Former Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee will be deposed soon in the lawsuit against the university about the sexual abuse of athletes by former team doctor Richard Strauss.
U.S. District Judge Michael Watson in Columbus on Wednesday signed an order that Gee's deposition must take place within the next 30 days.
Gee's first stint as Ohio State president from 1990 to 1998 coincides with the time Strauss was a team doctor.
Steve Snyder-Hill is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. Snyder-Hill says there are a number of important questions Gee needs to answer. Survivors insist that university officials knew about Strauss' actions.
"Because I think we need to start pinning these people down on who knew what, because, you know, 40 years later everybody has amnesia, and I just think that that's convenient," Snyder-Hill said.
Gee now works for the university as a consultant. His one-year contract runs through this August and calls for him to be paid $150,000.
Gee is mentioned dozens of times in Ohio State's 182-page report from Perkins-Coie Law Firm on the scandal. The report said that Gee was made aware of the abuse in 1997. Strauss was allowed to retire the next year and was awarded faculty emeritus status.
Snyder-Hill said that years ago Gee told a media outlet that he expressed remorse about what happened to the survivors. But Snyder-Hill said he wonders if that will change now.
"The only thing that's different with the passage of time is that now he's back on OSU's payroll," Snyder-Hill said. "So that just seems, that seems like one reason that we need to find out which Gordon Gee we're going to get when he's under oath. Because that's different."
