UNIVERSITY TO PAY $490M IN ABUSE CASES

The University of Michigan said Wednesday that it would pay $490 million to more than 1,000 people who had accused a doctor who worked with football players and other students of sexual abuse.

The agreement, among the largest by an American university to settle allegations of sexual abuse, was hammered out in private talks that concluded this week, more than three years after a former student wrote to Michigan's athletic director and reported misconduct from the 1970s.

That former student, and, eventually, scores of others, said that Dr. Robert E. Anderson had molested them during physical examinations, many of which were required to participate in athletic programs at Michigan. In some instances, investigators concluded, Anderson performed examinations that were unnecessary and improper; he insisted, for instance, on a pelvic exam for a woman who had complained of a sore throat.

Last June, a son of Bo Schembechler, the football coach who died in 2006 and retains mythic status on the campus in Ann Arbor, said he, too, had been one of Anderson's victims.

“The University of Michigan has accepted responsibility financially and otherwise for harm that was caused by Anderson to so many young people that could have been avoided,” Jamie White, a lawyer for many of Anderson's victims, said in a statement. “The university should be commended and not condemned.”

He added: “Most of our clients had a strong love for the University and did not want to see permanent damage, but wanted accountability.”

Michigan said in February 2020 that it was investigating whether Anderson had abused students and asked people who believed they had been victimized to come forward. By then, authorities had been conducting an inquiry in secret for more than a year, after a former student sent a letter to Michigan's athletic director and accused Anderson of wrongdoing.

Michigan's plea for information led to more than 100 reports across two weeks. Last May, a law firm hired by the university concluded that Anderson, who died in 2008 and was never prosecuted for any abuse, had “engaged in sexual misconduct with patients on countless occasions.”

At least some university officials knew of concerns about Anderson as his career unfolded; one told investigators that he went so far as to fire the doctor. (Months after Anderson's purported dismissal, investigators noted, that same university leader approved a pay increase for Anderson.)