(WXYZ) — Michigan State University Interim President Dr. Teresa Woodruff is sitting down to talk about what MSU is doing to support sexual assault survivors.
It's an institutional problem that led to a national scandal involving disgraced former gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, at MSU.
Years after survivors began publicly demanding accountability, the school has changed how reporting is handled.
"There's definitely a lot of resources to reach out if you need help," MSU Freshman Malina Dumitrascu said.
“Do you believe MSU has made progress in making the environment safer and more comfortable to report something?" 7 Action News asked.
"I do think we have a lot of options. They have made improvements for it to be as safe as possible," she said.
For years, countless athletes spoke out about being sexually assaulted by the former gymnastics doctor who's now serving decades in prison. Their complaints were dismissed. Having admitted to mistakes, MSU agreed to pay for than $500 million in settlements for survivors since 2016.
Now, Woodruff points to a center for survivors and other initiatives bringing more transparency and resources.
"We’ve been developing as a university a series of practices and policies, and trying to change behavior and culture across campus. I’m happy with what we’ve seen in our survey and outcomes but not satisfied," Woodruff said.
We asked her about a story that was published in The State News involving an editor, who publically recalled her own experience of reporting sexual assault in November.
She said it was "time-consuming and burdensome," adding she "lost faith, lost motivation, lost trust."
"I’m so sorry she had that experience. That’s not what any of us want for her. She's right, we shouldn’t have to learn from survivors how to engineer an institution like ours to do better," Woodruff said.
Attorney Todd Flood who represents survivors of Nassar, also says their closely following steps MSU continues to take.”
“You don’t want to be re-traumatized twice, three or four times. You don’t forget these things and it’s really tough to work through," Flood said. “That was part of our settlement, making sure there was a seat at the table for people to follow the process, survivors.”
According to Flood, what feels like an epidemic across U.S. college campuses has awakened society to an incredible problem we all must work to fix.
“I like the fact the interim president says hey listen, we are going to improve continuously," Flood said.
"That people are willing to listen to their story and believe them because a lot of people are afraid they won’t think they are telling the truth, or actions won’t be made like in the past actions haven’t been," one student told us.
Woodruff said personally making regular visits to the school's survivors center is just part of her commitment to accountability and transparency.
