West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee responded Friday to a report from Ohio State University that says a team doctor sexually abused students for nearly two decades.
According to the investigation, university officials knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it.
Investigators said Strauss pleaded with OSU administrators to keep his job as the accusations mounted against him. That included sending a letter in 1997 to then-president Gordon Gee.
Gee, whose first stint as OSU president was from 1990 to 1997, now oversees West Virginia University in the same role.
“As has been conveyed to the investigators at Ohio State, I have no recollection of Dr. Strauss or any reports regarding him. I have always taken any allegations brought to my attention very seriously and will continue to do so,” Gee said in an emailed statement.
Among the other then-OSU officials is U.S. Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Jordan, who was a wrestling coach at the university from 1987 to 1995, said Friday the report confirms that he was unaware of the allegations against Strauss.
Former OSU wrestlers claimed last year that Jordan knew or must have known of the reports of sexual abuse.
“I do know Rep. Jordan, but only as a congressman from the district which includes one of the campuses of Ohio State as I worked with him in that capacity during my second term,” Gee said Friday in his statement.
Strauss was fired from his positions as a team doctor and physician at the student health center in 1998.
A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students over nearly two decades, and university officials knew what he was doing and did little to stop him, according to an investigative report released by the school Friday.
Dr. Richard Strauss committed the abuse from 1979 to 1997 — nearly his entire time at Ohio State — in episodes involving athletes from at least 16 sports, plus his work at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, the report said.
The report on Strauss, who took his life in 2005, could cost the university heavily by bolstering the lawsuits brought against it by a multitude of victims.
The findings put Strauss in a league with gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of Michigan State University, who was accused of molesting at least 250 women and girls and is serving what amounts to a life sentence. Michigan State ultimately agreed to a $500 million settlement with his victims.
In issuing the report, Ohio State President Michael Drake offered “profound regret and sincere apologies to each person who endured Strauss’ abuse.” He called it a “fundamental failure” of the institution and thanked victims for their courage.
Many of Strauss’ accusers who have spoken publicly said they were groped or otherwise inappropriately touched during physical exams, or ogled in locker rooms. Many told investigators that they thought his behavior was an “open secret” and that they believed their coaches, trainers and other team doctors knew about it.
The students described the examinations as being “hazed” or going through a “rite of passage.” Athletes joked about Strauss’ behavior, referring to him with nicknames like “Dr. Jelly Paws.”
On Friday, some of his victims called on the university to take responsibility for its inaction and the harm inflicted by Strauss.
“Dreams were broken, relationships with loved ones were damaged, and the harm now carries over to our children as many of us have become so overprotective that it strains the relationship with our kids,” Kent Kilgore said in a statement.
Steve Estey, an attorney for some of the former students who are suing, said Ohio State should take care of the victims, as it promised six months ago.
“We hope that the report will force OSU to take responsibility for its failure to protect young students,” he said. “If OSU refuses to take responsibility, we will continue with civil litigation and put this in front of a jury for 12 people to judge their actions.”
The law firm hired to conduct the investigation for the school interviewed hundreds of former students and university employees. The report concludes that university personnel at the time knew of complaints and concerns about Strauss’ conduct as early as 1979 but failed for years to investigate or take meaningful action.
As the allegations against him mounted, investigators said, Strauss pleaded with university administrators to keep his job. That included sending a letter in 1997 to then-university president Gordon Gee. A message seeking comment was left Friday for Gee, now president of West Virginia University.
Strauss, a well-regarded physician and sports-medicine researcher, was eventually let go as a team doctor and physician at the student health center. But he was allowed to retire from a faculty position at the university and received emeritus status, a mark of distinguished service. The university said it will revoke the honor.
No one has publicly defended him, though family members have said they were shocked by the allegations.
At least one of the students, a 14-year-old high school wrestler at the time of Strauss’ abuse, told investigators Strauss molested other minors during the course of the doctor’s work with high schools and an Ohio State wrestling camp. No other such accounts were included in unredacted portions of the report.
Previous to Friday’s release, his accusers had alleged more than 20 school officials and staff members, including two athletic directors and a coach who is now a congressman , were aware of concerns about Strauss but didn’t stop him.
Neither that congressman, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, nor any other coaches are mentioned by name in the report.
Most of those claims are part of the lawsuits against Ohio State that are headed to mediation . They seek unspecified damages.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also is examining whether Ohio State responded “promptly and equitably” to students’ complaints.
Ohio State alumni have said they complained about Strauss as early as the late 1970s, and the university had at least one documented complaint from 1995.
Ohio State Medical Board records indicate the university reported Strauss to the board at some point but include no details. The board said it never disciplined him.
West Virginia’s state university and commerce officials say plastics and chemical manufacturing, cybersecurity, higher-end tourism and automotive assembly are sectors where the state can turn its lagging economy around.
In an address Thursday to business leaders at the Greenbrier Resort, West Virginia University President Gordon Gee says they collaborated to produce a roadmap for reinforcing the state’s existing foundation for growth and identify sectors to diversify the economy.
