DETROIT — Michigan State University has agreed to undergo an institutional assessment about its structure, policies and culture related to relationship violence and sexual misconduct, guided by three survivors of disgraced MSU sports doctor Larry Nassar.

Trinea Gonczar, Sterling Riethman and Rachael Denhollander, along with retired MSU police Deputy Chief Andrea Munford and MSU psychology professor Rebecca Campbell, make up MSU's new Collaborative Advisory Board, which will select an independent firm to evaluate how the university is handling sexual misconduct and relationship violence. The advisory board also will work with the university to make changes after the review.

Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault in 2016, said she and Riethman have been pushing MSU to assess its policies since 2018.

Denhollander, Riethman and Gonczar are three of the hundreds of women and girls who Nassar sexually assaulted under the guise of medical treatment while he was a sports doctor at MSU and a team doctor for USA Gymnastics. Nassar was sentenced to an effective life prison sentence in 2018 for sexual assault and possession of child pornography.

"The heartbeat of every survivor is to know that the next generation is going to be better protected and is not going to go through what they've gone through, but achieving that goal is impossible without robust diagnostics," Denhollander said. "This really is an incredibly important step to pull together the good work that has already been done at the university, to ensure that we have full and accurate accounting and weaknesses or gaps that still need improvement, and to coalesce together in unity around these forward-looking steps."

The creation of the board has been a long time coming, Denhollander said at a press conference Thursday, adding the assessment will look into why it took so long to get MSU to agree to do the comprehensive review.

MSU has done several independent reviews on its handling of sexual assault cases and its handling of the Nassar case, including a more than six-year review by the Michigan Attorney General that was stymied by the university's initial refusal to give up attorney-client privilege on thousands of documents.

It had several reviews by law firm Cozen O'Connor, all of which found that while the university was overall doing better at handling Title IX cases, there were still issues with timeliness, case oversight and keeping all parties in the loop.

The MSU board was poised to hire an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation in 2019 after working with survivors on a plan for eight months, but it never happened because there weren't enough board members supporting it.

Denhollander credited the support of MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz, who started at the university in March 2024, with moving the advisory board forward.

“At Michigan State University, it is our responsibility to acknowledge our history and seek opportunities for healing through our commitment to continuous improvement,” Guskiewicz said in a statement.

“To that end, we are partnering with experts who are professionals in their respective fields to identify a firm to perform an institutional assessment of our culture, structure and policies. This assessment is an opportunity to embark on a journey of historical accountability; recognize progress in prevention, support, reporting and response efforts, ensuring future policies are informed by best practices; and identify additional areas for growth and improvement.”

Campbell said the advisory board has the "full support" of Guskiewicz and the Board of Trustees.

"This evaluation will achieve historical accountability," Campbell said. "It will review our current efforts at MSU and will help identify areas that still need continuous improvement."

Denhollander said the university has taken positive steps already, but bringing matters under one advisory board will help the university move forward.

"It takes a very comprehensive approach, not repeating the work that's already been done, but being able to learn from what's already been done, and to take a very multi-faceted and robust approach to pulling all of those pieces together, plugging in gaps that we still have, and then being able to move forward with that," Denhollander said.

And while Denhollander, Gonczar and Riethman all survived abuse from the same man, this isn't about him, Denhollander said.

"There (is) certainly a lot that we can learn from what we have gone through and what's happening at the university, but making this a safe campus and coming together unified around the school is much, much bigger than that person," she said.

The advisory board will be working with survivors and stakeholders to develop guidelines and objectives for the assessment process. They will then choose an independent firm to conduct a review of the university.

The university has been cited multiple times by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights for problems in its handling of the Nassar scandal, as well as its general handling of relationship violence and sexual misconduct.

Since Nassar's conduct was revealed in 2016, numerous public scandals have plagued the university, including the conviction of the former dean of Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine William Strampel for making sexually charged comments to women who sought academic help from him; the firing of football coach Mel Tucker amid an investigation of a sexual harassment complaint by Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor who works to prevent sexual violence through education of male athletes; and the sexual assaults of several women by football and basketball players.

The former president, Samuel Stanley, departed his post early following board concerns about how the university handles Title IX issues.

Among the initiatives that the university has rolled out in recent years are the MSU Sexual Assault Health Care Program, which opened to provide care and evidence collection for those who have been sexually assaulted, said Carrie Moylan, an adviser to the MSU president and co-chair of the university's relationship violence and sexual misconduct prevention workgroup. There is also the Center for Survivors, which provides counseling, advocacy and a 24-hour crisis line for sexual assault survivors.

MSU is also working with national efforts, Moylan said, such as the Culture of Respect, where campuses work together to assess campus efforts and create plans to improve campus culture.

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