Ohio State agrees to $100 million settlement in Strauss abuse case

Survivors who said they were abused by Ohio State campus doctor Richard Strauss spent decades pressing the university for action before the Board of Trustees finally approved a $100 million settlement covering 279 of the 280 remaining claims in pending litigation. The 14-0 vote came Tuesday and marked the latest step in a legal fight that began in federal court in 2018, after former students and athletes accused the university of failing to stop Strauss.

The deal is designed to resolve all but one of the remaining cases tied to Strauss, who worked at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998 and died by suicide in 2005. Ohio State said a court-appointed special master will interview each of the more than 200 men in the five active plaintiff groups to determine individual harm and compensation. One survivor remains outside the agreement.

The settlement adds to a long list of payouts that have already pushed Ohio State’s total above $60 million. The university said it had settled with 304 survivors for more than $60 million as of Feb. 5, 2026, and said no taxpayer, tuition or restricted donor funds are being used. Ohio State also said it has covered professionally certified counseling and other medical treatment for survivors and their families since 2019, and that those services remain available.

For survivors, the money is only part of the story. A prior independent report concluded that scores of Ohio State personnel knew of complaints about Strauss as early as 1979 but did not investigate meaningfully for years. Another internal review found evidence of sexual abuse before Strauss was allowed to quietly leave the university. The case has become a touchstone in Title IX litigation because it exposed how long institutional warnings can go unanswered. Survivor Steve Snyder-Hill said, “OSU is guilty,” calling the settlement a partial victory because the case will be cited in future school-cover-up cases.

Pressure had intensified in recent weeks from survivors, including former Ohio State and NFL football players and former Columbus Division of Fire Chief Jeffrey Happ, who pressed the university for accountability involving billionaire megadonor Les Wexner and board leaders. The new agreement does not answer every question about who knew what, but it does close another major chapter in a scandal that has shadowed Ohio State for years and left the university facing the legacy of failures that stretched across nearly two decades.