BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Two Michigan State University trustees pushed back against the board's decision to censure them Friday for refusing to sign the board's revised Code of Ethics and Conduct. The new code of conduct requires the eight trustees to sign on to a "Statement of Acknowledgment" and agree to follow the revised rules, which include agreeing to a "duty of loyalty" and supporting the ...

Two Michigan State University trustees pushed back against the board's decision to censure them Friday for refusing to sign the board's revised Code of Ethics and Conduct.

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BENTON HARBOR, Mich. — Two Michigan State University trustees pushed back against the board's decision to censure them Friday for refusing to sign the board's revised Code of Ethics and Conduct.

The new code of conduct requires the eight trustees to sign on to a "Statement of Acknowledgment" and agree to follow the revised rules, which include agreeing to a "duty of loyalty" and supporting the majority decision of the board even if they disagree, according to the resolution approved by the board on May 17. Trustees Mike Balow, R-Plymouth, and Trustee Rema Vassar, D-Detroit, refused to sign.

Balow and Vassar both had their tickets to the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference revoked by the board for refusing to sign onto the new rules. The code of conduct also dictates that trustees who don't sign will lose tickets to games, reimbursements and university-funded legal representation.

Balow said at the Friday meeting that experts he has consulted said no other university has a policy that includes a mandatory signature deadline and automatic penalties for elected trustees for signing on to a code of conduct. He did not name the specific experts but cited other codes of conduct at other public universities.

"The MSU amendment effectively converts the standard ethical guideline into a compliance weapon designed specifically to silence or punish dissenting members of an elected body, which is why it is being viewed as a unique anomaly in American higher education," Balow said.

Trustees who backed the revised code of conduct said the language was intentionally being misinterpreted and the revisions do not prevent trustees from dissenting in appropriate spaces, such as during a public board meeting.

"It does not prohibit free speech," said Trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook, D-Lansing. "It allows people to talk in committee, right here on the board floor or in a work session. What we're trying, what we have done through this change, is to tell a minority contingent of the board that they do not have the right to reexamine and stop progress if they do not get their way."

The censure passed in a 4-3 vote, with Trustee Dennis Denno, D-East Lansing, joining Vassar and Balow in voting no. Denno was censured previously by the board for violation of the ethics and conduct code when the board sought the removal of him and Vassar by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a move she eventually rejected.

Trustee Kelly Tebay, D-Ann Arbor, was absent from the meeting.

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