Michigan State University will have to pay nearly half a million dollars to the attorneys for the former Michigan State University Broad School of Business dean Sanjay Gupta after it settled a lawsuit with him.
Gupta will also receive an additional $70,000 per year for his role as co-chair on President Kevin Guskiewicz’s advisory Green and White Council and MSU may pay him a yearly $75,000 bonus for his performance as co-chair.
The settlement, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, comes two and a half years after Gupta lost his post as dean after failing to report sexual misconduct at an event he didn’t attend. Some speculated he was docked by former interim President Teresa Woodruff to eliminate his aspirations in the competition for MSU’s next president, leading Gupta to file a lawsuit. Gupta said he was wrongfully terminated from his position.
MSU has to pay the mediation fees of about $22,000 and Gupta’s legal fees of $400,000, according to the settlement agreement. The lawsuit was dismissed as a part of the settlement, which was finalized in January.
Gupta will co-chair Guskiewicz’s Green and White Council, a group of civic and business leaders, funders and government officials who will help identify how MSU can continue to offer educational programming that aligns with Michigan’s economy and job market. The council also aims to address gaps that employers need but higher education is not addressing in hopes of a better prepared workforce and more new businesses in the region.
The other co-chair of the Green and White Council will be former Bank of America executive and MSU alumnus Matt Elliott, the immediate past chair of the Detroit Regional Chamber.
Gupta will continue teaching at MSU in the Broad College Department of Accounting and Information Systems. He also will hold the endowed position of the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Professorship and he will be awarded dean emeritus status. His base faculty salary is $466,409.
Gupta’s forced resignation as dean resulted in widespread acrimony at the business school and among prominent MSU alumni, donors and trustees. It also prompted an outside investigation that cost an estimated $1 million.
His resignation came at the request of Woodruff, then MSU’s provost, for failing to report a case involving former MSU Associate Dean Charles Hadlock during an annual business school gala where Hadlock allegedly got intoxicated and danced inappropriately with students. Gupta did not attend the gala but became aware of the situation from two associate business school deans and said he believed that the incident had been reported.
A March 2023 outside investigative report conducted by the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP law firm showed that Gupta violated MSU policy by failing to report the sexual misconduct that was reported to him, but concluded that personnel actions taken against him for that failure were “disproportionate.”
kberg@detroitnews.com