Public Statement from Trustee Jefferson at Board Meeting 9/1/21

Let me begin by joining my colleagues in extending condolences for the losses suffered by the Athletics Department community and also thanking Bill Beekman for his service. I also want to share my concerns about the process for selecting the next Athletic Director at Michigan State University, as well as congratulate our new Athletic Director, Alan Haller.

I was appointed as a trustee when the Board was in crisis. Another trustee resigned over disagreement about this Board’s lack of accountability and transparency in the handling of the Nassar documents. The Governor appointed me, in part, to help lead this institution forward from that turmoil. Because my professional background has been devoted to legal ethics and gender equity, I was honored to accept this mission.   I care deeply about Michigan State University and want to help usher in a new era of equity in the treatment of women and minorities.

This search process, regrettably, lacked the openness and public transparency that I and others, including Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson called for in her role as the Chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Women in Sports. As trustees, we have an obligation to expose practices that risk discriminatory or biased treatment, even when unintentional. I am worried that the lack of transparency here will only further perpetuate concerns about the institution’s commitment to improved treatment of women in the wake of the Nassar scandal and the harm that continues, for example as documented in the 2019 campus climate survey on relationship violence and sexual misconduct.

Equitable treatment for women and minorities is at the core of who I am as a scholar and a member of this community. This is personal for me. Michigan State is where I launched my career as legal ethics professor; it is where my husband received his degree and would go on to serve as the first African American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas; it is where his son began his own journey on a legal career. My teenage children learned to walk at Spartan Marching Band practices and started their own education as preschoolers at the MSU Child Development Lab. But, Michigan State is also a place where I experienced discrimination as a faculty member. I was advised by a senior administrator in my department not to pursue tenure because as a mother of young children it would be too stressful for my family. When I complained that my female peers and I were paid less than our male counterparts, my dean called me the Norma Rae of the faculty for raising this inequity and securing equal compensation. 

This juxtaposition—my love for a University that has played a pivotal role in my own life and in the lives  of my family and friends, balanced against my knowledge of the harms Nassar caused so many women and inequities experienced by others, including me, throughout the institution—propels me to share my concerns about this selection process.  One of my many goals as a trustee is to help the University move forward with more inclusive, open, and transparent processes in the future. 

Despite my concerns with the process, I enthusiastically endorse Alan Haller’s appointment to the role of Athletic Director. I am confident that, like me and my colleagues on the Board of Trustees, he is committed to remedying structural inequities, whether it is finding the funds to make sure all of our student-athletes, and especially our female student-athletes, have appropriate restrooms and other facilities or reforming policies and practices to provide equitable opportunities for advancement  of women and minority leaders. Alan Haller has been doing this work behind the scenes throughout his career at Michigan State and I believe he has the ability to transform the Athletic Department in his new role, working together with Dr. Ashley Baker, the newly-hired Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer of the Athletic Department. I look forward to the next era of leadership under Alan Haller that will prioritize achieving diversity, inclusion, equity, and a culture of care as much as winning in the competitive arena. 

Thank you.