Michigan State’s Independent Voice
MLK DAY ISSUE
THE MAN WHO BROUGHT KING TO MSU R
obert L. Green keeps datebooks going all the way back to the 1950s. They are all stored in a safe place, but there is one that sits in his desk inside his Las Vegas home. It is marked April 4, 1968. The entry reads, “King dead. Martin shot in Memphis.” Green received a call that afternoon from Jean Young, the wife of Andrew Young, the executive director of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and future Ambassador to the United Nations. Jean told him she was on her way to Martin and Coretta Scott King’s home after Coretta called her with the news that her husband was shot. “She went to the house, I got a call, and she said, ‘Martin is dead.’ And my heart sank. I was very sad,” Green said. Green was then an assistant professor at Michigan State, with dual appointments to the School of Education and James Madison College. He had just gotten back from 14 months as the education director at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC, as one of King’s top lieutenants. But his interactions with King are only a small part of his story.
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ENGLER RESIGNATION READ MORE IN THE MSU PRESIDENTIAL UPDATE INSERT T HU R S DAY, JA N UA RY 17, 2 019
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Witnesses describe sexual harassment by Michigan State medical resident
BY ANNA LIZ NICHOLS ANICHOLS@STATENEWS.COM
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT ACTIONS. Two witnesses spoke about their experiences of alleged sexual harassment by Michigan State medical resident Michael Phinn. On several occasions he allegedly masturbated in front of them, sent photos of his penis and groped them. The preliminary hearing took place Jan. 15 in 54B District Court in East Lansing, where Judge Richard Ball heard the witnesses — who both worked at the MSU Clinical Center with Phinn — talk about their experiences with Phinn. Ball denied bond for Phinn. Phinn is accused of sending women texts containing photos of his penis and forcing women to watch him masturbate. He is charged with 14 counts regarding allegations of sexual assault committed at the MSU Clinical Center. He faces one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, or CSC; five counts of seconddegree CSC; one count of assault with intent to commit sexual contact; two counts of gross indecency; four counts of aggravated indecent exposure; and one count indecent exposure. Phinn has a medical license, according to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. No formal complaints have been documented. Phinn’s defense showed the first witness their text correspondence on the MSU HealthTeam portal with Phinn. This portal, called “Athena,”
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Michael Phinn, an MSU medical resident, walks out of the court on a recess during a preliminary hearing at 54B District Court Jan. 15. PHOTO BY ANNTANINNA BIONDO.
allows doctors to communicate with staff and patients but also has an informal chat feature. In one text conversation on Athena, Phinn told the witness he had been checking out her butt. The witness said she knew he had been looking. “You’re welcome, glad I could brighten your day,” said the witness in text. On one occasion, Phinn called the witness into an exam room adjacent to her office for help. When she walked in, his pants were down. The witness said Phinn masturbated in front of her, finishing onto the exam table. When the witness attempted to get a lock for the door that connected her office to the exam room, she said her supervisor said it was
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unnecessary and she should put a file cabinet in front of the door, which she did. According to the witness, the harassment continued. Phinn allegedly tried to isolate her, wanting her to go on walks with him. She said she tried to “blow him off.” Between August and September 2018, Phinn attempted to force his hand down her pants several times, the witness said. He also sent her photos of his penis, which she told him to stop doing both over message and in person. The second witness, Phinn’s healthcare assistant, echoed a similar sentiment. “I didn’t want to go to work because every time I went to work, he was always at my desk,”
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the witness told the judge. “I could not lose my job, I have two kids, I can’t lose my job. I was always so scared I was going to lose my job. He would find me and put me in situations where I always thought I would.” Between June and December 2017 the witness was assigned to work with Phinn. She said he sexually assaulted her several times. On one occasion, the witness went to a stairwell in the Clinical Center to escape the stress of work. In the stairwell Phinn pulled out his penis and then forced his hand into her pants, feeling her vagina. Phinn also sent sexually explicit pictures through Snapchat. The second witness said on another occasion Phinn was talking about a case where a girl was removed from life support after hanging herself. The witness had someone in her life hang themselves and she said Phinn knew that. While telling her the details of the case, the witness said Phinn massaged her shoulders, working his hands down to her breasts. He didn’t have permission to touch her, the witness said. Once the witnesses realized they both experienced similar events with Phinn, the first witness said they went together to tell their boss, who then notified the police. They both also filed Office of Institutional Equity reports within minutes of each other. Phinn was bound over to 30th Circuit Court, but no date is set for his next appearance. Reporter Karly Graham contributed reporting.
Vol. 109 | No. 15
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2019
“I’m thinking about how I’m going to move, how I’m going to set things up,” Caffey said. “If my reaction time is good enough, all of those things will just follow through.”
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Redshirt freshman 149-pounder Jaden Enriquez, left, rests after losing his match while redshirt freshman 184-pounder Cameron Caffey waits for his match to begin on Jan. 11, 2019 at Jenison Field House. Caffey went on to lose his match, which concluded the meet with MSU losing to Illinois 18-15. PHOTO BY NIC ANTAYA.
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IN THE COMMUNITY
IN TODAY’S PAPER
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Community-wide events for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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Meet MSU’s first black rodeo queen Animal science junior Khalilah Smith is royalty in the rodeo circuit
From marches to ceremonies, find an event near you
Intersectionality and the Women’s March
seventh in 15 MSU Big Ten for women head coaches
A column from photo editor Anntaninna Biondo addresses the importance of inclusion in feminism
Six of 13 women’s sports at MSU have women coaches
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One copy of this newspaper is available free of charge to any member of the MSU community. Additional copies $0.75 at the business office only. Copyright © 2018 State News Inc., East Lansing, Michigan THUR SDAY, JANUARY 17, 2019
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in the community BY KARLY GRAHAM KGRAHAM@STATENEWS.COM
Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21 is approaching quickly, and Michigan State University’s campus and the City of East Lansing will hold events honoring the civil rights icon. Here are some events to attend for the holiday week. Sunday, Jan. 20
Jazz faculty members at MSU’s College of Music will host and perform two concerts the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The annual celebration of King’s life will include a tribute to Aretha Franklin. The shows will be held at 3 and 7 p.m. at Fairchild Theatre, although the 3 p.m. show is at capacity. Those interested in attending can obtain their required-but-free ticket from MSU Jazz Studies.
Monday, Jan. 21
A March for Justice will take place on MSU’s campus, from the Kellogg Center to Beaumont Tower starting at 3:15 p.m. and ending at 4:15 p.m. The march advocates for civil and human rights. Groups can register online. At noon, the Residence Halls Association will screen “The Hate U Give” at Wells Hall in room B115. The movie will also be screened during that time via webcast through Zoom. The film follows a teenage girl after she witnesses a police officer shoot and kill her best friend. A luncheon honoring King will take place at 11 a.m. at the Lansing Center. This is the 34th annual luncheon put on by the Greater Lansing Area Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission. This year’s theme is “Be the Change You Wish to See in the World.” Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder — the first African-American to be elected governor in U.S. history — will be the keynote speaker. “Learn Before You Speak: An Interactive Service Event” will take place between 11 a.m.
https://asia.isp.msu.edu/academics/fellowships-scholarships/sc-lee-awards/
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and 2:30 p.m. at the Kellogg Center in Centennial Rooms A, B and C. Attendees can learn more about refugees and immigration and will have the opportunity to participate in an on-site service project benefiting Lansing’s Cristo Rey Community Center. A Student Leadership Conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room Big Ten A at the Kellogg Center. Students can demonstrate their leadership abilities through various mediums, all surrounding the theme of King’s life. The MSU Museum will have social justice exhibits on display, including Under One Sky: Global Connection in an Adire Quilt; On the Job in Abomey: Portraits of Working People in Benin; and War and Speech: Propaganda, Patriotism and Dissent in the Great War.
