrelenting commitment to ensuring transparency was avoided."

Investigative Reporters and Editors named MSU the winner of the Golden Padlock Award at its annual conference in Houston on Saturday.

"In our seven years of doing this, it is right up there with some of the most egregious contenders for this honor," said Cribb, an investigative and foreign affairs reporter at the Toronto Star.

University spokesperson Emily Guerrant declined to comment.

"MSU was nominated for keeping sweeping sexual assault scandals under tight wraps, including serial abuse by disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar and hundreds of student complaints against faculty, staff and students," IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix wrote in a May 28 letter to acting Michigan State President Satish Udpa.

Udpa did not respond to the letter or Haddix's invitation to attend IRE's annual awards luncheon.

Michigan State stood out to the awards committee because of the subject matter surrounding the secrecy — sex crimes committed by Nassar, a former MSU doctor who molested hundreds of women and girls under the guise of medical treatment — and the innovative techniques MSU officials used to block journalists' access to public records.

Cribb said one of the school's more inventive strategies was to sue ESPN in 2017 after the outlet filed a request for police reports involving student athletes. The case was dismissedfour months later.

"I don't know that we'd ever seen anything like that before," he said. "A preemptive lawsuit? I mean, that is outside-the-box thinking."

The Michigan Attorney General's Office also accused MSU of stonewalling its investigation into the school's response to Nassar's crimes. The university refused to release records to the State Journal about whether 38 of its top officials faced misconduct investigations. It fought to withhold names of athletes on campus until the state Supreme Court granted those records to ESPN in 2015.

Investigative Reporters and Editors' Golden Padlock Award is a way for journalists to hold public institutions accountable and elevate local and regional public records issues to a national audience, Cribb said.

"It is a very, very helpful and resonant way, we think, of giving Americans a very clear sense of the kinds of secrecy techniques that are alive and well in bureaucracies across the country that are ultimately depriving them of public information that they need to participate in democracy," he said.

University officials can plan on being confronted with the award on Friday during the university Board of Trustees meeting. MSU alumnus David Ware said he plans to bring up the award during the meeting's public comment session.

"Apparently the secrecy issue ultimately seems to be driven by the need for appearance, to maintain an image," Ware said. "In my opinion, the actions of the board of trustees and administration over the years have done exactly the opposite. They have increased the jeopardy that students face there and also have damaged the reputation of Michigan State University, as the padlock award shows."

More:Nassar scandal clogs FOIA office at Michigan State, impeding access to public information

Other 2019 finalists included:

Former Houston Mayoral Press Secretary Darian Ward, who won the Local Padlock award

Massachusetts Justice Officials

New York City Economic Development Corporation

Mine Safety and Health Administration

Former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange

Charleston County School District

Past award winners:

City of Atlanta, 2018

Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office and the U.S. EPA, 2017

Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016

Massachusetts State Police, 2015

The U.S. Navy FOIA Office, 2014

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, 2014

U.S. Border Patrol, 2013

Contact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.