Unless you've been living under a literal rock or stuck in a pre-technological era for the last year, you at least have an idea of what's been going at Michigan State University. But just so that we're on the same page, since Judge Aquilina's amazing sentencing of Larry Nassar to 175 years--or "2,100 months" as she put it--MSU students have not stopped pushing for more justice.
It's been phenomenal. Protests have gone from rallies to marches to sit-ins to talks to town halls, and students everywhere are fired up to create an MSU that we want to be at and that we want our younger siblings to be at. The MSU Administration has caused too much pain and distrust to be allowed to sit idly by and wait for the buzz to die down.
No longer will administrators who sat idly by while Nassar was committing sexual crimes right under their noses be allowed to stay in their office. President Simon was the first step, in the dethroning of an administration that has consistently shown to not care for the diversity and safety of their students--especially as the announcement of Richard Spencer being allowed to speak during the semester was released quite recently. But we cannot stop here. The students know it, the faculty knows it, even some other higher administrators know it.
I don't have many thoughts on how this case is being handled, besides that the voices of the survivors need to be the loudest resounding sound surrounding public dialogue. I do have something to say about the way that Michigan State University needs to respond to this case though, as a student, as a constituent. Change means new bodies. We cannot move forward as a community, a university until all of our Board of Trustees and higher administration has to be renewed and replaced.
The resignation of Athletic Director Mark Hollis is a step in the right direction, he said in an interview, "We must listen and learn. Only then can we begin to heal." It is about time that other higher administration heard this message as loudly as Hollis did. Because the students need to build a better MSU, and we can't do it with them here.