Tuesday, Jan. 22
The East Lansing Public Library will host a Black History 101 Mobile Museum from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the second year in a row. The program’s founder, Khalid el-Hakim, will give a lecture at 1 p.m. The collection contains over 7,000 artifacts regarding slavery, politics, Jim Crow, science, civil rights and more.
Wednesday, Jan. 25
The second annual Social Justice Art Festival will take place at noon at Snyder-Phillips Hall, where Ariana Brown will give a keynote speech. The event is hosted by the university’s James Madison College and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.
Summer career-building programs at MSU get $160,000 boost from USDA
LEFT: High school students visit Lansing’s Bancroft Park in summer 2018. PHOTO COURTESY OF MSU’S DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY.
BY CLAIRE MOORE CMOORE@STATENEWS.COM
Concerns about recruiting students into natural sciences industries are being addressed at MSU through a $160,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant — given to MSU’s Department of Forestry and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, or CANR — will partially fund career-building summer programs for high school students. Phillip Seaborn, assistant director of CANR Undergraduate Diversity, said it was imperative to recruit more young students for an industry that could be ravaged by climate change and economic shifts in the future. “Within the next 30 to 40 years we can expect unprecedented challenges related to agriculture and natural resources,” Seaborn said in a press release. “As solutions are developed, it is critical that teams are representative of the populations being served.” The goal of the program is to give students hands-on experiences in forestry or other environmental disciplines and recruit them to pursue the same discipline in college. The funds impact MSU’s Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program, or MSP, a program authorized under the federal Agricultural Act of 2014. The Obama-era program, known as the Farm Bill, allows MSP money to “expand agricultural professional development opportuni-
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BELOW: MSU Forestry graduate student Alex White talks with Forestry professor Asia Dowtin, a MAP mentor. PHOTO COURTESY OF MSU’S DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY.
ties along with (increasing) the number, quality and diversity of qualified graduates” entering the workforce. The first phase of the grant started in summer 2018. A chunk of the money went into MSU’s Multicultural Apprenticeship Program, or MAP. MAP is a four-week summer program held at MSU. In July and August 2018, it allowed five high school students pursuing environmental science and forestry disciplines to get career advice from MSU faculty members. MSP Project Director Justin Kunkle said the Department of Forestry and CANR took a “really collaborative approach” with the program.
“The field of forestry is new to a lot of students, but in particular students that grow up in urban areas,” Kunkle said. “Kind of the first step in the grant program was to provide the students with exposure in an immersive experience.” Faculty, post-docs and graduate students worked with high school students on business days. Their work included studies in botany, soil science, how to engage with a community and data analysis. In their down time, MAP students attended seminars, went on field trips and were given lessons in SAT preparation, financial stability and and how to apply for financial aid. Students were also paired with faculty advisers
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to work on their own research projects.. “Some of this material might’ve been out of their comfort zone,” Kunkle said. “Most of our students actually came from the city of Detroit, so being out in the forest and being exposed to all these new things was an eye-opening and challenging experience for them.” But diversifying their industries is the whole point of the programs, Kunkle and Seaborn said. The USDA grant enables those opportunities. “Programs and opportunities such as MAP and MSP are excellent ways to begin developing diverse talent today to tackle the problems of tomorrow,” Seaborn said.
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After removal, prayer ribbons for survivors will remain for now BY RILEY MURDOCK
RMURDOCK@STATENEWS.COM
Last spring, mothers of Larry Nassar survivors began tying small prayer ribbons to a hawthorn tree outside Wills House, which contains the office of former MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. Each ribbon featured the name of a Nassar survivor, and students were encouraged to write a message on the back. However, the mothers were dismayed when the ribbons were removed not once, but twice, without any explanation. The second time they were removed, pieces of cut ribbon could be seen around the tree, said Valerie von Frank, mother of Nassar survivor Grace French. “It was very upsetting for all of us, because the bows, the ribbons, everything that has our girls’ names on them comes to represent our girls to us,” von Frank said. “I know that it takes time to untie them, but had we been asked, we would have been able to open a discussion. And we weren’t consulted or asked or notified that they were coming down. They were just cut.” MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander previously helped facilitate a ceremony in July where bows were removed from campus trees to prevent an infestation of gypsy moths. The parents and student allies were the only ones who physically removed the ribbons. Auslander again helped the mothers open dialogue with the university about the Wills House ribbons, von Frank said. MSU Spokesperson Emily Guerrant said the university does have a policy about putting
things on trees, and facilities staff is trained to follow policy. Because of what happened with the bows last summer, there might’ve been a misunderstanding among facilities staff, who may have removed them, Guerrant said. Once the university understood and was able to speak to the parents through Auslander, and all parties including the facilities team were on the same page, a collective agreement was reached: The ribbons could stay up for as long as they weren’t posing any type of threat to the trees. The tree was examined last week and there was no current threat, Guerrant said. “We respect the right of the family members and the survivors to communicate and put the ribbons up,” Guerrant said. “We’re just also grateful for the opportunity to work together with them in protecting the trees on campus.” Auslander said the ribbons might pose a threat in the event of an ice storm or when the tree begins to bloom, but if that happens, the mothers will be asked to take them down in a similar ceremony to the bows. Faculty, administration and landscaping staff believe the families of survivors should, whenever possible, be allowed to do what they think is important to honor the survivors, he said. “Everybody wants to make sure the mothers are able to honor all survivors, but at the same time we protect the trees, which everybody loves, including the mothers,” Auslander said. Von Frank and Beth Esch, the mother of Nassar survivor Amanda Cormier, agreed they would
Two ribbons read “MEGAN FARNSWORTH” and “SKYLER COOMER” on the Hawthorn tree outside of the Wills House on Jan. 15. PHOTO BY ANNIE BARKER.
like the ribbons to remain up at least until the opening of the MSU Museum’s survivors exhibit. “One of our plans, or hopes, would be that when the museum opens our exhibit, that maybe something that we do with the survivors is go and gather around the tree and take them down at that time,” Esch said. Von Frank and Esch are part of a Facebook group called Parents of Sister Survivors Engage, or POSSE. A statement released by the group requests the ribbons to remain up until MSU takes further action, including quickly reinstating the Healing Assistance Fund, releasing 177 documents requested by the Attorney General’s investigation and “funding healing workshops coordinated through the MSU Museum.” “These are our girls, our daughters, and they’re meant to be up there so MSU and the president can’t just put this behind and say, ‘Well, we’ve written a check, now it’s all over,’” von Frank said. When people see the ribbons, von Frank said she hopes they take a minute to remember survivors and become more conscious about what they can do to be involved. She hopes the ribbons serve as a reminder that the work is not done and the university’s culture is not yet changed. “We just need answers,” von Frank said. “It’s just absolutely obscene, and it continues that terrible culture that has existed for decades that enabled this case to occur.”
