MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon
Noah Saperstein, 23, is charged with disorderly conduct for standing at a Michigan State University Board of Trustees meeting in December and raised concerns about the school president getting a $200,000 raise.
"I said something to the effect of, ‘We have adjunct professors, why not an adjunct president?’” Saperstein told City Pulse, an alternative paper in Lansing. Saperstein is a union organizer for the Graduate Student union funded by the American Federation of Teachers
The meeting was packed that with people registered to speak in opposition to George Will speaking at the university graduating class.
Later in the meeting, the board took up the proposal to give President Lou Anna K. Simon’s salary from $520,000 a year to $750,000 a year.
The paper reports that Saperstein spoke up even though he hadn't registered.
The paper reports he was arrested moments later and charged with violating MSU's disorderly conduct ordinance.
The paper writes:
He faces 93 days in jail, he said, for speaking out of turn at a public meeting. Officials say he interfered with the operation of a building and he breached the peace.
Joshua Covert, Saperstein’s attorney, believes that Saperstein was arrested for his union activities. .
“I believe that his union organizing was part of why he was charged with a crime,” Covert said. “I think it was done to silence Noah and to teach him a lesson, so to speak.”
He said the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office is reviewing the case.
MSU declined to comment on the case.
