William Strampel, Larry Nassar's former boss, retires
William Strampel, the former boss of 54-year-old disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar, who has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 300 people, many of whom female gymnasts, has officially retired from Michigan State.
Strampel retired ahead of a possible firing by the university, as Michigan State had been trying to revoke his tenure and fire him since February. His retirement was effective on Saturday, June 30.
Strampel is set to receive $175,000 and basic health care coverage, but he will not receive professor-emeritus status nor "benefits related to executive-level retirement".
Here is what a statement by Michigan State had to say about the $175,000 that Strampel is set to receive, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“[The $175,000] represents a compromise of the salary Strampel claims he would have been entitled to over the duration of the lengthy tenure-revocation process."
Here is what Michigan State interim president John Engler had to say about Strampel, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“His conduct and attitude were unacceptable and went against the values of this university. 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.”
The former dean of Michigan State's College of Osteopathic Medicine has faced criticism in the wake of the Nassar scandal for defending Nassar while he was under investigation by Michigan State's Title IX department in 2014 and for failing to force Nassar to adhere to the new regulations that were instated as a result of that investigation, which ended with Nassar being cleared.
Strampel, who served as the dean of Michigan State's College of Osteopathic Medicine since 2002 and stepped down from his position this past December, was arrested in March. He was charged with misconduct by a public official, fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of willful neglect of duty. Dozens of pornographic images were found on a computer in his office.
Nassar, meanwhile, is set to spend the rest of his life in prison after he was finally arrested in December of 2016 after sexually assaulting more than 300 of his patients, including Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber, under the guise of medical treatment.
This past December, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on three child pornography charges. He is currently serving this sentence at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona.
He was also sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in state prison and between an additional 40 and 125 years in state prison in January and February on seven and three sexual assault charges, respectively. Last week, he was charged with six counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child in Texas.