ASMSU TAX refund request deadline to request: january 18, 2019 Remember his dedication, courage, and endless hope.
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Meet Khalilah Smith: Michigan State’s first black rodeo queen BY CHARLOTTE BACHELOR CBACHELOR@STATENEWS.COM
Animal science junior Khalilah Smith is royalty in the rodeo circuit and her outstanding horsemanship has earned her the title of 2018 MSU Rodeo Queen. Her reign is monumental as well as historical. She is the first African-American to hold this title. The State News sat down with Smith to learn more about what this title means to her. She is currently competing in the national rodeo competition in Oklahoma City, where she could be crowned first national black rodeo queen.
HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN RIDING HORSES AND RODEO?
I got involved in riding horses when I was younger. I was diagnosed with ADHD, and for an outlet for my ADHD my mom got me into a lot of sports. ... We ended up going to a friend that she snowmobiled with saying that we could come and visit her horses, but she was five or six hours away. Another friend that she snowmobiled with said, “We’re right here in Detroit, come bring her to Detroit and see how she likes it.” So that’s where I’ve been ever since — I’ve been with horses and in my outlet.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR DEGREE, AND HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN ANIMALS?
JAZZ: Spirituals, Prayer and Protest Concert
I basically want to go into veterinary medicine immediately. That is my path, to go directly into the vet school to start working with large exotic animals. I’ve always wanted to be a vet. I love animals. I was the kid that, if I found a animal outside that was injured, I’d ask my mom if I could keep it. I’ve always taken care of the sick and the people that need help.
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE TO THOSE ASPIRING TO BE IN THE WHAT RODEO EVENTS DO YOU RODEO? RIDE IN AND WHAT SKILLS ARE Get a good trainer. Get someone who doesn’t only have money on their mind, someone who YOU LOOKING TO LEARN? Currently, I am a barrel racer. I enjoy barrel racing for the simple fact of the adrenaline rush that you get when you’re going around through barrels. It’s not the rush against the fastest person, sometimes it’s if you can beat your best time. I’m trying to get into roping a little bit more, simply because I’m teaching me and the horse at the same time. It’s a bit hard to teach both of us and learn at the same time, but it’s something that I’m passionate about. I want us to pick up on it and be in the same sync, which all horses and riders should be in.
WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN AS ONE OF THE ONLY BLACK COLLEGIATE RODEO RIDERS?
Sun., Jan. 20, 7:00 pm
has your best interest at heart. They want to see more people to get into the sport of rodeo because it is a dying art, not only for AfricanAmericans and people of color. The Western sport is dying off and we need to get more people into our sport.
(3:00 P.M. CONCERT IS SOLD OUT) fairchild theatre, mSu auditorium, free mSu’s annual commemorative concert celebrating the life and legacy of dr. martin luther King, Jr. will also include a special tribute to detroit’s very own aretha franklin, featuring memorable tunes from motown.
WHAT DOES BEING MSU RODEO QUEEN MEAN TO YOU? It means that I’m able to break a barrier that someone hasn’t done in over the 50 years that the club has been together. It means the world is changing; it means I’m a part of the change and history of MSU.
Free. ticket required, call or pick-up from the college of music main office.
There really hasn’t been a big diversity line where people are looking at you because you’re an outsider. The experience I’ve had in rodeo so far is everyone is inclusive. If they see something you can improve on they will tell you about it. I haven’t gotten many negative comments at all.
muSic.mSu.edu 517-353-5340
Honoring the Memory of Martin Luther King Jr.
rha RHA would like to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by asking you to not only remember popular moments in history, but to rememebr the man behind them. He was a Reverand boycotted by churches, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose children were nearly bombed and a Civil Rights leader who was denied the right to live. Speak out about his contributions to society. “...we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - MLK
--“to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood”
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FROM THE COVER
ROBERT L. GREEN: THE MAN WHO BROKE BARRIERS AT MSU BY CHASE MICHAELSON CMICHAELSON@STATENEWS.COM
Robert L. Green signing a copy of his 2015 book “At the Crossroads of Fear and Freedom: The Fight for Social and Educational Justice.” PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLENA HINES.
CONTINUES FROM THE COVER
GROWING UP GREEN
Green was born in Detroit, into a family of nine brothers and sisters. His father was a pentecostal minister and truck driver who was denied the chance to pursue higher education in the early 20th Century because of racial segregation in Georgia, his home state. From a young age, the message from his father was simple: Education was the key to freedom for him and his siblings. Of the five Green brothers, one became a doctor, another an engineer, another an Army lieutenant colonel. His sisters became registered nurses and schoolteachers. Academic success was always expected of Bob Green. “My father would take nothing less. If I got a ‘C’ grade, my father, in his work coveralls, would come over to the high school,” Green said. “He only did it once, and he didn’t have to do it anymore.” Green was drafted into the Army after graduating from Detroit Northern High School in 1952, and was stationed in San Francisco. He worked nights at an Army hospital while earning his bachelor’s degree in general psychology from San Francisco State College, now known as San Francisco State University. It was there that Green met King. It was June 27, 1956, and the NA ACP was meeting at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. King was six months into leading the Montgomery bus boycott, arranged after the famous arrest of Rosa Parks. King was a featured speaker, and Green was among those in attendance. “I told him I enjoyed his speech and I wanted to meet him and talk some more with him if I could,” Green said. “I was intrigued by how he was challenging that form of discrimination in Alabama.” They had breakfast in Berkeley soon after, and King told him that if he ever got his Ph.D, he should come work for him in Atlanta. “It was really prophetic, I never knew that would happen,” Green said.
“Even though discrimination was bad, it pushed me to get a Ph.D.,” Green said. “Racism was an American issue, it was not a Berkeley, California problem, or a Detroit or East Lansing or Chicago problem. It was an American sickness.” Green became the first black member of the James Madison College faculty, where he says he was treated well by his white colleagues. He had a chance encounter early in his time on campus with a “very powerful white man.” Walking to the library one day to do research for his Ph.D., Green saw a man stop his car and walk toward him. The stranger asked what he was doing, and if he needed anything. “He said, ‘If you ever need anything, come see me.’ I said, ‘Who are you, what is your name?’ He said, ‘My name is John Hannah, I’m president of Michigan State.’ That’s how I met him. That made a positive impact on me, that this man would stop me.” Hannah later became the first chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. While he had white allies in the JMC faculty and the president’s office, Green faced discrimination in everyday life in East Lansing. He became one of the first people to successfully sue for housing discrimination after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, as black people were informally barred from renting or buying houses north of Grand River Avenue. “A lot of it was unwritten, but real,” Green said. Green became the faculty advisor to the MSU chapter of the NAACP. He credits the demonstrations of students in the NAACP chapter, as well as the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, with minimizing the more direct forms of racism. He taught a class called “Intergroup Relations,” the first social justice course in the history of James Madison College. Then-James Madison Dean Herbert Garfinkel was aggressive in recruiting Green to teach the class, believing it was important for the mostly white students to have their perspectives’ challenged.
