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Michigan State finds more than 40 people may have known about Nassar, Strampel's abuse

September 1, 2020
Beaumont Tower on Jan. 10, 2019.
Beaumont Tower on Jan. 10, 2019. —
Photo by Annie Barker | The State News

Michigan State University released an update pertaining to institutional reforms required by an agreement with MSU and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights last year, finding more than 40 individuals may have recieved notice of complaints regarding ex-MSU doctor Larry Nassar's decades of sexual abuse and the misconduct of Nassar's boss, ex-College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel.

In the majority of those cases, individuals acted within the then-acceptable policies, President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. said in a message sent to the MSU community.

Today, MSU sent "Reports of Employee Review" for both Nassar and Strampel to the DOE, which includes the current and former employees identified as recieving notice of sexual misconduct complaints from Nassar and Strampel.

"For those employees identified to have not appropriately reported their knowledge of abuses by Nassar and Strampel, responsive steps have been taken in accordance with university policies," Stanley said. "This includes documenting the lack of action in their personnel files. Several of these individuals are no longer in their roles or have left MSU."

The reports are included in 33 tasks completed that are required as a part of the federal agreement, more than 90 are in progress, according to a univesity release.

The agreement resolved an investigation related to Nassar’s decades of sexual abuse while employed by MSU.

Michigan State also has agreements with the U.S. Department of Education’s Clery Compliance Division and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights on actions to improve its complaince with federal regulations.

Stanley also said a Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct strategic plan is in the works, which will outline additional prevention efforts, policy updates and actions the university can take to make the MSU community safer and our culture one of greater accountability, according to the message.

"A lot of hard work is happening across the university to continue our progress toward addressing relationship violence and sexual misconduct,” Stanley said in a statement. “During my first year at the university, I tasked our expert advisory workgroup with developing a strategic plan to identify additional prevention efforts, policy updates and actions. This will continue to be a focus and priority for the university.”

MSU also included a progress tracker for those requirements here.

Eaton County Circuit Court sentenced Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison for three additional counts of criminal sexual assault in Feb. 2018. Additionally, Strampel was sentenced to one year in jail by Judge Joyce Draganchuk in Aug. 2019, but was released on good behavior in March.

"We know that we haven't fixed everything and we know we're not eventually where we'll need to be when it comes to dealing with prevention and dealing with sexual assault and sexual harrasment," MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said. "There's certainly a lot of hard work happening around the university."

This is a developing story. Stay with The State News for updates.

This story was updated at 2:25 p.m. to include an update with a comment from MSU Spokesperson Emily Guerrant.

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