Michigan State University has announced a $2.4 million retirement deal for former MSU president Lou Anna Simon, who was forced out of office last year after MSU’s crippling sexual assault scandal. Simon stands charged with two felonies and is accused of lying to law enforcement officials about what she knew regarding the abuse of more than 150 women over nearly three decades. In addition to its three-year pay-out to Simon, the university will provide a generous benefits package, including medical and dental coverage, the title of “president emeritus,” continued access to football and basketball tickets and a commissioned portrait that will be displayed at the university (so long as she is not convicted).
Simon served as president of MSU from 2005 to 2018, receiving accolades as she grew the institution’s funding and enrollment. Simon’s being oblivious (or turning a blind eye) to an egregious pattern of criminal abuse during the entirety of her tenure has apparently been judged no reason for her to lose access to football tickets or top-flight dental coverage.
And, make no mistake, the behavior that unfolded on Simon’s watch was egregious. Dr. Lawrence Nassar, a university physician, was found guilty of sexual assault after the testimony of more than 100 young women, some of whom had been in his medical care under university auspices. Meanwhile, Michigan State has admitted to no wrongdoing, even as observers have asked how—despite three decades of documented abuse—the school ignored red flag after red flag.
Indeed, former MSU athletes insist that as early as the 1990s they had reported Nassar’s sexual abuse to university officials. In 2014, a formal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse was conducted—only to rule that Nassar’s actions were “not of a sexual nature.” In the wake of the 2018 conviction, critics have questioned how it was possible for the university to make no response to those earlier documented complaints. All of this would seem to suggest that Simon deserves opprobrium rather than millions in lovely parting gifts.
And yet, getting a pass for being asleep at the switch seems pretty much the norm when it comes to leaders at America’s colleges. Take this spring’s “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, in which the FBI implicated nearly a dozen prestigious colleges in a scandal that included bribery, cheating and record falsification. Participating parents and the sleaze-merchants who orchestrated this scheme are being prosecuted, and the occasional crew coach has been fired.
The administrators and college presidents who blithely presided over this corruption? They’ve gotten off scot-free. That comes on the heels of college leaders standing inert in the face of steadily rising tuition, and enabling student efforts to bully scholarly speakers, local businesses and even their own faculty.
For all the talk of corporate responsibility, given the hefty salaries pulled down by executives, we too rarely hear the same when it comes to generously compensated college leaders. Setting aside the nation’s deep-pocketed private institutions, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, presidents of 17 public universities and university systems pocketed more than a million dollars in compensation during 2018. The president of the University of Texas system made more than $2.5 million, the president of Pennsylvania State University at University Park made $1.89 million and the president of the University of Kentucky made just over $1.5 million.
Polling reports that Americans—on the left and right alike—have developed a healthy distrust in higher education. Three-quarters of Republicans think that “higher education is headed in the wrong direction,” with 79% of those citing concerns about professors bringing their political views into the classroom, and 75% worried that colleges are impinging on student speech rights. Meanwhile, more than half of Democrats similarly say that higher education is off track, with 92% of those expressing grave concerns about ever-rising tuition costs. All of these frustrations can, of course, be traced in part to management that too often seems more focused on revenues, rankings and moral posturing than on putting its house in order.
What we’ve wound up with is a higher education industry whose richly compensated leaders routinely lecture Americans about their failings, even as they demand more and more public support. Yet, this whole charade repeatedly plays out against a backdrop of unaccountable, absentee management—of which Simon is just one more troubling example. The real surprise would be if the nation were not losing faith in higher education.