Robert L. Green walking with Martin Luther King Jr. on Feb. 11, 1965 at the Lansing Airport. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLENA HINES.
Left to right: Clifton Wharton, Ambassador Andrew Young, Maudine Dobbins and Robert L. Green in the 1970s. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLENA HINES.
CHALLENGING RACISM AT MSU WORKING WITH DR. KING After he got his Master’s in Educational Psychology from San Francisco State College in 1960, Green was faced with a difficult reality. Despite his impressive qualifications, he was unable to get a job as a school psychologist. The five largest school districts in the state — Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego — would not hire him because of the color of his skin. He chose to head to his home state and pursue a Ph.D. at MSU, bringing his wife and two young sons. All of them had only known California sunshine when they moved to East Lansing.
MSU founded the Student Tutorial Education Program, or STEP, in 1965. The program sent MSU students to Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, to help students there in the fields of communication, math and writing. At first, there was trouble funding the program. Those in charge believed bringing an important speaker to campus could help fund the program. So Green called a woman whom he had met back at San Francisco State and who was working for the SCLC, and arranged for King to come to East Lansing. On February 11, 1965, King spoke on campus.
CONTINUES AFTER MSU PRESIDENTIAL UPDATE 8
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Robert L. Green and Martin Luther King Jr. at Michigan State University in February 1965. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLENA HINES. F E E DB AC K@ STAT E NE WS .COM
MSU PRESIDENTIAL UPDATE
ENGLER RESIGNS
2018 Jan. 30 The MSU Steering Committee releases a statement threatening to vote no confidence in the MSU Board of Trustees if former Michigan Gov. John Engler is appointed interim president. The committee stated Engler had no academic leadership experience and the board ignored its recommendations when selecting him.
Jan. 31 Engler is named as MSU’s interim president after former President Lou Anna K. Simon’s resignation. The MSU Steering Committee voted no confidence in the Board of Trustees after Engler was appointed. Students participated in a sit-in at the Hannah Administration Building, demanding a town meeting with the MSU community.
Feb. 2 Students, staff and faculty gather at the Rock at Farm Lane for the March for Transparency to protest a lack of visibility from the university administration after Engler’s appointment.
April 18 In emails sent to the MSU Board of Trustees, Engler’s special counsel supposedly called survivor Kaylee Lorincz’s allegation of Engler attempting to settle her civil lawsuit without her lawyer present “false news,” according to a report from the Detroit Free Press.
INTERIM PRESIDENT JOHN ENGLER RESIGNS Effective Jan. 23, 2019
April 13 At a Board of Trustees meeting, survivor Kaylee Lorincz claims Engler tried to settle her civil lawsuit against the university by offering her $250,000 during a meeting without her lawyer present. “Mr. Engler then looked directly at me and asked, ‘Right now, if I wrote you a check for $250,000, would you take it?’” Lorincz said. “When I explained that it’s not about the money for me, and that I just want to help, he said, ‘Well, give me a number.’”
April 20
April 23 Students, survivors and other members of the community rally to call for the Board of Trustees and Engler to resign at the Rally for Resignations.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, joined Nassar survivors, MSU students and other members of the community in expressing her concerns with how Engler and the Board of Trustees conducted themselves in the months following Nassar’s criminal sentencing in Ingham and Eaton County. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe John Engler is the right person to lead MSU through this very difficult time,” Stabenow said.
June 13
June 15 Trustees Mosallam and Byrum call for Engler’s resignation after a Chronicle of Higher Education report detailed emails in which Engler suggested that his critics were using survivors of Nassar’s abuse, specifically Rachael Denhollander, to stir up outrage against the university and that Denhollander would be getting “kickbacks” from her attorney, John C. Manly.
A report published by the Detroit Free Press details a private email sent by Engler to a top advisor accusing survivor Rachael Denhollander of getting “kickbacks” from attorneys involved in lawsuits against the university.
Interim President John Engler speaks during the Board of Trustees meeting on Aug. 31, 2018, at the Hannah Administration Building. PHOTO BY MATT SCHMUCKER.
June 19 After Mosallam and Byrum call for Engler’s resignation, 120 Nassar survivors call for Engler to resign in a letter and for select members of the Board of Trustees to force him to resign. In the letter, survivors said that Engler has “failed miserably” and leaders at the university have failed to listen to their concerns.
June 21 In a letter, Engler apologizes to survivors and the MSU community for his “kickback” comments.
June 22 Trustee Brian Mosallam motions to terminate Engler as interim president at the June 22 Board of Trustees meeting. The motion was voted down 6-2.
July 24
Engler’s departure followed another controversial statement: this time, he told The Detroit News some survivors of Larry Nassar’s abuse were “enjoying” their time “in the spotlight.” BY STAFF REPORTS FEEDBACK@STATENEWS.COM
Interim MSU President John Engler officially submitted a letter of resignation Wednesday evening, after numerous calls for him to do so from inside and outside the university. According to a source close to the Engler administration, Engler’s replacement will most likely be an in-house dean. In the 11-page letter, Engler defends his tenure, outlining the improvements the university has made while he was interim president. “The bottom line is that MSU is a dramatically better, stronger institution than it was one year ago,” he said in the letter. “I am proud to have a key role in preparing my school to welcome a new President who will have the opportunity to take us to new heights. “I will be forever grateful to all of those who have supported me this past year.” Engler’s resignation is effective 9 a.m. on Jan. 23. “It has been an honor to serve my beloved university,” Engler’s letter reads. The board will meet Thursday at 8 a.m. to discuss the presidential transition, MSU Spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in a statement. It was announced Wednesday the MSU Board of Trustees would be holding an emergency meeting Thursday morning to discuss Engler’s future at the university. Chair of the Board Dianne Byrum asked Engler to resign before the meeting was scheduled to be held, a source close to the administration told the Detroit Free Press. Rachael Denhollander, the woman who first came forward publicly about Nassar’s abuse, said she’s thankful the board has taken a step forward with Engler, but it’s only a first step. She said she hopes the board will continue to signal a new direction. “There is a great deal that those old board members in particular are going to have to do to truly signal a change and even begin to regain credibility and public trust,” Denhollander said. Engler’s resignation letter states Byrum
informed him five members of the board requested his resignation prior to Thursday. Previously, Trustee Brian Mosallam made a motion to terminate Engler from his position “for failing to uphold the standards of conduct expected from a leader of this university” at a June board meeting. This came after Engler claimed Denhollander would be getting a “kickback” from her attorneys for aiding in the “manipulation” of other survivors against the university. The motion didn’t pass, but Trustees Mosallam and Byrum voted in support of it. According to Engler’s contract, his salary as interim president was $510,399, but he chose to donate the salary back to university organizations of his choice. Engler also waived healthcare and retirement benefits. Engler’s resignation comes after comments he recently made about survivors in an interview with The Detroit News Editorial Board, where he said they were “enjoying” the “spotlight.” This prompted national coverage and criticism, including from Byrum, who told the Chronicle of Higher Education his comments are “ill advised.” “You’ve got people, they are hanging on and this has been … there are a lot of people who are touched by this, survivors who haven’t been in the spotlight,” Engler told the News. “In some ways, they have been able to deal with this better than the ones who’ve been in the spotlight who are still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition.” A petition to fire Engler — created by Reclaim MSU — also reached over 1,800 signatures from the community as of Wednesday. “Upon his appointment, Engler has brought more shame to a community trying to heal and move forward by sticking to a combative legal approach, fighting sexual assault survivors, and creating a culture of cronyism,” the petition said. “He has proven time and again that he is unfit to lead and unwilling to be held accountable for his actions.”
