4 Wayne State board members vote to fire President Roy Wilson — but it may not stick

David Jesse | Detroit Free Press

The four Wayne State University board members feuding with President Roy Wilson voted to fire him at the end of a committee meeting Monday, but, like most items at the school, whether the vote was legal and binding depends on which side of the dispute is talking.

"There is no legitimacy to the rumor that the president has been fired," the university's administration said in a statement. "The claim that a vote was taken during an executive committee meeting of the board to dismiss the president is false and disingenuous. First, there was no executive committee scheduled and no executive committee agenda was established as required by university bylaws.

"Even had there been an executive committee meeting, any votes taken would need to be ratified in a public board meeting and five votes are required. President Wilson remains steadfast in his commitment to leading Wayne State."

It's unclear what will happen next.

"Just because he chooses to ignore the will of the board doesn’t make the vote any less effective. His defiance and disrespect for the board is par for the course, unfortunately," board member Sandra Hughes O'Brien said in an email to the Free Press.

Here are the facts: Wayne State's board held a health affairs subcommittee meeting Monday. Like other Michigan universities, that meeting was held behind closed doors. Michigan law allows Michigan's public universities to meet behind closed doors except in "formal" sessions, which have strict public notification requirements.

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Because there's been so much going on with the medical school, physician practice groups and other related issues, the entire board — except Bryan Barnhill, who was out of town — attended.

At the end of the meeting, board chairwoman Kim Trent opened a discussion about the recent Heart of Detroit scholarship that gives free tuition to high school graduates in the city of Detroit. When it was announced, board members who have been fighting Wilson for the past year said they were not briefed about the move and Wilson was overstepping his authority.

During that portion of the meeting, Michael Busuito, the leader of the anti-Wilson group, made a motion to fire Wilson.

Trent and fellow board members Marilyn Kelly and Mark Gaffney left the meeting then. They, along with Barnhill, have been supportive of Wilson.

Board bylaws say: "A quorum for business shall be five members of the board. Whenever any vacancy shall occur in the Board of Governors by reason of death, resignation or otherwise, a quorum for the transaction of business shall be a majority of the members of the board then in office. Unless otherwise required by law or by these bylaws, action requires a majority vote of the members in attendance at a duly constituted meeting."

Quorum squabbles

The board had quorum squabbles earlier this year. In the summer, the anti-Wilson forces skipped a board meeting dealing with tuition and the purchase of property related to the medical school. The pro-Wilson board members then counted Wilson as a member for purposes of a quorum and approved the measures. The anti-Wilson folks filed a lawsuit seeking an immediate blockage of those votes, but a judge turned that down. The lawsuit is still ongoing.

After the three members left on Monday, Busuito and fellow board members Hughes O'Brien, Dana Thompson and Anil Kumar voted to fire Wilson if he didn't resign.

Busuito then sent an email to Wilson saying he was done and to the police chief saying Wilson shouldn't be allowed back on campus. Wilson signed a five-year contract extension in December and has said repeatedly he isn't going anywhere.

Now comes the sticking point — did the firing actually occur?

Yes, the anti-Wilson board members said in a statement.

"At a Special Executive Committee meeting on November 4, 2019, called by Board Chair Kim Trent to discuss the Heart of Detroit tuition pledge, with seven of the eight board members present, a majority of the board approved a motion to terminate President M. Roy Wilson’s contract immediately unless he resigns by the end of the business day today November 5, 2019. Wayne State Police Chief Tony Holt has been informed of this decision and has been advised to work in consultation with General Counsel Louis Lessem’s office to implement the termination in accordance with the law.

"President M. Roy Wilson has until the end of the business day today, November 5, 2019, to resign or else his contract is terminated at that time. It’s time to put an end to this unfortunate chapter of nontransparent and unaccountable leadership and do what’s in the best interests of the university."

'No intention of stepping down'

Wilson doesn't think so.

“I’ve been advised by both the chair and vice chair of the Board of Governors to ignore Gov. Busuito’s note about termination, and I have no intention of stepping down. In fact, I’m more committed than ever," he said in a statement.

This is the latest chapter in an ongoing war on the board.

Trent, a contributor to the Free Press' opinion page who had no hand in this story, doesn't think so either.

"He (Wilson) is still a Wayne State employee," she told the Free Press. "He still is the president."

The latest chapters include an investigative report done after complaints filed with the Higher Learning Commission, the school's accrediting agency, found Hughes O'Brien had interfered with the day-to-day operations of the school. It said she tried to get employees fired and demanded that the school's responses to an NCAA issue be sent to her for review before going to the NCAA.

"What is missing in the public propaganda in support of President Roy Wilson is that he is an employee of the democratically elected Wayne State University Board of Governors," the trio wrote in its statement. "Wilson has acted like a dictator who rules the university by fiat rather than an employee subject to the authority of the board. Wilson’s lack of transparency, refusal to consult the board on major university issues and pitting board members against each other, has created the current turmoil at the university. It seems as though some in the service of Wilson and his faction are willing to twist the facts and deceive the public in protecting him at all costs. We will not be intimidated by any of their scare tactics and ignorant commentaries designed to hide the truth."

This is the latest in ongoing conflict on the board, including the lawsuit filed by those three board members against the other members of the board.

Much of the fighting has centered on the medical school, Wilson and plans to move the medical school's primary partnership from the Detroit Medical Center to Henry Ford Health Systems.

The board members who sued had previously helped kill a deal that would have transferred the WSU medical school's primary partnership. After board members squabbled over consultant fees and Wilson's intended direction for the medical school, Henry Ford withdrew a signed letter of intent for the partnership because of the turmoil.

The medical school and the DMC have feuded for more than a decade, and Wayne State, guided by Wilson, has sought to find a new partner. Wilson and his supporters have been upset with the level of funding the medical school was receiving from the DMC for research and medical education, something for which an oversight board also has knocked the DMC.

As part of the fight, University Pediatricians, a private care doctor's practice, left its primary partnership with Wayne State and moved to Central Michigan University.

In addition to opposing the Henry Ford deal, O'Brien, Busuito and Thompson blistered Wilson in March at a public meeting, calling Wilson unfit to serve and asking him to resign.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj