As for MSU, it hasn't been getting a lot of attention nationally, but the student newspaper (The State News) has had a whole investigative journalism section devoted to updates and investigative journalism about the situation at MSU since the story broke. It seems every week, even when there's no new National news, they've posted something new about the story. Many alumni are also highly displeased and decreased donations or written angry letters to administration.
It sounds like the biggest problem was that this wasn't reported up the chain. Despite the accusations beginning in 1997, the article says that the man at the top of the chain had no idea any accusations occurred until 2014 - it sounds like Nassar's friend also played a role in hiding his abuse from them by removing documents from his office. Once he found it, it sounds like appropriate actions were taken initially (until the guy at the top of the chain ignored the whole police-investigation thing and went off an incompetent Title IX office's word). It sounds that even after reinstating him(which was an obvious glaring mistake), MSU instituted sanctions - which again, no one reported violations of to them.
Part of not going up the chain seems to be an issue with power differential, but even moreso with Michigan reporting laws - where pretty much none of the people in the athletic department are required to report. I think that's the biggest takeaway from the MSU thing - a little incompetence her and a little lack of concern there goes a long way to creating an awful situation. Also that failure to report or take action should be a fire-able offense. Also that for such a serious issue there should be no second chances, even if you like the person.
I think there's three angles to the MSU side of things within that issue of reporting and investigating:
1. The Title IX office. It's been involved in a National Investigation involving Title IX departments at many major universities for not investigating or properly handling claims of abuse both inside and outside of athletic departments at the school. Because of that, I don't think this was MSU ignoring Nassar in particular, but rather because the Title IX office is incredibly incompetent for whatever reason. (Understaffing, high case load, focus on cases involving wealthy staff/kids of wealthy donors, lack of adequate victim advocates, etc.) I doubt the issue even got passed to the University Administration. Either way, it's an issue - one I hope will be corrected after the full, in-depth Title IX investigation is complete.
Personally, I don't think this is an MSU problem - many of my friends at universities all of the country big and small, private and public, community college and Top-10 institution found themselves ignored when they had a complaint. In fact, attending grad school at a smaller private school, me, at least four other students, and one tenured professor found ourselves blamed and talked down to when we all separately reported separate incidents of very concerning behavior from a single male classmate.
2. Athletic Department Administration may have known. Who knows if they actually did - it seems like the coach of MSU's gymnastics program was entirely complicit and even after the child porn was found she refused to acknowledge his abuse or its affects, so I doubt she'd report it. I'd bet her coaching staff had a similar mindset. As for the athletic trainers not reporting - while scummy, technically they didn't do anything wrong.
It should also be noted that gymnastics is one of those sports MSU only has because it's a B1G sport - I always got the feeling that they'd much rather have Women's Hockey in that women's varsity sport spot, but that's not a B1G sport. (I've heard it's next in line for varsity status) I knew a former member of the team and a tutor for it, and it sounded like the the higher ups in the athletic department didn't care much as long as they were competing. I'd assume with Nassar the higher-ups saw that he was a doctor for USA Gymnastics (a good position) and said "okay" without much of a second thought. With abuse allegations (if they even heard them from the Athletic Trainers or Coaches), I bet it was another case of them putting it on the back burner because it is a back burner sport for the school while he was respected at the time. Even with the USA Gymnastics investigation in 2015, while the documents were hidden from them, they should've sought it out. I doubt if Gymnastics was a higher priority that they wouldn't have been constantly checking on the staff.
Which, I think, is another problem that is not an MSU problem - those sports that the athletic department cares least about are the most likely to have abusers in them, which is why the athletic department should care even more about auditing them for creeps. I also think that regardless of state law, MSU should've made reporting mandatory for all athletic department staff and given them someone easily available to report to (maybe a Title IX liaison or someone at the MSU Police Department) that was not their direct superior or someone else who could make/break their career.
3. The medical administration knew - well they found out very late, but they still gave him the benefit of the doubt. Which should not happen. Maybe they did think he was cleared initially, but they should've waited until the more rigorous police investigation cleared him until reinstating him. And then if the police investigation could not clear him, they should have fired him, even if the police didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. And certainly the man at the top of the chain shouldn't have supported him when more accusations came out in 2016. That man at the top should've been fired as well instead of being allowed to take a quiet medical leave.
I've heard that many male medical professionals refuse to be in the room with female patients alone for anything more than a quick visit. Many male RNs will actually ask female colleagues to do certain things like catheter insertion on female patients or will ask to switch assignments if female patients are uncomfortable having a male nurse. I've also seen that some patient charts will note the patient prefers not to have a nurse of either gender so that they are not given a nurse of that gender unless it's impossible to meet that request for staffing reasons. This is especially true for children - when I did my peds rotation, nurses of both sexes were always very careful if a parent wasn't around.
How much are we willing to bet that parents not being allowed is one of the main reasons this and other alleged instances of physical abuse at the training camps have been allowed to go on so long? There could at the very least be someone outside of USA Gymnastics supervising - for instance, how USFSA and other sports hold training camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado were independent experts (PTs, Athletic Trainers, Doctors, etc.) oversee the activities of the athletes, not the governing body of the sport.