Engler testifies before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security regarding the actions taken by MSU in light of Nassar’s sexual abuse, where Engler denied that a conversation involving $250,000 ever happened between he and survivor Kaylee Lorincz and said it would be “silly” to try to settle a lawsuit with only one survivor present.
Aug. 24 The State News obtains and publishes the original 2018 alumni magazine. Engler is criticized for scrapping the survivor-centric issue for an issue rarely mentioning Nassar by name and featuring an interview with himself, in which he praised the university.
Nov. 8 Kelly Tebay and Brianna Scott are elected new MSU trustees. While they are critical of Engler and believe he never should have been appointed, they agreed at an October debate that they would not move to fire Engler at the time.
Dec. 21 Independent Counsel William Forsyth holds a press conference and gives an update on his investigation into MSU’s handling of the Nassar case. In an often-scathing address, he called out the university for a lack of cooperation and transparency. In his Nov. 27 interview with The State News, Engler claimed charges brought against former MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon signaled the end of the investigation. When asked why he said this, MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in a statement “We believed the investigation had concluded.”
Dec. 4 The State News obtains an email stating Engler would end the Healing Assistance Fund despite the recommendation from an advisory workgroup he created. The fund was established in December 2017 to provide survivors of Nassar’s abuse with resources related to counseling and mental health services but was suspended in light of an investigation into fraudulent claims. In October 2018, MSU Police said Nassar survivors had not made any fraudulent claims.
2019 Jan. 9
Jan. 16 Engler resigns, effective Jan. 23, in a 11-page resignation letter. His resignation comes after numerous calls for his removal from both within and outside of the university. Before his resignation, the board scheduled an emergency meeting for 8 a.m. Thursday to discuss Engler’s future at the university.
Byrum and Mosallam, who voted to fire Engler, are the only nominees for chair. The board elects Byrum chair, and rebukes Engler by voting to create new healing fund.
EDITORIAL:
THIS TOOK TOO LONG From day one, MSU community deserved better than John Engler BY THE STATE NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD FEEDBACK@STATENEWS.COM
J
ohn Engler should never have been the interim president of Michigan State. Less than an hour after his appointment, student protesters expressed outrage with the board’s decision. The outrage never went away. He should have been fired last March when he testified before a Senate subcommittee that Nassar survivors were “driven by attorneys.” He should have been fired last April when Nassar survivor Kaylee Lorincz accused him during public comment at a Board of Trustees meeting of offering her $250,000 in a private meeting — an accusation that Engler didn’t deny outright, calling it a “philosophical discussion.” He should have been fired last June when Trustee Brian Mosallam made a motion to terminate him, only to have six trustees vote to keep him. He should have been fired last December when he discontinued the Healing Assistance Fund for Nassar survivors in direct opposition to the advice of an expert group he created. He should have been fired in January as soon as three new trustees — all in favor of Engler’s termination — joined the board. Instead, at its Jan. 9 meeting, no action was taken about Engler’s presidency. What took so long to get Engler out of office? The MSU Board of Trustees has long stood behind him — from his unanimous appointment to their repeated affirmations of how well he was doing. Current Trustees Joel Ferguson, Dan Kelly and Melanie Foster all voted to keep Engler in June. Two days after the Jan. 9 board meeting, Engler gave an interview to The Detroit News in which he said some Nas-
The statue of John A. Hannah stands wrapped with caution tape on April 20, 2018 at the Hannah Administration Building. PHOTO BY SYLVIA JARRUS
sar survivors were enjoying the spotlight. While what Engler said is blatantly untrue and incredibly harmful, it’s not unprecedented. It shouldn’t have changed the opinion of anyone who was already listening. He had already accused Rachael Denhollander of taking kickbacks from her lawyer, and offered Kaylee Lorincz a check. Acting like Engler’s most recent comments are the last straw ignores every vile thing he’s already said and done. It’s disrespectful to those belittled and traumatized by his prior actions. Meeting after meeting, members of the public stood before the board holding signs and shouting for him
to be fired. “I am continually shocked by your lack of action,” sur v ivor Kaylee Lorincz said to the board in April. “You sponsored my assault,” survivor Morgan McCaul said to the board at that same meeting. “Shame on you,” Leslie Miller, mother of Nassar survivor Emma Ann Miller, said to the board in June after they declined to terminate Engler. The MSU Board of Trustees have been asked to either step down or step up, and they’ve done neither. They had ample opportunity and overwhelming reason to remove him, and yet until Jan. 16, 2019, John Engler remained interim president. It’s a shame. The Board of Trustees
sat through public comments at their meetings for a year, in which person after person told them Engler needed to go. They heard all of it. They must not have been listening. The State News Editorial Board is composed of Editor-in-Chief Marie Weidmayer, Managing Editor Matt Schmucker, Photo Editor Anntaninna Biondo, Social Media Editor Noah Goad, Cit y Editor Ma x well Evans, Sports Editor Kara Keating, Copy Chief Alan Hettinger and Diversity & Inclusion Representative Charlotte Bachelor. Campus Editor Mila Murray and Staff Representative Riley Murdock did not vote during this editorial meeting.
MSU Interim President John Engler claps during public comment at the Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 26, 2018. PHOTO BY ANNTANINNA BIONDO
FROM THE COVER
Robert L. Green stands leads the March Against Fear in June 1966. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARLENA HINES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 for King to come to East Lansing. On February 11, 1965, King spoke on campus. “The old Auditorium was packed, overflowing,” Green said. “It was a very important event, and I felt good that we were able to bring him here.” According to the MSU Archives, there were more than 4,000 people in attendance that day. “His coming signaled a new day at Michigan State and East Lansing,” Green said. “People knew that not only would there be a set of local connections on discrimination, we now had a national connection in the form of Martin Luther King, Jr.” After his speech, King repeated his request for Green to come work for him at the SCLC in Atlanta. He received permission to take leave from John Hannah, and Green became the education director at the SCLC. He functioned as a connection between King and scholars around the country, writing articles about education and social justice, and hosting monthly workshops for black southerners in South Carolina to focus on literacy. Often, when black people who had faced discrimination came to see King, and he was not in the office, they would be directed to Green to hear their cases and give them advice. He served in this capacity for a 14-month period between 1965 and 1967 before returning to his professorship at MSU. Green maintained a close relationship with King, whom he believes would be committed to all forms of social justice if he were alive today. “Economic justice, freedom of women, the #MeToo movement, (inactive NFL quarterback Colin) Kaepernick who took a knee. King would be concerned with any form of injustice and would want to do something about it,” Green said. While King continued to speak out against discrimination, he and those around him knew a backlash was coming. He had survived an earlier assassination attempt, a near-fatal stabbing in
Harlem in 1958, and was aware that another could be on the way. “King always said, ‘There’s a bullet out there,’ and I used to call it the silver bullet,” Green said. “He said, ‘One day, that bullet is gonna find me and it could be any day.’” When that day, April 4, 1968, came, and King was killed in Memphis, by a racist convict named James Earl Ray, Green knew he had a responsibility to carry on his legacy. Many black students came to Green’s house at 221 Durand St. to express their grief. Green noticed some had the intention of causing a disturbance, so he called the chief of police and organized a march for the next morning, to begin at 9 a.m. at the Union. Some students wanted the event to be all black, but believing in King’s message to bring all races together, Green decided the event would be free to any student wishing to vent their sadness. “There was no time for me to be angry or upset. I had to do what Dr. King always taught us to do: Be cool and calm under pressure, and use your head,” Green said. “That’s what I did during that period of time. I didn’t advocate any violence then, and I don’t advocate it now.” Green continued to work in various positions for the university for more than 25 years, including a time as dean of the College of Urban Development. He briefly served as the president of the University of the District of Columbia in Washington from 1983-1985 before returning to MSU. Though he retired and now lives in Las Vegas, Green still continues his work for social justice and education. He has written several books on those topics, including his 2015 memoir, “At the Crossroads of Fear and Freedom: The Fight for Social and Educational Justice.” Green will be speaking at James Madison College Jan. 21.
