Betsy DeVos’s Extraordinary Crackdown on Michigan State
The $4.5 million fine for Michigan State University that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced last week is clear confirmation of one thing: The problems at MSU were not small and they were not the result of bad actors left to their own devices. The fine penalizes the university for failing to adequately protect students from sexual predators on staff and thus violating federal law. The punishment confirms, at least in the government’s view, that the abuse at MSU was the result of systemic failures—massive ones.
The fine is the result of an investigation DeVos opened into the public institution last February, just after Larry Nassar, a former sports doctor for MSU and USA Gymnastics, pleaded guilty to molesting more than 150 young women. The fine marks the department has ever levied on a college a little less than a decade ago over its failure to properly address the former football coach Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse. In addition to the fine, the Department also found that the school had failed to uphold Title IX, which protects students from discrimination, including sexual misconduct.
