https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/12/6_years_after_scolding_penn_st.html
Some excerpts:
Six years ago, Lou Anna K. Simon helped lead higher education's shaming of Penn State University over the Jerry Sandusky sexual-abuse controversy.
As chairwoman of the NCAA's executive committee, the Michigan State University president criticized Penn State's missteps as "purposeful and premeditated" and "pretty pervasive."
"The right thing is saying something when you see something and doing something after you said something. It's really that simple," Simon told the media in 2012.
If nothing else, many observers are struck by the rank hypocrisy of Simon's stern words about Penn State compared to her own actions regarding Nassar.
"She was the leading voice of scolding Penn State and the culture that led to it," said David Ridpath, associate professor of sports administration at Ohio University and the co-editor of Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics.
Yet even as Simon was criticizing Penn State, Ridpath said, "there was Nassar -- not hiding in plain sight. He was in plain sight."
From an institutional standpoint, Ridpath said, the Nassar scandal is actually worse than what happened at Penn State. Nassar was a MSU doctor abusing patients at a MSU clinic, while Sandusky was a retired coach whose victims had little relationship with the university.
"Just in sheer numbers, Nassar was worse, and there were many more checks and balances" that were violated in the Nassar case, Ridpath said.
John U. Bacon, a Michigan Radio sports commentator who has written about the Penn State scandal, said many in the Penn State community "took offense to (Simon's) high-handedness and self-righteousness" in 2012.
Simon "spared them nothing" in her criticism of Penn State, Bacon said. "She prided herself on standing in judgment."
But faced with a similar situation at Michigan State, "her take-away was the exact opposite of what she claims," Bacon said. "No transparency. Cooperating and opening the doors can only lead to trouble. Those seemed to be the lessons she learned."
There's long been skepticism about Simon's assertion that she knew very little about Nassar before 2016.
They point to her reputation as a top-down, hands-on administrator, and question how she could have been unaware a MSU doctor was seeing patients while under police investigation for sexual abuse.
"If she didn't know the details, it was her responsibility to find out the details," said Nellie Drew, an expert on sports law and Title IX and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Buffalo School of Law.
Said Bacon: "Her two choices are incompetence or corruption, and she's decided that incompetence is her best legal leg to stand on."
Even beyond the 2014 complaint, Simon has been criticized for her handling of the Nassar situation as victims came forward in fall 2016 and into 2017.
She also long resisted having an impartial investigation into the university's actions regarding Nassar. While MSU did hire an outside law firm to conduct an internal review, it was the same firm defending the university against Nassar lawsuits.
"Your own lawyer is never going to find you guilty," said John Manly, a California lawyer representing Nassar victims.
Manly said it was telling that Simon didn't order an independent investigation, "which was the one thing Penn State did right."
But then, Penn State's Freer report led to criminal charges against Spanier, the former Penn State president.
In 2017, Spanier was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment and sentenced to two months in jail. He is continuing to appeal his conviction and has yet to serve his sentence.
"I think Simon looked at the (Freer investigation) and thought, 'I'm not going to be the next Graham Spanier,'" Manly said.
"There's a belief in the superior importance of the institution," Manly said. "It's like, 'Look at all the good we do, and do we want to jeopardize these good works by damaging our reputation?' "
Drew agreed. "People's priorities become warped," she said. "It becomes about protecting the status quo, and not upsetting the apple cart."
The irony, Manly said, is that institutions don't face legal liability if they promptly respond to reports of wrongdoing.
"Liability only occurs if you do nothing," Manly said.
"If Michigan State had dealt with Nassar when the original reports were made in the 1990s, there would be no $500 million settlement, no one besides Nassar would be criminally charged, and hundreds of women wouldn't have been harmed."
As for Simon herself, if the evidence in her criminal case "is as described, she's in big legal trouble -- and she should be," Drew said.
"It's your campus, lady. Do your job," Drew added. "She had a responsibility to get to the bottom of this."
Ridpath said Simon and her lawyers haven't done her reputation any favors in their vehement denials of the criminal charges.
"I think her attitude and her lawyers' attitude is reprehensible," Ridpath said.
"This idea that investigators are 'torturing' her, that just adds to the tone deafness," he said, considering this is a case where hundreds of women have been sexually abused and suffering from physical and emotional trauma as a result.
He and others say part of Simon's legacy will be serving as a cautionary tale to other university administrators.
"I'm not a huge fan of the perp walk but it does send a message when someone like a Graham Spanier or a Lou Anna Simon got hauled off," Ridpath said. "If we actually end up seeing Lou Anna Simon in an orange jumpsuit, it tells others they need to have proper oversight of their institutions."