“Racism was an American issue, it was not a Berkeley, California problem, or a Detroit or East Lansing or Chicago problem. It was an American sickness.” Robert M. Green
Former MSU professor
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OPINION
Column: Intersectionality is the most important thing BY ANNTANINNA BIONDO ABIONDO@STATENEWS.COM
What you should know about me: I’m a middleclass, white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied woman. But I care about intersectionality a lot. Everyone should. I know it comes from a place of privilege to choose to care about intersectionality. Before I took the time to educate myself, I never needed to consider that other women face different obstacles than I do based on things they can’t control. I also know as a white woman, other white women might give me more credence than if a black and/or LGBTQ+ peer were to write this. I hope they hear me and the other voices who deserve to be heard. Intersectionality is a way to protect people, especially women of color, from being excluded from the narrative. The narrative all too often tells the story of a cisgender white man, and if you’re lucky, maybe a white woman too. Thirty years ago, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw,
a professor of law and civil rights at UCLA, wrote a paper where she first coined the term intersectionality in reference to how black women experience both racism and sexism differently than black men or white women. In today’s framework, intersectionality also considers someone’s class, sexuality, gender identity or ability, but Crenshaw originally addressed race and gender. I was nervous to write this because I try to spend my time listening rather than speaking “on behalf of”. But I realized I was expecting
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“Yes, it is imperative to have conversations about race and gender, but don’t go into that conversation asking things you should have Googled. Your privilege is showing.”
a marginalized person to write this, unjustly asking black and LGBTQ+ people to be a social justice reference book. So I did the work myself, which is what I urge you — white person reading this — to do. Yes, it is imperative to have conversations about race and gender, but don’t go into that conversation asking things you really should have Googled. Your privilege is showing. If you take anything away from this, let it be to listen to women — women of color especially. Also, white person reading this, it’s okay to feel uncomfortable when talking about race or gender issues. It’s not okay to avoid those conversations. But going back to what I said about listening, you should be listening more in those conversations. We’ve been controlling the conversation for far too long. We have a lot of work to do to be truly inclusive in this country. We give too many platforms to hate groups, and that takes away opportunities to hear the voices of young black girls. Or a transgender man or woman’s voice. Or someone
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who is non-binary. It’s easy to “other” marginalized groups of people. Grouping together all of these individuals only to largely ignore them belittles their unique lives. That’s why we have intersectionality. It adds context, nuance and complexity, and calls attention to the gaps in law and society. It doesn’t, however, mean it’s so complex that we can’t change, understand and empathize. A recent acknowledgement of intersectionality’s importance was the Women’s March being moved from Lansing to Detroit in order to better accommodate women of color. Detroit has faced a history of — and still faces — systemic racism, classism and gentrification. True feminism includes all voices, and it speaks volumes for intersectionality to move the march to a city where it will be far more accessible for women of color to attend. The decision to move the march shouldn’t be considered a “statement” either. It really should just be the norm.
Column: Forget what you’ve heard. Women’s marches are valuable
BY EMILY LUDWA
ELUDWA@STATENEWS.COM
A
s we approach the women’s marches in Detroit Jan. 19 and the Michigan State Women’s March held by the Women’s Council Jan. 20, I find myself wondering what defines feminism? Is it the increasingly large amount of social media users urging their followers to “fight the patriarchy...”? Celebrities coming forth, promoting the idea in the past few years? The sole views of an individual? Does one have to outwardly express their favoritism to women’s liberation? What is feminism? Feminism is the idea of equality between the sexes, encouraging the achievement of social, political and economic impartiality. In the past few years, it has become a prominent movement with issues such as reproductive rights and sexual assault becoming notable in the media, especially in Hollywood. Figures like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby were exposed for sexual misconduct with minors and women. The Weinstein accusations brought attention to the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement was started by Tarana Burke, a social activist, but brought to the forefront by actress Alyssa Milano via Twitter. It’s a movement emphasizing claims of sexual assault and harassment. Not only did the #MeToo movement elicit responses from Hollywood, but the worlds of
A protestor elevates herself and joins in chant during the Women’s March on Jan. 21, 2018, at Michigan State Capitol. Activists listened to speakers and rallied through peaceful protest. PHOTO BY CJ WEISS.
music and academia were affected by attests of sexual abuse and harassment too, as seen at Michigan State with the Larry Nassar cases and the administration fallout. Women banding together to have their voices heard has never been more indispensable. We live in a time where technology is at a new high, meaning the ability for women to connect and communicate worldwide is possible. This allows women to share their stories and experiences, foster justice for others and themselves, and spread messages of liberation. As we saw with the Nassar, Weinstein and Cosby scandals, once one survivor comes forth to share their story, it opens the door for other
women to be honest, to tell their truth, to encourage justice. In 2016, Rachael Denhollander was one of two gymnasts who initially reported Nassar’s abuse. By being brave enough to share her story, attention was brought to the situation and allowed at least 250 other women and one man to come forth with accusations. For a long time, sexual assault against women was something disregarded. When a woman would confide in someone and tell them about their encounter, the first question to emerge from the other person was either, “what were you drinking?” or “what were you wearing?” Today, we still face a problem of others pondering the
OPINION
victim’s actions rather than the attacker’s crime, but to a lesser extent. It’s a societal problem. Women’s accusations of sexual assault should be taken more seriously. If women are not given aid when in need, it can prompt mental health problems or, even worse, suicidal tendencies. This isn’t to say that men aren’t affected. Men feeling discouragement to share their experiences with sexual assault because of beratement or humiliation they fear from their peers is an immense concern. Unfortunately, the idea of sexual assault against men is something that has yet to be conventional, leaving many suffering in silence. While sexual assault can be a difficult topic to discuss, we need to keep fighting to normalize the conversation. We need to fight for awareness. We need to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Marches like the ones happening in East Lansing and Detroit are essential because they concentrate on people who need to spread their messages and have their voices heard. Whether those who show up wear pink, create signs, offer help to those who need it, share their stories or protest, every action helps, no matter the size. As feminists, we fight for equality. We should fight for women and men alike to have their voices heard and justified. For their claims to be investigated. For justice. For mental health awareness. For statements like “what were you wearing?” or “how could you let something like that happen?” to disappear.
