John Engler: (Wikipedia photo by Chuck Grimmett)
John Engler, the interim President of Michigan State University, says that the school will have a tough time scraping together resources to pay victims who filed lawsuits in the Larry Nassar scandal.
Testifying last week before state lawmakers, he said there are no "deep pockets" that the university can access, such as its endowment, according to Bill Ballanger of The Ballenger Report.
That endowment is untouchable because of contracts with donors bar those funds from being used for something other than what they were earmarked for, the ex-governor contends.
“We will have to successfully negotiate settlements and then we’ll see (how to pay),” Engler stated. “As Penn State found out, sometimes insurers won’t pay." (He refers to that university's Jerry Sandusky sexual assault scandal a decade ago.)
Then Engler said MSU will have nowhere else to turn other than tuition and state aid, meaning students and their parents and Michigan taxpayers, Ballenger writes.
Engler expressed dissatisfaction last week with pending state legislation he says gives plaintiffs more leverage against the school.