Some excerpts:
Six years ago, Lou Anna K. Simon helped lead higher education's shaming of Penn State University over the Jerry Sandusky sexual-abuse controversy.
As chairwoman of the NCAA's executive committee, the Michigan State University president criticized Penn State's missteps as "purposeful and premeditated" and "pretty pervasive."
"The right thing is saying something when you see something and doing something after you said something. It's really that simple," Simon told the media in 2012.
If nothing else, many observers are struck by the rank hypocrisy of Simon's stern words about Penn State compared to her own actions regarding Nassar.
"She was the leading voice of scolding Penn State and the culture that led to it," said David Ridpath, associate professor of sports administration at Ohio University and the co-editor of Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics.
Yet even as Simon was criticizing Penn State, Ridpath said, "there was Nassar -- not hiding in plain sight. He was in plain sight."
From an institutional standpoint, Ridpath said, the Nassar scandal is actually worse than what happened at Penn State. Nassar was a MSU doctor abusing patients at a MSU clinic, while Sandusky was a retired coach whose victims had little relationship with the university.
"Just in sheer numbers, Nassar was worse, and there were many more checks and balances" that were violated in the Nassar case, Ridpath said.
John U. Bacon, a Michigan Radio sports commentator who has written about the Penn State scandal, said many in the Penn State community "took offense to (Simon's) high-handedness and self-righteousness" in 2012.
Simon "spared them nothing" in her criticism of Penn State, Bacon said. "She prided herself on standing in judgment."
But faced with a similar situation at Michigan State, "her take-away was the exact opposite of what she claims," Bacon said. "No transparency. Cooperating and opening the doors can only lead to trouble. Those seemed to be the lessons she learned."
There's long been skepticism about Simon's assertion that she knew very little about Nassar before 2016.
They point to her reputation as a top-down, hands-on administrator, and question how she could have been unaware a MSU doctor was seeing patients while under police investigation for sexual abuse.
"If she didn't know the details, it was her responsibility to find out the details," said Nellie Drew, an expert on sports law and Title IX and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Buffalo School of Law.
Said Bacon: "Her two choices are incompetence or corruption, and she's decided that incompetence is her best legal leg to stand on."
Even beyond the 2014 complaint, Simon has been criticized for her handling of the Nassar situation as victims came forward in fall 2016 and into 2017.
She also long resisted having an impartial investigation into the university's actions regarding Nassar. While MSU did hire an outside law firm to conduct an internal review, it was the same firm defending the university against Nassar lawsuits.
"Your own lawyer is never going to find you guilty," said John Manly, a California lawyer representing Nassar victims.
Manly said it was telling that Simon didn't order an independent investigation, "which was the one thing Penn State did right."
But then, Penn State's Freer report led to criminal charges against Spanier, the former Penn State president.
In 2017, Spanier was convicted of a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment and sentenced to two months in jail. He is continuing to appeal his conviction and has yet to serve his sentence.
"I think Simon looked at the (Freer investigation) and thought, 'I'm not going to be the next Graham Spanier,'" Manly said.
"There's a belief in the superior importance of the institution," Manly said. "It's like, 'Look at all the good we do, and do we want to jeopardize these good works by damaging our reputation?' "
Drew agreed. "People's priorities become warped," she said. "It becomes about protecting the status quo, and not upsetting the apple cart."
The irony, Manly said, is that institutions don't face legal liability if they promptly respond to reports of wrongdoing.
"Liability only occurs if you do nothing," Manly said.
"If Michigan State had dealt with Nassar when the original reports were made in the 1990s, there would be no $500 million settlement, no one besides Nassar would be criminally charged, and hundreds of women wouldn't have been harmed."
As for Simon herself, if the evidence in her criminal case "is as described, she's in big legal trouble -- and she should be," Drew said.
"It's your campus, lady. Do your job," Drew added. "She had a responsibility to get to the bottom of this."
Ridpath said Simon and her lawyers haven't done her reputation any favors in their vehement denials of the criminal charges.
"I think her attitude and her lawyers' attitude is reprehensible," Ridpath said.
"This idea that investigators are 'torturing' her, that just adds to the tone deafness," he said, considering this is a case where hundreds of women have been sexually abused and suffering from physical and emotional trauma as a result.
He and others say part of Simon's legacy will be serving as a cautionary tale to other university administrators.
"I'm not a huge fan of the perp walk but it does send a message when someone like a Graham Spanier or a Lou Anna Simon got hauled off," Ridpath said. "If we actually end up seeing Lou Anna Simon in an orange jumpsuit, it tells others they need to have proper oversight of their institutions."