Redesigning Health Care McLaren and MSU are expanding partnerships in research, education, and clinical services.
Located near the intersection of Forest and Collins Roads, our new hospital will be easy to access with improved roads, bus routes, and bike paths.
The new McLaren campus will include a 240-bed hospital, cancer center, and medical services building. F E E DB AC K@ STAT E NE WS .COM
The project will create approximately 2,500 construction jobs.
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This $450 million replacement hospital project in Lansing is the largest investment McLaren Health Care has ever made.
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CITY
Age-Friendly Community Committee aims to increase accessibility BY EVAN JONES EJONES@STATENEWS.COM
M
any East Lansing residents go through doorways and live in apartments without realizing the barriers common designs present to older members of the community. Through the Age-Friendly Community Committee, citizens and government leaders are working to improve accessibility and bridge the generational gap. The City of East Lansing created the committee in 2017 to continue working toward an AgeFriendly Community designation, which the World Health Organization, or WHO, describes in a 76-page guide. While the problem is described by the WHO through a global lens, they aim to inspire communities to improve access for their own aging populations. “The world is rapidly aging. The number of people aged 60 and over as a proportion of the global population will double from 11 percent in 2006 to 22 percent by 2050,” according to the guide. The 65-and-over age group made up an estimated 7 percent of East Lansing’s population in 2018, according to census data. WHO guidelines are separated into multiple parts, reflected in the Action Plan Subcommittees created within East Lansing’s main committee. Subcommittees include housing, transportation,
communications and information, social participation, respect and social inclusion, community support and health services, outdoor spaces and buildings, and civic participation and employment. Becoming an age-friendly community takes about five years, according to Kelly Arndt, director of the Prime Time Seniors’ Program. Prime Time has been a driving force behind the committee’s efforts. East Lansing has taken further steps in its efforts for the designation. The city joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities in 2017. However, the committee’s focus is not solely to improve life for senior citizens.
“A majority of folks want to remain in their own home. They would appreciate having various options which would give them access to the community.”
Lori Strom Former steering committee member
“An Age-Friendly Community is a community for all ages,” Arndt said. Arndt spoke to the idea of universal design, which addresses livability issues that cross generations but make specific accommodations for older citizens. Examples of projects include making doors to businesses downtown easier to open, she said. Seniors in focus groups said housing was another primary issue. Finding an accessible place to live is often “not even on your radar, but as you age, that becomes difficult,” she said. Janet Lee, a recent retiree from Okemos Public Schools, agrees. “As you grow older, and if you have a cane or if you’re in a wheelchair, you need doorways to be wider than they traditionally are,” Lee said. She is a member of the steering committee, which is primarily made up of local volunteers. She is also a member of the housing and social inclusion subcommittees. Lori Strom was also on the steering committee and represented MSU, from which she has since retired. “What really stood out was that a majority of folks want to remain in their own home and that they would appreciate having various options which would give them access to the community,” she said. Bailey Center Senior Apartments resident Lana
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Schaeffer provided input for the committee in its earlier stages. She mentioned ideas that link different age groups together, like Art Buddies, which pairs seniors at Prime Time with local students in special education programs, connecting them through art projects. “We try to have some projects that include cross-generational participation,” she said. Schaeffer also has concerns about housing. She moved to the Bailey Center and soon realized the height of the kitchen bar was too tall for her to use. “Old people aren’t going to climb up on a 50-inch barstool to eat dinner,” she said. Strom said people in the community are mostly satisfied with accessibility, but some want the city to go further and make more changes. Councilmember Aaron Stephens supported the committee and its work. “It’s important for us to make sure that every member of our community is not only included in the community but has accessibility to the community,” he said. Action plans were recently sent to the planning department, which puts the committee in the process of receiving the designation by the WHO. The city council will provide recommendations to the committee and possibly tweak any ideas presented, Arndt said. “Projects like this help us to be mindful of others in the community,” Arndt said.
SPORTS
In his 28th season, tennis coach Gene Orlando still enjoys every year BY LAUREN DEMAY LDEMAY@STATENEWS.COM
Tennis coach Gene Orlando is in his 28th season of coaching for Michigan State. Photo Courtesy of MSU Atheltic Communications
Influencing every player he has worked with, Gene Orlando has been an addition to the Michigan State athletic staff for 28 seasons. Orlando picked up tennis as a sport at a young age, and has been in love with it ever since. Before getting into tennis, he played basketball and baseball. He first learned about the sport after watching his babysitters play on the days he spent time with them. “They were going to tennis lessons and I kind of was watching from the outside and one of the instructors said, ‘Hey, would you like to play?’ This was when I was about 10 years old,” Orlando said. “I said ‘Yeah sure, I’ll try’ and I fell in love with the game right then and there.” He played tennis at the collegiate level at Ball State University, and made an appearance in the NCAA championships his senior year. Ball State men’s tennis coach Bill Richards recommended Orlando for the head coach job at Bowling Green State University. After three seasons of coaching at Bowling Green, Orlando was excited to get started with a Big Ten team. “You don’t get to be a Big Ten coach just
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by signing up,” Orlando said. “I played college tennis at Ball State and I was fortunate to play on a team that had a lot success. ... It’s good to have people behind your corner, and I was fortunate to get a job at Bowling Green at a young age thanks to Coach Bill Richards.” Starting out, Orlando said he had to learn on the job how to be a better coach. From there he learned about recruiting, fundraising and mentoring the athletes he trained in past years. In his multiple seasons in the Big Ten, he sees this as a chance to play the best teams in the country and believes that everyone looks forward to an opportunity similar to his. Orlando took his career a step further coaching wheelchair tennis, and what inspired him most about the kids was their love for the game and how hard they worked. Orlando is trying to promote the activity to more individuals. “The former coach here at Michigan State had this wheelchair program going before I got here,” Orlando said. “Coach asked me if I would take it over for him because he was getting a little bit older and it was time for him to move on. I told him, ‘Sure, I’ll do it’ ... because he was a legend. ... It
just became something that I wanted to do ... we even traveled to a few tournaments with them and it’s been something I’ve been trying to promote and make it even bigger than it is.” As Orlando continues his 28th season, he reflects on his time here at MSU and everything his teams have accomplished. From leading the Spartans to a universityfirst NCAA Tournament during the 201213 season to guiding each player to be the best they can be, his 28 years as head coach have been successful ones. “It’s been a great journey and I’ve enjoyed every year, especially the opportunity to work with young boys and see them grow up to be men,” Orlando said. “My goals for my team are for them to give 100 percent, give everything they got, and represent the program professionally both on and off the court. “The biggest influence I can have is give them the opportunities, and with hard work you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. ... Obviously, wins are always great, but sometimes the biggest win is seeing each player reach their goals and accomplish things they didn’t think were possible.”
