密歇根新闻广播 MSU不对拉里纳萨尔进行内部审查

 

Michigan State University is paying a ton of money for some of the best lawyers in the country.

Their job? Investigate how a former MSU sports doctor, Larry Nassar, could allegedly abuse dozens of young patients for years – and whether anybody at MSU knew about it.

They're conducting "hundreds of interviews," reviewing documents and emails, and taking what they find directly to the Board of Trustees.

MSU says administrators² are actively³ using those findings to make the campus safer, roll out new policies, and defend the university in civil lawsuits⁴ brought by Nassar's alleged¹ victims.

Michigan State University

But the school says the review was "never designed to end in a report," and that there is currently no plan to release the findings in a report to the public.

"MSU is going to look great."

That's what Joel Ferguson, vice⁵ chairman of MSU's Board of Trustees, told WXYZ-TV about the school's internal review in March. "And MSU wants to get to the bottom of this also," Ferguson added, referring to reports from several women who say they alerted MSU staff to the abuse years ago. "We'll find out. That'll play out."

But we may never actually know what MSU looks like in this internal review – good, bad, or ugly.

"This internal review was never designed to end in a report," says MSU spokesman Jason Cody. "So I don't want to act like there is a plan to have some report. It's what we're referring to as an action-oriented review."

This has been, one imagines, a very busy year for Cody. We met up one campus late this summer, on one of those sleepy, gorgeous days just before fall semester starts.

But just for a second, let's jump to another campus: Back in the summer of 2012, former FBI director Louis Freeh released his eviscerating⁶ report of Penn State's failure to stop former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky from abusing children.

A different university, a different investigation⁷

"We are here today because of a terrible tragedy," Freeh told a room full of reporters, TV cameras and photographers, before methodically describing the scope of his team's investigation, how he had been hired by Penn State's trustees, and how even his own clients didn't see the final report until just hours before the rest of the world could read it online.

Today, in 2017, MSU has also hired a team of lawyers, including former U.S. Attorney and former White House special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, to pore over Nassar's work at MSU.

Brought in last October, Fitzgerald's team is doing "hundreds of interviews, within the college, within the administration, within athletics," Cody says. "[They are] reviewing documents, emails, and they are reporting those findings directly to the Board.

"And during that process, we are very clear, if they uncover anything of a criminal nature, they don't look into that," he says. "That is immediately referred to law enforcement, to MSU police."

The MSU Police Department immediately launched its own criminal investigation after getting a complaint about Nassar last summer. And that investigation, Cody says, would also have uncovered any criminal conspiracy⁸ in the school's administration to cover up sexual abuse.

"If our police would have uncovered criminal activity that involved obstruction⁹ of justice, that involved criminal failure to report, child endangerment – those investigations¹⁰ would have been brought to the appropriate prosecutor," he says.

"But there obviously could have been administrative¹¹ things that don't rise to a criminal level, but that the university wants to a) find out about what really happened here? And b) how do we address it?"

What about accountability?

Cody says he understands that not having those answers laid out in a public report can feel frustrating¹² – not just for Nassar's alleged victims, but for anybody who's been following the story, seeing multiple women claim they reported the abuse years earlier.

"They want accountability," he says. "They want to know, ‘Someone said this, that they told someone, is that true or not?'" But MSU can't answer those questions, he says, because the university is battling dozens of lawsuits from Nassar's alleged victims.

"We're in the middle of litigation. That's just not something we're going to be able to discuss. We have to let the process play out."

Still, Cody says, there is one way for people to see what kind of information MSU is learning: Look at their policy changes.

Here's what MSU is doing with this internal review

MSU set up Our Commitment, a website outlining how the school is "fostering a culture of safety and respect" with a compilation¹³ of press releases, presidential statements, and timelines of efforts to prevent assault.

Those efforts, Cody says, are directly informed by what the internal review turns up, whether it's "strengthening mandatory¹⁴ reporting compliance," hiring an outside firm to review the school's Title IX program, or posting "patient-friendly information on policies related to chaperones … in all exam rooms."

That is a kind of accountability, Cody says. "I think that's what will give people a sense of, ‘OK, I see what the university is doing and that's what provides me that knowledge that, OK, they're trying to make this place as safe as they can.'"

But others aren't convinced.

"They have to be willing to be dissected¹⁵ in front of everybody," says Patty Dailey Lewis, executive director of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. As a former deputy attorney general for the state of Delaware, she helped prosecute¹⁶ one of the worst pedophile cases in American history.

"They have to be willing to have people [in MSU leadership] say, 'Mistakes were made. We can't undo¹⁷ them right now, but we can make damn sure it doesn't happen again," Dailey Lewis says.

Telling people what kind of policy changes MSU is making, she says, doesn't help others understand how sexual abuse was able to stay hidden for years. Plus, it doesn't exactly communicate transparency.

"You know anything that's 'only for us,' you know what that makes people think?"

That you're hiding something?

"Exactly. No further questions. So why wouldn't you let everybody see this?"

MSU has a moment right now, she says.

What they're going to do with that moment, we'll talk about tomorrow, in part two.

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

3 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

4 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 eviscerating   

v.切除…的内脏( eviscerate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Dark also end up eviscerating Marauders in a ruthless fashion. 黑暗圣堂无情的把掠夺者切成几块。 来自互联网

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

9 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

10 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

11 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

12 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 compilation   

n.编译，编辑

参考例句：

• One of the first steps taken was the compilation of a report.首先采取的步骤之一是写一份报告。
• The compilation of such diagrams,is of lasting value for astronomy.绘制这样的图对天文学有永恒的价值。

14 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

15 dissected   

adj.切开的，分割的，（叶子）多裂的v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的过去式和过去分词 )；仔细分析或研究

参考例句：

• Her latest novel was dissected by the critics. 评论家对她最近出版的一部小说作了详细剖析。
• He dissected the plan afterward to learn why it had failed. 他事后仔细剖析那项计划以便搞清它失败的原因。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

17 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。