MSU pays $3M fine for violating federal rules tied to Nassar scandal oversight

EAST LANSING — Michigan State University failed to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Education for more than a dozen of its academic programs as required under provisions put into place after the Larry Nassar scandal, leading to millions in fines.

In June, MSU and the DOE reached a settlement that acknowledged the university violated provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The DOE found that financial aid provided to students in the unapproved programs totaled $2,761,502 and had to be paid back to the department by Aug. 1, according to the settlement agreement.

MSU spokesperson Mark Bullion said the amount was paid in full on July 19.

The university had been put on "provisional standing" for financial aid in November 2019 following the Larry Nassar case, Bullion said in an emailed statement. As a part of that requirement, MSU had to gain approval for all new degree programs before it could give students in those programs federal financial aid.

MSU did not receive approval for 16 academic programs in which about 1,650 students were enrolled, Bullion said, and about 800 of those students were eligible for financial aid. He said no students were adversely impacted by the settlement.

It's not clear who at MSU was involved in the decision to approve the programs without federal authorization. Bullion said he could not provide an answer to that question Tuesday but said the staff was no longer employed with the university.

The programs included a variety of fields, such as public relations, African American and African studies, and cybercrime and digital investigation.

While MSU did not obtain approval for the new programs, it did self-report in December 2022 once the oversight was recognized, Bullion said.

All of the academic programs were eventually approved by the Department of Education, he said.

The academic programs eventually approved include:

• Communication leadership and strategy - Bachelor of Arts
• Games and interactive media - Bachelor of Arts
• Information science - Bachelor of Arts
• Public relations - Bachelor of Arts
• Athletic training - Master of Science
• Digital storytelling - Bachelor of Arts
• Communicative sciences and disorders - Bachelor of Science
• Criminal justice - Master of Arts
• Financial planning and wealth management - Master of Science
• Data science - Master of Science
• Customer experience management - Master of Science
• African American and African studies - Bachelor of Arts
• Applied behavior analysis and autism spectrum disorder - Master of Arts
• Cybercrime and digital investigation - Master of Science
• PA medicine - Master of Science
• Rhetoric and writing - Master of Arts

MSU Settlement Agreement by Susan Vela on Scribd

Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com. Follow her on X @sarahmatwood .

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU pays $3M fine for violating federal rules tied to Nassar scandal oversight