All of the emails are available, as redacted by MSU. There are few better ways to get a sense of the community’s outrage, the criticism Simon faced, and what she meant to faculty and staff throughout the University. In between the hundreds of criticisms, one can find words of admiration and even affection toward Simon.

On November 8, The Detroit News published an article detailing the community’s anger at former President Lou Anna Simon due to the Larry Nassar scandal. Reporter Kim Kozlowski used the Michigan Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than 1,600 emails to and from Simon; Kozlowski’s specific request was for “all communications of former President Lou Anna Simon that mention Larry Nassar or are Nassar related.”

Kozlowski characterized the emails sent to Simon this way:

Roughly half of the emails called for Simon to quit or be fired, with another 20 percent criticizing how she and MSU had handled the crisis. Another 20 percent expressed support, including pleas for Simon to stay on, while the remainder merely asked questions or thanked her.

The article then provided several samples of the messages Simon received, but did not include the full emails themselves. I thought it would be interesting to see all of the messages myself, so I made the same request of the University that Kozlowski did.

Michigan State’s FOIA office provided nearly 1,900 pages of emails. I haven’t reviewed all of them yet, but the 700 pages I’ve looked at paint a fascinating picture of the time surrounding Simon’s resignation back in January.

I highly recommend taking a look at some of the material. There are few better ways to get a sense of the community’s outrage, the criticism Simon faced, and what she meant to faculty and staff throughout the University. In between the hundreds of criticisms, one can find words of admiration and even affection toward Simon. I personally found emails expressing such sentiments from professors I’ve had.

You can read all of the emails MSU turned over, as redacted by the University. I hope you find them as illuminating as I did.

A special “thank you” is owed to Kim Kozlowski and The Detroit News for unearthing these emails.

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