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Students continue to march for transparency by MSU administration

Posted at 9:40 PM, Feb 02, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-03 11:03:35-05

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The protests continued on Michigan State’s University’s campus Friday evening, with more students coming out to demand transparency from the MSU administration.

This comes after a meeting Wednesday night where MSU’s interim president John Engler didn’t commit to a town hall meeting as asked for by the students.

Students told FOX 17 they’re going to be out there as long as it takes, no matter how cold it is, rain or shine, until positive changes are made. The faculty, staff and students are working together to create a group which will put together a list of demands for the administration.

Some of their ideas so far include the board of trustees stepping down, interim president John Engler setting up a town hall meeting with students and faculty, more investment in sexual assault prevention and mental health and the focus to be on the students.

For the second week in a row, Michigan State University students met at the rock on campus. It was a slightly smaller crowd compared to last week, but still the crowd was just as motivated.

“We don’t want to stop,” said sophomore Natalie Rogers. “I think that right now the board of trustees is thinking that eventually this will blow over and everything’s going to be fine, but we’re going to let them know it’s not going to blow over, we’re not going to stop, we’re going to keep showing up, we’ll keep yelling.”

Rogers says organizations and faculty on campus will create a list of demands for the school’s administration. It goes beyond having the board of trustees stepping down.

“We need more investment in sexual assault prevention, we need more investment in mental health, it’s really hard to access the counselors here, we want more access, we want the focus to be on what matters and that is the students and that is their safety,” said Rogers.

Senior class president Molly McGinnis comes from three generations of Spartans.

“This is the first thing that comes up on Google when you search Michigan State University and that’s really embarrassing to me because I associate so many good things with this university and  to see it in the public eye in this way makes it really hard to feel that pride in the university, “said McGinnis.

The students marched from the rock in silence with their fists in the air to the steps of the Hannah Administration Building Friday evening.

“I think we intend to be forceful, we intend to show that this is not something we’re willing to move on from or something we’re going to give up on,” said McGinnis.

Whether or not they’re proud to wear green and white is a tough question for some students.

“I will be,” responded Samuel Klahn, a junior at MSU. “To say that I’m not proud doesn’t necessarily feel true either because all of the people that have shown up here. All of the faculty and students that I’ve talked to, they’re the reason that I’m proud, they’re the reason that I get up and go to class in the morning.”

These students don’t plan on ending events like this in the near future. Students plan on having a sit-in on Tuesday, February 6 at 10 a.m on campus.