EAST LANSING - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will speak during the opening of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine's Grand Rapids Research Center later this month.

“You think about the DeVos family — the commitment they’ve made to the big vision in Grand Rapids, as well as active financial support for both the Secchia Center as well as the research building," said MSU President Lou Anna Simon on Friday following a Board of Trustees meeting.

"She’s been part of the Grand Rapids community before she was Secretary, she’s part of the Grand Rapids community now as a family that’s supporting us, she’ll be a part of the Grand Rapids community after she’s secretary.”

DeVos was a controversial figure in education circles prior to being confirmed as Secretary of Education following the election of President Donald Trump, largely for her work promoting charter schools and school vouchers, which can allow students to use taxpayer money at private and for-profit schools.

DeVos has made headlines since taking up her new role for her views on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination.

On Thursday, DeVos announced that she would reconsider the Obama administration's guidance on enforcing Title IX, saying current policies have failed stakeholders.

More:MSU dismissed King, Corley, Vance after Title IX investigation

More:What to know about Title IX

At the heart of the previous administration's changes was a far stronger focus on sexual assault and harassment as gender equity issues.

Caryl Sortwell, a professor and associate chair of the Department of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine at MSU's College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids, started a Change.Org petition asking MSU to uninvite DeVos.

As of Friday afternoon, it had more than 3,000 signatures.

"The Grand Rapids Research Center is the culmination of what we’ve been working toward since 2009," Sortwell said

If DeVos speaks, there will be protests, she said, "and it's sad that attention will be taken away by the selection of a controversial speaker. It's not what this day should be about."

While Sortwell and other faculty have been actively involved in the project's planning and programming, she said news of DeVos' invite came as a surprise. DeVos' actions as Secretary of Education — including her department recommending a $9.2 billion cut in federal education funding — conflict with MSU's mission as a public institution, Sortwell said.

"She really is the antithesis of someone who speaks on behalf of public education," said Sarah Kelly, a doctoral student in the Department of Translational Science and Molecular Medicine who is organizing a protest of DeVos' speech.

"We know that her family has donated millions of dollars to downtown Grand Rapids, this building in particular," she said, but added that donations shouldn't balance out proposed cuts that would affect schools across the country.

"I think Michigan State has an obligation to stand up for the schools that she doesn’t want to help out."

Richard and Helen DeVos, the in-laws of Betsy DeVos, donated $10 million in support of the Grand Rapids Research Center in 2016 and also contributed toward the Secchia Center, which headquarters MSU's College of Human Medicine.

The 162,800-square-foot, six story tall research building will debut during a ribbon- cutting ceremony Sept. 20. DeVos is set to speak alongside Lt. Governor Brian Calley and other university officials.

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