In an e-mail to campus leaders yesterday, Acting President Satish Udpa announced that the search for a new Associate Vice President for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance has failed. According to the message, the search committee responsible for filling the position determined that neither of the two finalists, Anthony Walesby and Rob Kent, had “all of the attributes the university needs at this time.”

In an e-mail to campus leaders yesterday, Acting President Satish Udpa announced that the search for a new Associate Vice President for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance has failed. According to the message, the search committee responsible for filling the position determined that neither of the two finalists, Anthony Walesby and Rob Kent, had “all of the attributes the university needs at this time.”

Photo via MSU Today.

The search committee selected nine candidates to be interviewed from a slate of more than 125 identified by search firm Isaacson, Miller. The committee further narrowed that pool down to Kent and Walesby, both of whom gave public presentations last month. But following those presentations, both finalists became the subjects of their own controversies.

Rob Kent. Photo via MSU.

Reporting revealed that Kent, who has been MSU’s Title IX head on an interim basis for nearly a year, oversaw a (still ongoing) Title IX investigation that has taken more than 450 days to complete. Claimant Hannah Smith says that despite being personally aware of her complaint that her professor sexually harassed her, Kent failed to adequately supervise Office of Institutional Equity investigators. Smith went nearly seven months without hearing from anyone at OIE until shortly after On the Banks provided the University a copy of Smith’s Office for Civil Rights complaint.

Because of that case and other alleged instances of improperly handling OIE investigations, some students and activist organization Reclaim MSU began publicly expressing doubts about Kent’s suitability for the job.

Anthony Walesby. Photo via Illinois State University.

But Anthony Walesby, who worked as the Title IX Coordinator at Illinois State University and the University of Michigan and was a Title IX investigator with the U.S. Department of Education, faced criticism too. After finding a 2013 article wherein a student accused Walesby of being cavalier about her sexual harassment claim, Reclaim MSU called Walesby’s alleged conduct “problematic.”

Acting President Satish Udpa.

Additionally, Udpa’s e-mail announcing the search’s failure made reference to the need for a candidate with “deeper experience with diversity, inclusion, bias and civil rights issues.” Walesby’s lack of specifics on anti-discrimination unrelated to Title IX is something that some (including me in my feedback form and audience members at his public presentation) drew attention to.

It’s not clear how or whether any of these factors influenced the search committee’s recommendation regarding either candidate.

The timeline for identifying new finalists is unclear. But given that a new MSU President is still expected to be appointed in June, the ultimate decision will likely be theirs. Kent has agreed to continue in the role.

According to MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant, “as of now, and as the University re-evaluates next steps,” the same firm is still running the search, which has cost the University $74,596.

In full, Acting President Udpa’s e-mail reads:

Leaders,

For the past several months, a group of our colleagues has worked tirelessly with national search firm Isaacson, Miller to identify candidates for the associate vice president for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance position. More than 125 candidates were considered. Nine applicants were selected for review, and two finalists made public presentations last month. Today, based on the recommendation of the search committee, I have made the decision to reopen the search after a short period of re-evaluation.

While each of the candidates we reviewed had strong skills and a commitment to this important work, the consensus of the search committee was we did not identify a candidate who possessed all of the attributes the university needs at this time. While relationship violence, sexual misconduct and Title IX compliance have been deservedly at the forefront in our community, we also need someone who has deeper experience with diversity, inclusion, bias and civil rights issues.

In the interim, Rob Kent has graciously agreed to continue serving as interim associate vice president.

Thank you.

Satish Udpa

Acting President

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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