Former Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simons continued with her defense strategy of “pass the buck” during her testimony before a Michigan congressional hearing.
“in hindsight … there were clearly things that might have been warning signs.” However, Simon added, she believed that investigators at the time “did their best.”
The vast number of Nasser’s victims attests to the fact that “did their best” was woefully inadequate.
“There are warning signs here that should have been heeded earlier at the very top of Michigan State University,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate subcommittee that held the hearing. “Apologies aren’t enough. We have to honor those survivors with real action.”
Senator Blumenthal is absolutely correct in his assessment. MSU needs to stop circling the wagons and trying to defend their indefensible inaction. Instead of trying to assert that Nassar somehow skirted the system and they’re blameless, they should be owning up to the idea that implementing such a flawed system to begin with was crucial to allowing Nassar to devastate so many people’s lives.
But you did know, and he was allowed to continue unabated for two more years. It was your job to know these things as President of MSU and you failed. Until you can admit you failed, there can’t be an honest dialog about how to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/06/05/former-msu-president-simon-nassar-congress-hearing/674103002/