The Spring semester's first Board of Trustees Meeting quickly changed from boring to interesting when students from the audience yelled "mic check" and relayed a communique to the Board members.
Alan Akins, the President of SPECTRUMS--the LGBT organization at MSU-- led the speaking, as members of the audience repeated his words that exposed the undemocratic practices and greed-driven motives of the administration.
The board members completely ignored the mic check and proceeded with their meeting, although no one could hear what they were saying. About half way though the video, you can see Susan Cole pointing to the student trustee, gesturing for him to give his address and not wait for the mic check to end. By the end of the mic check, board members got up to leave the room. The student trustee approached the students and gave his support, explaining that he wanted to wait until we were finished but was pressured to continue.
The action was the result of several incidents involving the administration's disregard for students. The administration's disregard is summarized in their rules against allowing students to speak during the board meetings. Students wrote numerous letters to the board members on this issue, and they were mostly ignored. The one instance where their concerns were not ignored is when Cole wrote back to a student, dismissing her criticism as "hostile," yet ignoring her question.
The second incident involves recent attacks against the LGBT community at MSU. Cole waited several days before making a statement of condemnation to the student body. She only did so after the incident gained attention amongst the students. Cole's actions imply that she is was more concerned about covering up the story protect the university's reputation than she was about protecting her own students. Not only did Cole wait too long to respond to the hate speech, but she also did not show up to the meeting set up by the administration to show solidarity with SPECTRUMS and the LGBT community. Cole recently hosted a meeting about vandalism in the residence halls, yet she could not make time to meet with a community of students who received death threats because of their sexuality.
