Ohio nurses want Wexner’s name removed from OSU health system

• The Ohio Nurses’ Association is calling for Ohio State University to remove Les Wexner’s name from its medical facilities.
• The demand stems from Wexner’s documented relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
• The union stated that keeping the name is retraumatizing for survivors of abuse.

The state’s largest nursing union is joining the growing numbers of those who want to see billionaire Les Wexner’s name stripped from Ohio State University over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Ohio Nurses’ Association sent a letter Feb. 17 to medical center and university leadership calling for the removal of Wexner’s name from all of the health system’s campus facilities, to “demonstrate— not with words, but with action — that it stands with survivors and not with the systems that failed them.”

More: Ohio State keeping Wexner’s name, but what about other buildings?

Wexner, the New Albany retail giant and current chair of the Wexner Medical Center Board, has given millions to Ohio State since he graduated in 1959, including the university’s largest single donation of $100 million.

That donation in 2011 supported a major expansion of Ohio State’s health care infrastructure, including the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, leading to his name being cemented into the health system then and every expansion since.

But that name has also been cemented in files released by the Department of Justice as part of the investigation into Epstein, who is accused of child sex trafficking but died in 2019 before a trial could take place.

The files paint a picture of a long-standing professional and personal relationship since 1986, and at one point, Epstein had power of attorney for Wexner. Though Wexner has publicly maintained he cut ties with Epstein in 2007, recently released emails show that the two were still in touch in 2008, the same year Epstein plead guilty to soliciting sex from a minor.

More: What do we know about Les Wexner and Epstein as deposition approaches?

Rick Lucas, president of ONA, said that Wexner’s documented relationship with Epstein raises “serious concerns that cannot be brushed aside as historical footnotes”

“When an institution dedicated to healing carries the name of someone so closely associated with a man who systematically preyed on children, survivors see that name every day. For many, it is not neutral. It is retraumatizing,” Lucas wrote in the letter.

Lucas also noted that nurses and health professionals are mandated reporters, and trained to recognize abuse as well as legally obligated to alert authorities to suspected abuse.

“That obligation does not disappear when reporting the abuse is uncomfortable, politically inconvenient, or tied to powerful names,” Lucas noted.

A spokesperson for OSU sent along a link that Ohio State students, faculty, staff and alumni can use to submit requests for the review of university space and entity names. OSU said that each request “receives full consideration.”

Union says Ohio State has been here before

In the letter, ONA also points to Richard Strauss, who OSU’s independent investigation found sexually abused at least 177 student in his 20 years as an athletics and student health doctor at the school. Investigators also found that the university had received complaints about Strauss as early as a few months into his time at OSU but did not act on those complaints. The group says it’s another example of how university leadership failed abused students.

A judge has ordered that Wexner be deposed in a case related to Strauss’ abuse, as he was on the university’s board of trustees for 10 of the years Strauss worked for the university.

On Feb. 5, the university reached settlements with eight more of Strauss’ abuse survivors, bringing the total number of settlements to over 300. The spokesperson added that the university “continues to cover the cost of professionally certified counseling services and other medical treatment, including reimbursement for counseling and treatment received in the past.”

Ohio State investigating doctor named in Epstein files

The union also called attention to Dr. Mark Landon, an OB-GYN at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and a professor in the College of Medicine, who names shows up in the released files. According to the documents, Landon received thousands of dollars from Epstein and his associates in the 2000s.

The spokesperson told The Dispatch that the university is investigating Landon and that Landon has so far cooperated with them.

In a Feb. 9 statement, Landon said he did not provide clinical care for Epstein or any of his victims and had no knowledge of his “criminal activities.”

Business and consumer issues reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com