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ACROSS 1 Fraternal title for a fictional fox 5 Easily bamboozled sort 10 Former Mach 2 fliers, briefly 14 Top-rated 15 Hawaii hello 16 Butterlike spread 17 Steak cut 18 U.S.-Canada defense letters 19 With 54-Down, longtime Jeep competitor 20 Hockey player’s blade cover 22 __ Place: Butch and Sundance companion 23 Music rights gp. 24 Wonderland cake words 26 Bolivian capital 30 Ticked off 33 www help pages 36 Old vendor of cold blocks 39 French king 40 Sch. in Columbus 41 Regain, and hint to a hidden letter arrangement in 20- and 59-Across and 11- and 35-Down 42 Sound system part 43 Xbox 360 competitor 44 Log-on requirement 45 Work on a keyboard
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21 Org. concerned with greenhouse gases 25 Gas holder 27 Bakery array 28 French play part 29 Striped equine 31 One-sided win 32 “Holy cow!” 33 Pheasant or turkey 34 Sri Lanka setting 35 Rather nice 37 Letters in a box 38 Electrical adapter letters 41 Largest of the Mariana Islands 45 Final part 47 Compulsive thief, for short 49 Texter’s “Zounds!” 51 Furry “Star Wars” creatures 52 Thick-skinned beast 54 See 19-Across 55 All-inclusive adjective 56 Ships 57 Subtle “Over here!” 58 Kibbles ‘n Bits alternative 60 Robert of “The Sopranos” 61 Fabric mishap 62 Whirling current
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SPORTS
MSU in bottom half of Big Ten for women head coaches BY TAYLOR O’NEIL HALL THALL@STATENEWS.COM
Jacquie Joseph is less than a month away from beginning her 26th season at the helm of the MSU softball team. As she approaches her third decade in the green and white, she’s seen the highs and lows of Spartan softball. From seasons under .500 to NCAA Regionals appearances, Joseph has seen it all. In that time her coaching st yle and understanding of the game may have changed, but what hasn’t changed is her goal of being a positive female and professional role model for her players. “I’ve always set it as a goal or mission to help women get into coaching, stay in coaching and thrive in coaching,” Joseph said. “It starts by (women) seeing good role models in (coaching), that we model a life that is worth seeking.” Even though Joseph wants to show her players coaching is a worthwhile profession, she’s in the minority as a women’s head coach at MSU and in NCAA Division I athletics as a whole. Nationally, Joseph is just one of the 1,463 women who hold head coaching positions for DI teams. Out of the 3,512 head coaching position for women’s teams in DI athletics, only 41.7 percent are occupied by female coaches according to the most recent Head Coaches of Women’s Collegiate Teams report published by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women Sports The other 58.3 percent, or 2,049 jobs, belong
to men. “I think it’s critically important (for women to be in coaching), the same way it is for women astronauts, women doctors, women lawyers, women governors and hopefully someday a female president,” Joseph said. “It’s like any other boundary or barrier. I think when people can see it be done, then it takes that barrier away.” The Tucker Center report doesn’t just look at the percentage of women coaching at each DI school, but also hands out a grade for each university based on the percentage of female coaches each university has for its women’s sports teams. In the most recent report, MSU received a C because women occupy only 46.2 percent (6-of13) of the available head coaching positions for women’s teams. There are seven schools from the Big Ten that received a higher grade from the Tucker Center than MSU, including Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. As a conference, women represent 46.2 percent (85-of-184) of head coaching positions for women’s teams in the Big Ten. “The good news is that the trend is going up,” Nicole LaVoi, co-director of the Tucker Center, said. “It’s going in the right direction, albeit very slowly. The other good news is we know from our
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SPORTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 report card that there are a handful of schools that are doing really well and that we should celebrate and learn from them.” LaVoi started the Tucker Center report seven years ago. The goal of the report is to start a conversation in hopes of getting more women hired for head coaching positions. Since the report started, the numbers of women coaching have remained stagnant, hovering close to 40 percent. LaVoi admits it will take more than her work at the Tucker Center for that to change. Public outcry puts pressure on those who make the hiring decisions, but even if there is public outcry, there are other barriers preventing women from getting hired for coaching positions.
WHY WOMEN COACHES MATTER
Victoria Jackson, a lecturer on sports history at Arizona State University, said there are multiple reasons why it’s important for women to hold coaching positions. One reason is that it’s crucial for women to see other women in positions of power. Another reason deals with the physiology of women’s bodies. “Men can learn how to train a woman’s body or talk about periods and stuff like that, but to have a woman coach, who just immediately understands it because she has experienced it too, there’s ways of understanding that you just don’t get,” Jackson said. For Jackson who grew up in the late ‘90s it was rare for women to coach anything. If they did, it was in an assistant coaching capacity. There are also institutional and social barriers that keep women from obtaining positions as head coaches.
Understanding the institutional barrier requires knowing who’s in charge of hiring coaches, Jackson said. When a coaching position becomes available, a hiring committee composes a list of names to fill the opening. The committee may consist of assistant athletic directors, but the final say belongs to the athletic director who’s in charge of hiring for the athletics department. The issue is, as Jackson points out, athletic directors hire people they know or who are similar to them. “You’ll have a hiring committee that will select finalist who look like them,” she said. “If that hiring committee is made up of associate athletic directors who are all men, they’re more likely to have a pool of candidates who are all men and maybe one woman, but statistically, we know if there’s one token woman, in a pool of finalists, she’s most likely not going to be hired.” Only 6.2 percent (8-of-130) of athletic directors in FBS schools were women as of 2017 according to the most recent TIDES report, an organization which looks at gender and racial hiring practices for sports leagues around the country, on NCAA DI leadership. At MSU, there has been one female athletic director, Merrily Dean Baker, who served in the position from 1992-95. The other 18 athletic directors have been men, including the most recent athletic director, Bill Beekman, who was hired last year. Besides athletic directors overwhelmingly being men, the other barrier is while men frequently apply and receive positions on men’s teams and women’s teams whereas women are almost never hired to coach men’s teams. “Say you’re an assistant baseball coach, and
Softball head coach Jacquie Joseph yells at her players during the game against Maryland on March 31, 2017 at Secchia Stadium. STATE NEWS FILE PHOTO.
you realize you’re never going to get that head coaching job, you’re going to apply for a head softball coaching job because you want to run your own program, so it pushes the women out,” Jackson said.
SOLVING THE PROBLEM
Julie Rousseau, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University whose research examines gender and racial disparities in coaching and former coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, said one reason women don’t receive consideration for open coaching positions is because there’s nothing requiring universities to consider them. For instance, the NFL has the Rooney Rule, which requires each NFL team with an open position at head coach to interview at least one diverse candidate. Rousseau thinks the NCAA should adopt
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a similar policy to ensure women get equal consideration for head coaching jobs. “If the NCAA can impose infractions and recruiting violations and any other types of violations, then I think they need to be able to begin to see how they can impact the hiring practices of coaches,” Rousseau said. Until something like that happens, hiring is left up to the discretion of the athletic departments of universities. “It’s going to take — and is taking — a concerted effort of a lot of various stakeholders and individuals and groups working on different initiatives to shift the needle,” LaVoi said. “The bottom line is, we need those that do the hiring to believe and value and support women and give them the opportunity to coach.”