The Associated Students of Michigan State University voted to allocate $25,000 to bring actor Terry Crews to campus for It’s On Us Week, a series of events in April dedicated to preventing campus sexual assault.

The Associated Students of Michigan State University voted 30-3-2 to allocate $25,000 to bring actor Terry Crews to campus for It’s On Us Week, a series of events in April dedicated to preventing campus sexual assault. The General Assembly allocated the funds following a letter from Eli Pales in which the former ASMSU Vice President for Governmental Affairs argued that money would be better spent on sexual assault survivors. Crews shared the piece on Twitter, commenting that his speaking fee was $100,000.

Crews—who testified in 2018 before the United States Senate’s Judiciary Committee about his sexual assault at the hands of an entertainment agent—later elaborated, seemingly failing to draw a distinction between MSU students and the Administration. “Speaking on behalf of sexual assault survivors: FREE[.] Speaking on behalf of a University that has routinely aided and abetted abusers: $100,000,” Crews wrote.

Terry Crews.

Photo via Gage Skidmore.

Following criticism, the actor clarified his point, noting, “I’m not criticizing the ASMSU student group. I support their cause. I was responding to an article by the student newspaper at MSU that gave the appearance that I was gouging the group. Many student groups have afforded my fee, [and] if they could not- I have reasonably adjusted.”

During the debate about the Bill, College of Business representative Olivia Long—who introduced the Bill—characterized Crews’s comments as a miscommunication. According to Long, Crews initially believed the University was trying to hire him in an effort to repair its brand in the wake of the Nassar scandal. “He’s apologized. We’re on the same page. He wants to come to MSU,” said Long.

ASMSU Chief of Staff Jack Person echoed this characterization, noting that the event’s organizers intended to pair Crews’s appearance with survivors of Nassar’s abuse.

Various ASMSU representatives emphasized the benefits of having a strong African-American man like Crews speak on issues of sexual assault. Justifications ranged from making it easier for similar men to talk about their abuse to potentially preventing future sexual assaults.

The logo for MSU’s It’s On Us. Photo via the group’s Facebook.

Other representatives criticized Pales’s letter. “It was based on misinformation . . . It was an uninformed piece, in my opinion, that did nothing to further the conversation of how we prevent sexual assault on campus,” said Benjamin Horne, a representative for Lyman Briggs College.

This is not the first time Crews has weighed in on MSU happenings. Crews called for then-Interim President John Engler to resign in January, and applauded Engler’s departure hours later, calling it “[a]ccountability in action.”

ASMSU’s contribution only makes up a portion of the $75,000 fee Crews’s agent quoted to ASMSU. Both the Residence Halls Association (a student group governing the residence halls) and Spartan Athletics (the University’s official athletics program) were reportedly set to allocate $25,000; Person clarified that RHA had not committed to any allocation, but the number “came up in conversations.”

Before the vote, Person told the ASMSU General Assembly that “as far as the other student groups involved are concerned . . . I’d like to clear up some misconceptions. Some of our partners are kind of looking to us to set the example . . . but there are some partners who are involved who are very interested in this.” Person noted that “UAB [the University Activities Board] has shown interest in partnering on the advertising end of things.”

RHA has indicated that their contribution is still subject to a vote by its General Assembly, which next meets on March 13.

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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