LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The Michigan State University Board of Trustees on Sunday afternoon released a statement, following an incident Saturday evening in which an image of Adolf Hitler showed on Spartan Stadium’s videoboard before the game between MSU and Michigan.
The image of Hitler and the word “Austria,” his birthplace, as part of a pregame trivia quiz, flashed on MSU’s videoboards about an hour before kickoff, and was on the boards long enough for some people to share the incident on social media, the Associated Press reported.
The Board of Trustees on Sunday released the following statement:
“The Michigan State University (MSU) Board of Trustees is outraged at last night’s incident at Spartan Stadium. The projected image was unacceptable, and as the oversight body for MSU, we want to publicly apologize to everyone who was in Spartan Stadium or learned of this through other means.
“The board has spoken with Interim President Teresa Woodruff and Athletic Director Alan Haller and conveyed to them our extreme disappointment and our demand to know how this happened. MSU personnel must be accountable and held responsible for this disgusting display.
“Every person in the MSU community and our guests deserve to feel safe and that they belong. The board does not condone bigotry of any kind. We will take necessary steps to ensure that our athletic department and the administration live up to that expectation at all times. The board demands that MSU administrators thoroughly examine all the factors and actions that led to this incident and report back to the board and the public about how this happened and who will be held accountable.”
The university said the content containing the image was from a third-party source, in the context of the pregame trivia quiz, in which the question was about Hitler’s birthplace.
University spokesperson Matt Larson on Saturday said the content displayed on the videoboard “is not representative of our institutional values” and that MSU would not use a third-party source from now on, and will implement stronger screening and approval procedures for videoboard content.
MSU went on to lose to U-M Saturday, 49-0.
