MSU President Engler moves to fire William Strampel, Larry Nassar's former boss

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University Interim President John Engler is moving to fire William Strampel, former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, for his failure to enforce special protocols put in place for Larry Nassar following a 2014 sexual assault investigation.

“William Strampel did not act with the level of professionalism we expect from individuals who hold senior leadership positions, particularly in a position that involves student and patient safety,” Engler said in a statement released by the university. “Further, allegations have arisen that question whether his personal conduct over a long period of time met MSU’s standards. We are sending an unmistakable message today that we will remove employees who do not treat students, faculty, staff, or anyone else in our community in an appropriate manner.

“I sincerely hope the courageous survivors of Larry Nassar will see this as an unmistakable indication that things are changing quickly at Michigan State,” Engler said. “I said last week that their efforts would not be in vain. This is just the first step in restoring trust in Michigan State.”

Engler also said that MSU will not cover Strampel’s legal expenses related to the Nassar case.

Nassar, once a highly regarded MSU osteopathic physician who provided medical care to Olympic athletes and scores of youth gymnasts, is now a convicted felon who is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Strampel served as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine from 2002 until December, when he stepped down for medical reasons. He remains on the faculty, though he is on medical leave.

Maria Dwyer, an attorney with Clark Hill PLC, a law firm that has been representing Strampel in civil lawsuits filed against MSU by victims of Nassar, said Strampel had no comment at this time.

In a separate move, Suresh Mukherji has been suspended from his role as chairman of the MSU Department of Radiology "pending a review of concerns that have been expressed about your leadership and department communications."

Mukherji also serves as the chief medical officer of the MSU Health Team, the university's multi-specialty medical practice which includes the MSU sports medicine clinic where Nassar worked.

Mukherji was suspended because he did not adhere to Engler’s Feb. 5 directive to all MSU employees to preserve documents and cooperate with all of the ongoing investigations into the university’s handling of the Nassar case, Engler spokesman John Truscott said Friday. He could not offer specifics on what Mukherji did or didn’t do.

“What I can say, generally, is that we’ve said we expect full cooperation with all investigations, and if that doesn’t happen, there will be consequences,” Truscott said.

Mukherji and Strampel were both Nassar’s superiors and together wrote the September 2016 letter terminating Nassar's employment at MSU.

Strampel has tenure at the university, meaning the university can't simply fire him, though he can be dismissed for cause. The university's policies require a faculty hearing committee to find that cause exists to revoke tenure. Engler said he is confident the faculty panel will make such a finding.

The cause, in this case, is “Dr. Strampel’s failure to monitor and enforce clinical practice guidelines put in place for former doctor Larry Nassar following the conclusion of the 2014 sexual harassment investigation,” according to a letter sent Friday to MSU Provost June Youatt by Carol Viventi, vice president and special counsel to Engler.

Strampel led the college during a Title IX investigation undertaken by MSU in 2014 after Nassar was accused of sexually assaulting a female patient.

The patient had told police and Title IX officials that Nassar had rubbed her breast and rubbed near her vagina, but she pushed his hands away and ended the appointment. That incident did not involve penetration, which was cited by many women and girls who spoke at Nassar's sentencing hearings on sexual assault charges held in January and earlier this month. The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office declined to press charges in the 2014 incident.

While the Title IX review was ongoing, Strampel regularly checked the status of the investigation, voiced his support for Nassar and told Nassar he could return to clinical work before the investigation concluded, the Lansing State Journal reported last year after obtaining emails through a public records request.

The State Journal reported in December that the criminal investigation into whether Nassar had assaulted the patient continued for 16 months after the Title IX review closed and Nassar was allowed to see patients during that time.

That 2014 Title IX investigation found Nassar had not violated university's relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy. However, an internal copy of the report not provided to the victim, reported first by the Lansing State Journal last month, found that Nassar's conduct posed a liability risk and recommended that the medical practice improve protocols.

The internal report said: "We find that whether medically sound or not, the failure to adequately explain procedures such as these invasive, sensitive procedures, is opening the practice up to liability and is exposing patients to unnecessary trauma based on the possibility of perceived inappropriate sexual misconduct."

Strampel apparently responded to the report by creating protocols for Nassar’s return to seeing patients. They included a requirement to wear gloves when performing procedures in intimate areas, to have another person present during such treatments and to explain the procedure and obtain consent before treating patients.

When MSU terminated Nassar in September 2016, one of the reasons was his failure to follow those protocols.

The Lansing State Journal reported in December that Strampel had told police he told only one other person about the protocols and didn't feel he needed to follow up to ensure Nassar was compliant.

However, the person Strampel said he had informed — Dr. Douglas Dietzel, clinical director of the MSU sports medicine clinic — indicated to police that he wasn't aware of the protocols.

That information came from a police report detailing a joint MSU Police and FBI investigation into whether anyone handling Nassar allegations had committed crimes. The report was sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan, which has made no comment about the report to date. University officials have said they expect no criminal charges.

An Indianapolis Star investigation of USA Gymnastics, begun in 2016, uncovered widespread sexual abuse of athletes by coaches and others and failures to alert authorities. The IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, revealed the first allegations of abuse by Nassar, which triggered the criminal prosecutions that led to his imprisonment.

Nassar, 54, formerly of Holt, has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges and is in custody at the Milan Federal Correctional Institute before being moved to another prison. He also faces a 40 to 175 year sentence issued in Ingham County and 40 to 125 year sentence from Eaton County, where he was charged with a total of 10 sexual assaults. Those sentences will not begin until he finishes the federal sentence.