West Virginia has been hurt by sharp declines in coal production and employment the past several years despite an uptick this year.
A full report is expected by mid-September. It follows a study conducted by McKinsey & Co., a global management consultant. Additional ideas can be submitted via email leading up to the release of the final report.
Other sectors identified Thursday are computer cloud services and data centers and life sciences.
West Virginia University’s president says the school must reduce spending by $45 million by 2020.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that President E. Gordon Gee announced Monday during his State of the University address that cuts will be coming.
Gee declined to call the cuts a “problem,” saying that it will allow the university a chance to better evaluate programs’ strengths and weaknesses. He says he wants to improve the state’s economy by finding new avenues for economic development.
The university has lost $30 million of its base budget in recent years, with only 14 percent of the budget coming from state funds now.
During his first WVU presidency, from 1981-85, Gee says the state funding for the university was between 60 percent and 70 percent.
West Virginia University President Gordon Gee says the school won’t abandon Montgomery after it moves the WVU Institute of Technology’s programs to Beckley in 2017.
Gee told The Register-Herald that the university is looking at other options for Tech’s facilities in Montgomery that are owned by WVU and the state.
Gee says WVU also will continue to develop programs for Montgomery through its Extension Service and community development services.
He says the university’s mission includes improving opportunities for West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents and creating communities that are valued.
In his first year back as president of West Virginia University, Gordon Gee faced shrinking state funding and a high-profile student death on campus. He spoke recently with us about those challenges, and about his time serving on the board of directors for coal company Massey Energy.
Gee served as chairman of the Safety, Environmental and Public Policy Committee of Massey Energy’s board of directors before he resigned in 2009. Less than a year later, an explosion killed 29 men at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine.
Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has been indicted on federal charges associated with Upper Big Branch and is awaiting trial. Gee declined to comment on the indictment.
“During my service on the Massey Board, that was clearly the focus on our board, was on safety and safety measures,” Gee said. “Saying that, it is probably inappropriate for me to comment on the indictment itself because I’m not engaged in it, I’m not familiar with it. I think this is a matter for the federal courts and a matter for them to resolve.”
Violations at Upper Big Branch were routine and widespread, according to Governor Tomblin’s independent investigation panel.
Its report says, “Massey Energy engaged in a process of ‘normalization of deviance’ that, in the push to produce coal, made allowances for a faulty ventilation system, inadequate rock-dusting and poorly maintained equipment.”
Credit Mine Safety and Health Administration
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Mine Safety and Health Administration
Upper Big Branch memorial
Gee said that safety was “always our number one concern” during his time on the board, and that they were “working very hard to solve the problems we had,” he said.
“These are large companies. I ran Ohio State University, which is the largest university in the country, and West Virginia University, which is one of the very large, complex institutions, and I don’t know everything that goes on there. So you have to have that sort of trusting relationship of having good people doing good things,” Gee said.
Changing the Campus Culture
Gee also said he was working with students to change a campus culture that focuses too much on binge drinking.
Earlier this week, WVU student Richard Schwartz was charged with conspiracy to commit hazing in connection with the death of another student, 18-year-old Nolan Burch.
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Former WVU student Nolan Burch, who died last fall after a fraternity party
Burch died from apparent alcohol poisoning after a fraternity party last fall. Schwartz was his so-called “big brother” at the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Gee said the problem is not unique to WVU.
“This is not a West Virginia issue. This is a national issue,” he said, citing a study showing more than 1,800 college students die nationwide from alcohol-related causes every year.
“We cannot condemn the many because of the excesses of the few. And all too many institutions do that, so they come down with these hammer-like rules.”
He says his administration is having a healthier conversation around the issue with students: “You’re adults, this is your university, you develop strategies to make it the kind of place you want it to be.”
WVU’s Freedom Agenda
WVU and other universities face another round of cuts in this year’s state budget– although less than the last two years.
Gee said he’s found “strong receptivity to funding higher ed” in the new Republican-controlled Legislature, and hopes the cuts will come to an end.
This year, another priority is what Gee called the school’s “Freedom Agenda.” He is seeking increased flexibility in purchasing, the state’s PEIA health insurance plan, and other state rules.
“Let us do good things with the limited resources that we have. Right now, we are very limited in our ability to be creative,” Gee said.
Credit Scott Finn
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WVPB’s Beth Vorhees and WVU President Gordon Gee
“West Virginians love West Virginia”
Gee spent part of the last year traveling to all 55 West Virginia counties. He said he learned something important: “West Virginians love West Virginia.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this. That, of course, is a great strength, our people.
“Whether they find themselves in Singapore or Shanghai or Keokuk, Iowa, they want to return or they want to stay here. So we have to build on that,” Gee said.
He said WVU has a role in not just educating students, but developing the sort of economy, social and cultural opportunities that make them want to stay in West Virginia.