It sounds like the biggest problem was that this wasn't reported up the chain. Despite the accusations beginning in 1997, the article says that the man at the top of the chain had no idea any accusations occurred until 2014 - it sounds like Nassar's friend also played a role in hiding his abuse from them by removing documents from his office. Once he found it, it sounds like appropriate actions were taken initially (until the guy at the top of the chain ignored the whole police-investigation thing and went off an incompetent Title IX office's word). It sounds that even after reinstating him(which was an obvious glaring mistake), MSU instituted sanctions - which again, no one reported violations of to them.
Part of not going up the chain seems to be an issue with power differential, but even moreso with Michigan reporting laws - where pretty much none of the people in the athletic department are required to report. I think that's the biggest takeaway from the MSU thing - a little incompetence her and a little lack of concern there goes a long way to creating an awful situation. Also that failure to report or take action should be a fire-able offense. Also that for such a serious issue there should be no second chances, even if you like the person.
I think there's three angles to the MSU side of things within that issue of reporting and investigating:
1. The Title IX office. It's been involved in a National Investigation involving Title IX departments at many major universities for not investigating or properly handling claims of abuse both inside and outside of athletic departments at the school. Because of that, I don't think this was MSU ignoring Nassar in particular, but rather because the Title IX office is incredibly incompetent for whatever reason. (Understaffing, high case load, focus on cases involving wealthy staff/kids of wealthy donors, lack of adequate victim advocates, etc.) I doubt the issue even got passed to the University Administration. Either way, it's an issue - one I hope will be corrected after the full, in-depth Title IX investigation is complete.
Personally, I don't think this is an MSU problem - many of my friends at universities all of the country big and small, private and public, community college and Top-10 institution found themselves ignored when they had a complaint. In fact, attending grad school at a smaller private school, me, at least four other students, and one tenured professor found ourselves blamed and talked down to when we all separately reported separate incidents of very concerning behavior from a single male classmate.
2. Athletic Department Administration may have known. Who knows if they actually did - it seems like the coach of MSU's gymnastics program was entirely complicit and even after the child porn was found she refused to acknowledge his abuse or its affects, so I doubt she'd report it. I'd bet her coaching staff had a similar mindset. As for the athletic trainers not reporting - while scummy, technically they didn't do anything wrong.
It should also be noted that gymnastics is one of those sports MSU only has because it's a B1G sport - I always got the feeling that they'd much rather have Women's Hockey in that women's varsity sport spot, but that's not a B1G sport. (I've heard it's next in line for varsity status) I knew a former member of the team and a tutor for it, and it sounded like the the higher ups in the athletic department didn't care much as long as they were competing. I'd assume with Nassar the higher-ups saw that he was a doctor for USA Gymnastics (a good position) and said "okay" without much of a second thought. With abuse allegations (if they even heard them from the Athletic Trainers or Coaches), I bet it was another case of them putting it on the back burner because it is a back burner sport for the school while he was respected at the time. Even with the USA Gymnastics investigation in 2015, while the documents were hidden from them, they should've sought it out. I doubt if Gymnastics was a higher priority that they wouldn't have been constantly checking on the staff.
Which, I think, is another problem that is not an MSU problem - those sports that the athletic department cares least about are the most likely to have abusers in them, which is why the athletic department should care even more about auditing them for creeps. I also think that regardless of state law, MSU should've made reporting mandatory for all athletic department staff and given them someone easily available to report to (maybe a Title IX liaison or someone at the MSU Police Department) that was not their direct superior or someone else who could make/break their career.
3. The medical administration knew - well they found out very late, but they still gave him the benefit of the doubt. Which should not happen. Maybe they did think he was cleared initially, but they should've waited until the more rigorous police investigation cleared him until reinstating him. And then if the police investigation could not clear him, they should have fired him, even if the police didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. And certainly the man at the top of the chain shouldn't have supported him when more accusations came out in 2016. That man at the top should've been fired as well instead of being allowed to take a quiet medical leave.
I've heard that many male medical professionals refuse to be in the room with female patients alone for anything more than a quick visit. Many male RNs will actually ask female colleagues to do certain things like catheter insertion on female patients or will ask to switch assignments if female patients are uncomfortable having a male nurse. I've also seen that some patient charts will note the patient prefers not to have a nurse of either gender so that they are not given a nurse of that gender unless it's impossible to meet that request for staffing reasons. This is especially true for children - when I did my peds rotation, nurses of both sexes were always very careful if a parent wasn't around.
How much are we willing to bet that parents not being allowed is one of the main reasons this and other alleged instances of physical abuse at the training camps have been allowed to go on so long? There could at the very least be someone outside of USA Gymnastics supervising - for instance, how USFSA and other sports hold training camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado were independent experts (PTs, Athletic Trainers, Doctors, etc.) oversee the activities of the athletes, not the governing body of the sport.
that they probably were just that, rumors...but this professor was very well-respected and had a following, so there was no way anyone was going to say anything. This was 25 years ago but, unfortunately, I don't think the attitude on college campuses has changed much.
