Lou Anna Kimsey Simon is an American academic administrator who served as the 20th president of

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

(MSU). Simon was appointed interim president of the university in 2003, then served as president from 2005 until her resignation in 2018. Since December 2017, Simon has been John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in the College of Education at MSU. From 2012 to 2014, Simon served as chair of the executive committee of National Collegiate Athletic Association. She also served as chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch.

Education

Simon received her Bachelor of Arts in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

from Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1969. She earned a Master of Science in

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

personnel Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

and

counseling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. This is a list of co ...

from Indiana State University in 1970. In 1974 Simon earned a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in higher education from MSU. She is married and lives in East Lansing.

Career

Michigan State University

Simon was hired by MSU to be a faculty member. Over the following years, she served in a sequence of increasingly-senior administrative positions: Assistant Director of the Office of Institutional Research, Assistant Provost for General Academic Administration, Associate Provost, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1993-2004, and interim president from April 25, 2003 to September 30, 2003 while then-President

M. Peter McPherson Melville Peter McPherson (born October 27, 1940) is president emeritus of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. He previously served as a special assistant to President Gerald Ford, administrator of USAID under President Ronald ...

served as a representative of President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

in the reconstruction of Iraq. On June 8, 2004, the MSU

Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

voted unanimously to appoint Simon as President with a three-year, US $340,000-a-year, contract effective January 1, 2005. In January 2006, the Board of Trustees increased Simon's salary to US $425,000 although President Simon and her husband Roy Simon donated that year's increase back to the university's capital campaign. In 2006, Simon decided to add

to the list of institutions opposing the passage of the

Michigan Civil Rights Initiative The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), or Proposal 2 (Michigan 06–2), was a ballot initiative in the U.S. state of Michigan that passed into Michigan Constitutional law by a 58% to 42% margin on November 7, 2006, according to results o ...

, an initiative that ended affirmative action in the state of Michigan. In 2017, Michigan State's role in the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case led to a large outcry from students, faculty, state legislators, alumni and others, including calls for President Simon to step down. Nassar, a sports physician at MSU from 1997 to 2016, pleaded guilty in a Michigan court to seven charges of sexual assault and faces accusations of sexual assault from more than 150 young girls and women. ''The Detroit News'' reported that 14 MSU representatives, including Simon, had been told of sexual misconduct by Nassar across two decades. While the MSU trustees initially voiced support for Simon, public pressure continued to grow until January 24, 2018, when the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...

approved a resolution calling on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees to fire Simon. On January 24, 2018, Simon announced her resignation from the presidency. Simon drew further criticism for her resignation letter, which critics felt did not take adequate responsibility for her role, instead characterizing the "blame" directed at her as a result of the case being "politicized." Simon signed her resignation letter with her title "John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor," a prestigious professorship most were unaware she had been awarded the previous December. The appointment then received criticism from numerous faculty members across the University, due to Simon's career being strictly in administrative roles with virtually no faculty experience, and on the basis of it having been a direct appointment by the trustees bypassing usual academic procedure. Following her resignation, Simon's contract allowed for a 12-month research leave at her full presidential salary, after which she could officially assume her faculty position in the department of educational administration. On November 20, 2018, Simon was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanor counts for lying to the police about her knowledge of sexual abuse committed by Nassar. MSU interim President John Engler announced that Simon would be taking an immediate leave of absence from the university, without pay. An Eaton County judge dismissed the charges against Simon in 2020.

NCAA

In August 2012, while president of MSU, Simon began a two-year term as chair of the NCAA's executive committee. Elected to the position one week after the committee's sanctions of

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

for the university's part in the

Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years ...

, Simon said her goal was to "build trust and confidence back in the system."

References

External links

Michigan State University biography of Simon (archived from 2017)

MSU summary of Simon's tenure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Lou Anna Indiana State University alumni Living people Michigan State University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Presidents of Michigan State University Year of birth missing (living people)