Ohio State reels from multiple scandals amid wider crisis in higher education

When Rocky Ratliff transferred to Ohio State University in Columbus to study political science and wrestle for the college in the mid-1990s, he soon found himself being sexually abused by a prominent member of the university athletic department’s medical staff. At the time, Dr Richard Strauss, who is believed to have abused hundreds of student athletes over a period of decades at Ohio State, and who killed himself in 2005, would subject young men to intense abuse, including rape. “I got inappropriate exams multiple times. With my high ankle sprain, I saw him almost every day for about a month,” recalls Ratliff, today a lawyer based in Marion, Ohio. “He would start at your throat area then go to your chest and supposedly there are lymph nodes in your groin area. Ultimately, I’m there for a high ankle sprain and I’m going through the daily genital exams that seem to last a long amount of time.” For 150 years, Ohio State University has been the biggest brand in the state and one of the biggest in American higher education. When thousands of manufacturing jobs were being eliminated during the late 20th century, the university’s football team, winning three national championships in the 1960s and 1970s, was a rare source of pride. But today, one of the midwest’s most hallowed institutions is reeling from a series of scandals at a time when regional colleges are already facing major financial challenges. …