To: Barbara Gellman-Danley, CEO, The Higher Learning Commission (MSU's Accreditor), The Michigan State House, The Michigan State Senate, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Suspend MSU's Accreditation Until ALL Past Abuse is Acknowledged & Remedied
The Higher Learning Commission's accreditation of Michigan State University suggests that MSU actually meets HLC's criteria at a high level. Recent events on campus, and the administration's cover-up of well-documented sexual abuse, demonstrate that MSU DOES NOT CURRENTLY MEET HLC accreditation criteria--with significant problems existing in every survey domain.
We therefore ask that HLC suspend MSU's Accredited Status until the university addresses all past instances of abuse and harassment on campus--including an instance in which MSU administrators silenced a group of students who were complaining about campus safety by threatening to out several of them as homosexual.
MSU has demonstrable failings in all 5 HLC assessment areas, and it demonstrates a complete failure on every "Core Component" of The HLC's Second Criterion, "Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct."
The below-signed believe that it is essential that HLC suspend MSU's accreditation until it acknowledges past cover-ups, fires the employees who were involved (including past MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon), and remedies every instance of harassment and abuse that was covered-up by the university's senior leadership. We believe that taking this action is necessary for HLC to maintain its credibility as a major accrediting agency whose first duty must always be to the public good.
Why is this important?
I started this petition because I have seen the corruption that exists at MSU first-hand. In the 1990s, I was part of a student government that attempted to raise the alarm regarding safety issues in the graduate dorm (these included a director who was trolling students for sex, insufficient night security that may have contributed to several sexual assaults within the building, and a Residence Life staff that failed to intervene in a student suicide attempt of which it had been warned). MSU responded viciously to our attempt to raise awareness--and a Vice President went so far as to threaten to out several of us as gay. Lou Anna Simon was Provost at the time, and she did nothing to stop this unethical conduct. I encourage signers of this petition to also sign and share the following, where one may read more on the topic: https://www.change.org/p/msu-still-ignores-its-past-abuse-of-gay-students-has-made-no-real-change-endtheabusemsu