LOCAL

Nassar survivors ask MSU to restart Healing Assistance Fund; trustees take no action

Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING - Survivors of abuse by former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar and their supporters demanded Friday morning that university officials restart the Healing Assistance Fund for Nassar's victims.

The $10 million fund, created to pay for counseling services for those Nassar had abused, was frozen in July over concerns of fraud, though officials said none of the fraudulent claims were made by survivors who've filed criminal or civil complaints.

Despite saying earlier in the year that the fund would be reopened, interim MSU President John Engler announced this month that it would be shut down for good.

"Is this really how you’re going to help everybody heal and get closure?" said Leslie Miller, the mother of survivor Emma Ann Miller. "Was the healing fund always just intended to be a publicity stunt to help your image or do you actually care about survivors in this community?"

Then, directly addressing Engler, she said, "Your actions have shown again and again that you’re only interested in the bottom line...Are you going to be OK with that in the end?"

Engler and members of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees also heard from survivors Emma Ann Miller, Morgan McCaul and Kaylee Lorincz, among others.

Trustees took no action on the fund during the meeting.

Engler said after the meeting that the $425 million payment to 333 survivors who settled with the university "will be able to handle any possible future mental health treatment or issues."

Another group of more than 160 is currently suing MSU, and Engler said they could be entitled to $75 million set aside by MSU for future litigation.

But not everyone who was eligible for the Healing Assistance Fund is getting settlement money. The fund was made available to MSU health clinic patients or student-athletes abused by Nassar and to their parents, whether they had filed suit against the university or not. .

It was meant to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses for counseling services from licensed professionals. The number of people eligible for money in that fund greatly outnumber those who've settled with the university relating to Nassar's abuses.

In announcing the fund's closure, MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said it had been intended to be "a bridge" to allow survivors financial support to get counseling until the settlement was reached.

Engler wrote in a memo to trustees on Dec. 3 that the $8.6 million left in the healing fund would be used to reduce the amount of borrowing needed to pay the $500 million settlement.

"In all of the statements made regarding the healing fund, it was never described as a 'bridge to the settlement,’” Colin Wiebrecht, a member of Reclaim MSU, said on Friday. “It was the understanding of survivors and others in the MSU community that it was a separate fund designed to provide access to mental health services for both survivors and their families as well as being a fund that was available to those that were not a part of the settlement."

Putnam: Closing Michigan State 'healing' fund harms Nassar victims

Trustees Brian Mosallam and Dianne Byrum and incoming trustees Brianna Scott and Kelly Tebay, all Democrats, released a statement last week saying they did not support closing the fund.

Mosallam struck a similar note on Friday, saying that shutting down the fund against the advice of MSU's Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct Expert Advisory Workgroup was "counterintuitive."

"In January, we have different trustees coming who might have a different viewpoint," he added. "We’ll pick that up as soon as we can get some help."

Friday was the last meeting for trustees Mitch Lyons and Brian Breslin. Both chose not to run for reelection. The two Republicans will be replaced in January by Scott and Tebay.

Trustee George Perles, a Democrat, stepped down last month, citing health issues. Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to appoint his successor, who will serve until Perles' term ends in 2023.

Larissa Boyce, who has said she reported Nassar to former MSU women's gymnastics coach Kathy Klages in 1997, said after the meeting that she and other survivors have "had hope a lot over the past few years, and we've been disappointed pretty much every time.

"I have a small piece of hope that they'll open it up," Boyce said. "I never actually used the Healing Fund, but my parents did, for counseling. All of the family members are not being supported anymore, all of the survivors who, for their own reasons, didn't seek to be part of the settlement, they have nothing to help them."

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr. Contact Madison O'Connor at 517-377-1047 or moconnor1@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @madisonoconn.