OSU trustee resigns after Meyer probe

Ohio State University trustee Jeffrey Wadsworth has resigned from the board.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBUS — A member of the Ohio State University Board of Trustees has resigned after taking part in the discussion about a suspension levied against football coach Urban Meyer last week, telling the New York Times “there was something altogether wrong about reducing it to a couple games.”

Ohio State University trustee Jeffrey Wadsworth has resigned from the board.

Jeffrey Wadsworth declined to comment to The Blade but confirmed his position on Meyer’s three-game suspension, which was decided Aug. 22 following a 10-hour discussion involving the trustees and university president Michael Drake.

He described himself to the New York Times as the “lone voice” of dissent in the meeting, which was held after a two-week investigation into Meyer’s handling of domestic violence accusations against a former assistant coach.

In describing Meyer, Wadsworth said, “I didn’t feel that I’d seen high-integrity behavior.”

Wadsworth served as president and CEO of Battelle Memorial Institute, the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organization, from January, 2009 until retiring in September, 2017.

“You read the report,” Wadsworth said. “There’s seven or eight things about emails, memory loss, hearing things five times, and to me, that raised an issue of standards, values — not how many games someone should be suspended for.”

Wadsworth, a native of England, was appointed in 2010 by former Governor Ted Strickland. His appointment on the board was due to end in May, 2019.

Contact Kyle Rowland at krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6110 or on Twitter @KyleRowland.