Reckoning With Unspeakable Abuse

Vast sexual-abuse scandals rocked academe in the 2010s, leading to dismissals, huge financial settlements, damaged reputations, and continuing litigation and prosecution. These five universities suffered among the biggest scandals; all are still recovering from them.

Penn State

AP; Getty

The scandal breaks: November 5, 2011

The culprit: Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, who will spend the rest of his life in prison

The crime: sexually abusing a number of boys from 1994 to 2009

The collateral damage: Three Penn State leaders were charged with child endangerment after failing to report that Sandusky was spotted showering with a boy in a campus locker room in 2001. Two administrators went to jail, but Graham B. Spanier, the former president, got a last-minute reprieve when his conviction was thrown out, in April.

The aftermath: The scandal cost Penn State as much as $250 million and incalculable reputational damage

Baylor

AP (both)

The scandal breaks: April 30, 2012

The accused: Baylor students, mostly athletes, primarily from the football team

The accusations: gang rapes and sexual assaults of a number of women, mainly from 2011 to 2015

The collateral damage: Art Briles, the football coach, and Kenneth W. Starr, the president, were both ousted for failing to deal with what one regent called a “horrifying and painful” series of assaults.

The aftermath: One football player is serving a 20-year sentence, Baylor settled with some of the accusers, and another player’s conviction was overturned in July because of a due-process violation. A report commissioned by Baylor alumni in 2016 set the financial toll at as much as $223 million.

Michigan State

AP (both)

The scandal breaks: September 12, 2016

The culprit: Larry Nassar, a longtime team physician for USA Gymnastics and a faculty member at Michigan State, who will be in prison for life

The crime: sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women

The collateral damage: Most notably, Lou Anna K. Simon, the president, who retired during the ordeal and now is charged with lying to the police during the Nassar investigation. William Strampel, a former MSU dean and Nassar’s former boss, was sentenced to a year in jail for misconduct and neglect of duty. Kathie Klages, a former gymnastics coach at MSU, is facing criminal charges.

The aftermath: The university agreed to pay $500 million to Nassar’s victims and was fined a record $4.5 million by the U.S. Education Department for violating the Clery Act.

Ohio State

Ohio State

The scandal breaks: April 5, 2018

The culprit: Richard Strauss, a university athletics doctor who killed himself in 2005

The crime: sexually abusing 177 to 1,500 men from 1979 to 1998

The collateral damage: Undetermined, although U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio who was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986 to 1994, is accused of having been aware of the abuses, which he denies. Ohio State University has vowed to fully investigate Strauss’s crimes.

The aftermath: pending

U. of Southern California

AP

The scandal breaks: May 16, 2018

The accused: George Tyndall, a university gynecologist

The accusation: abusing or harassing hundreds of students during his three decades at a campus clinic. Tyndall has been charged with 29 counts of sexual penetration and sexual battery by fraud. The university has been accused of mishandling years of complaints, allowing Tyndall to continue to prey on his patients.

The collateral damage: C.L. Max Nikias, USC’s president, and two of his top deputies — Michael Quick, the provost; and Carol Mauch Amir, the general counsel — resigned from their posts in the wake of cascading scandals.

The aftermath: The university has agreed to a tentative $215-million class-action settlement but could face hundreds more lawsuits from victims who are seeking bigger concessions.