William Strampel, former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State U., has retired from the university. Strampel was embroiled in his own controversy after the Larry Nassar scandal.Michigan State U.
William Strampel, a Michigan State University professor and former dean who has faced major scrutiny as Larry Nassar’s longtime boss and a controversy of his own, has retired from the university, officials announced on Friday. Michigan State had been trying to revoke his tenure and to fire him since February.
Strampel served as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, where Nassar was an associate professor, from 2002 until last December. He stepped down from the administrative post for health reasons, though he remained a tenured faculty member until his retirement, which was effective June 30.
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William Strampel, former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State U., has retired from the university. Strampel was embroiled in his own controversy after the Larry Nassar scandal.Michigan State U.
William Strampel, a Michigan State University professor and former dean who has faced major scrutiny as Larry Nassar’s longtime boss and a controversy of his own, has retired from the university, officials announced on Friday. Michigan State had been trying to revoke his tenure and to fire him since February.
Strampel served as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, where Nassar was an associate professor, from 2002 until last December. He stepped down from the administrative post for health reasons, though he remained a tenured faculty member until his retirement, which was effective June 30.
John Engler, the university’s interim president, criticized Strampel in a statement issued by Michigan State. “His conduct and attitude were unacceptable and went against the values of this university,” Engler said. “While completing the tenure-revocation process would have been highly satisfying, his immediate retirement means we have achieved the same goal — the end of the relationship between Strampel and MSU.”
Under an agreement with Michigan State, the former professor will receive $175,000, which “represents a compromise of the salary Strampel claims he would have been entitled to over the duration of the lengthy tenure-revocation process,” according to the university’s statement.
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He will not receive professor-emeritus status or “benefits related to executive-level retirement,” which officials didn’t specify; he will receive only basic health-care coverage.
Michigan State changed its tenure policy last month to try to force Strampel to leave the university. The revised policy states that once charges against a faculty member have been filed with the president and the chair of the committee on faculty tenure, a professor cannot secure official retiree status as long as his or her case is pending. That status affords professors lifetime health-care benefits.
High-Profile Exits
Strampel joins Lou Anna K. Simon, Michigan State’s former president, and Mark Hollis, the former athletic director, on the list of high-profile exits from the university amid the Nassar scandal.
For months, questions have swirled around what Strampel knew — and if so, when — about Nassar’s abuse of girls and young women. Allegations have also surfaced about Strampel’s own conduct, including harassment and groping of young female students.
He was arrested in March and charged with misconduct by a public official, fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and two counts of willful neglect of duty, becoming the first university administrator to face criminal charges in connection with the Nassar case. In February investigators found dozens of photos of nude women, as well as pornographic videos and a video of Nassar with a young patient, on a computer in his office.
Within a year the university lost two chief executives — Lou Anna K. Simon, sank by the scathing, heart-rending testimony of the sports doctor’s scores of victims, and John M. Engler, whose interim presidency ended amid a backlash over his bare-knuckled tactics.
In 2014, after a complaint was filed against Nassar, Strampel told him he couldn’t see patients during the university’s investigation. Within a few months, however, Nassar was treating patients again, even though the review was still in progress.
The investigation cleared the sports doctor, but Strampel was supposed to enforce new monitoring rules for Nassar, such as requiring a medical resident or nurse to be in the room during sensitive treatments. Strampel didn’t enforce those requirements or alert other employees about them, according to court documents.
After the university fired Nassar, in September 2016, Strampel told a group of students and administrators that he didn’t believe the sexual-abuse allegations against the sports doctor, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nassar has been convicted of abusing hundreds of patients and sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.
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Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.
