College professors and female students have been having intimate relationships of one kind or another since college was invented by the Greeks to give their idle youth someplace to go before joining the army.
But at Michigan State University in Lansing, one trustee thinks the whole teacher-student fantasy has gone a little too far.
Republican Pat O’Keefe didn’t pull any punches and dumped on the woke students and faculty for being “promiscuous.”
“To the faculty and senate, I want you to know that I am tired of reading about the sexual transgressions of the faculty, which are like reading ‘50 Shades of Grey’ and are as long as ‘Gone With the Wind,’ without knowing what the outcomes are for such behavior,” O’Keefe said. “This is about corralling the unchecked sexual promiscuity of faculty, who seems to have unfettered access to our most vulnerable student population with little to no repercussions in some instances.”
Naturally, the snowflakes didn’t like references to an adult novel in connection with sex between students and faculty.
Jack Lipton, a professor in the College of Human Medicine and a University Council member, said O’Keefe’s speech was “outright reprehensible.”
“He equated his reading of Title IX reports as akin to erotica or porn by classifying them as similar to ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,'” Lipton wrote in an email. “I have already heard from one faculty member who was contacted by victims of sexual misconduct. They wonder whether Trustee O’Keefe is titillated by their trauma as he reads their reports. His conduct today was outrageous, unnecessary, hurtful, and a further embarrassment to MSU.”
Yes, but what about the appropriateness of sexual relations between barely-adult students and adult faculty? Funny that the professor never addressed that aspect of what the trustee was criticizing. It would illuminate an attitude from male faculty members toward their female students that could explain why there are so many Title IX complaints against faculty.
And this third-hand news about a victim of sexual misconduct contacting another faculty member wondering “whether Trustee O’Keefe is titillated by their trauma makes me think that Mr. Lipton is envious of Trustee O’Keefe for his access to this racy material.”
Earlier this month, the school’s president, Samuel Stanley, Jr., resigned after complaining there were too many investigations that amounted to “micromanaging.” Judging by what O’Keefe is saying, there may need to be more investigations.
And there have been numerous calls for the board of trustees to resign for one reason or another from students and faculty with finger-pointing from each side regarding the way that Title IX complaints are handled.
All of this is fallout from disgraced MSU and USA gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, who was accused of molesting and raping girls as young as 13 for more than 20 years. Convicted of rape in 2017, Nassar’s crimes were covered up by MSU athletics and the resulting fallout has roiled the board and school administration ever since.
The MSU Faculty Senate, Academic Congress, University Council and Associated Students of MSU are among the groups that have approved votes of no confidence in the Board of Trustees in recent weeks over the investigations.A spokesman for MSU Academic Governance, which includes the Faculty Senate, said Faculty Senate members would not be responding to O’Keefe’s statement Friday.
Trustees hired Stanley in 2019 after Nassar had already been sentenced to prison terms in federal court and in Ingham and Eaton county circuit courts. He is serving an effective life sentence. He became MSU’s first permanent president since Lou Anna Simon stepped down in January 2018 amid criticism of how the school handled complaints against Nassar. Former Michigan Governor John Engler was appointed interim president but resigned in January 2019 after he was widely criticized for making insensitive comments against Nassar survivors.
MSU is not going to sweep faculty sexual misconduct under the rug by using misdirection to keep the facts from the public. The report will be published soon, and the truth will finally come out.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member