Jon Vaughn, a former University of Michigan and NFL football player, is one of more than 1,000 students, mostly men, who say they were sexually abused by athletics doctor Robert Anderson, who has worked for the school since 1966 to 2003 treating people from all sports.
The university doctor, who died in 2008, abused 90% male students and subjected them to “sexually abusive behavior” and unnecessary genital and rectal exams, according to a 2021 independent report in Cardo by the same campus.
Many of Anderson’s victims were people of color, and survivors say this played a role in allowing the abuse to continue for decades.
Among the functions of the doctor at the university, including the director of its health service, team doctor for the athletics department and clinical instructor of the medical school.
Anderson used his power to abuse men and women from different backgrounds, undergraduate and graduate students, athletes, including a two-time Super Bowl champion and former world-class wrestler, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The University of Michigan missed multiple opportunities to stop him during his 37-year medical career, according to reports.
The educational center of the United States announced a settlement of 490 million dollars with more than a thousand victims for the alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by Anderson, which is pending approval by the Michigan Board of Regents and the plaintiffs.
Despite the agreement, the university still faces calls to take responsibility for its complicity in the abuse, which spanned more than three decades, as well as failures by the school to address alleged sexual misconduct and sexual abuse of students and university staff.
The victims say the university was aware of Anderson’s conduct and therefore took no action on it, instead continuing to allow the abuse to take place until he voluntarily retired in 2003.
“They have shown that over the last half century… [no] they’re interested in student safety as a priority,” said Vaughn, who played for the University of Michigan from 1988 to 1990. “They’ve shown an inability to constantly police themselves, as far as sexual assault,” he said.
Mark Schlissel, now the former president of the University of Michigan, was fired this month from his post following an anonymous tip that he “may be involved in an inappropriate relationship with a university employee,” apologized for “tragic misconduct” by Anderson and said in a statement that the educational center is committed to resolving the victims’ claims.
For his part, Vaughn, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and has been protesting for more than 100 days outside the former rector’s house, assures that he will remain there until he is heard. “The issues of sexual assault, violence and rape are on campus.”
The former NFL player is one of many involved in hundreds of individual lawsuits and class action lawsuits brought against the University of Michigan and the Board of Regents by survivors.
