Did F. King Alexander violate Oregon law in responding to LSU Title IX scandal? - Greater Baton Rouge Business Report
Former Oregon State University President F. King Alexander, who resigned just nine months into his tenure over revelations that LSU’s athletics department systematically covered up sexual misconduct allegations under his watch, also appears to have broken Oregon law, according to a report.
Alexander used OSU lawyers to respond to investigators in Louisiana, according to an Oregon Government Ethics Commission report.
Commission staff recommended that it find that Alexander violated two state statutes related to good governance. The commission will make a final decision during a hearing today.
“The evidence is sufficient to make a preliminary finding of one violation each of the conflict of interest and prohibited use of office provisions of Oregon Government Ethics law,” the commission’s investigators wrote in a preliminary report.
State law prohibits public officials from using their position for financial gain. By receiving legal advice from a university attorney, he saved himself the cost of hiring a lawyer to respond to Louisiana investigators, thus violating the law, commission staff wrote.
A separate statute requires public officials to disclose conflicts of interest, which commission staff determined Alexander failed to do.
Alexander was president of LSU from 2013 to 2019 and became president at OSU in mid-2020.
In November 2020, USA Today published an extensive investigation into LSU’s handling of rape and abuse allegations against star athletes while he was there, finding that multiple high-ranking officials knew about the allegations but failed to follow federal laws that require administrators to contact law enforcement and investigate sex crimes on campus under Title IX.
Alexander was not named in the initial reporting, but he was contacted in early 2021 by a Texas-based law firm that LSU retained to review the university’s policies.
In mid-February, OSU general counsel Rebecca Gose responded to the Texas firm, Husch Blackwell, and her counterpart at LSU, the report showed.
Read the full story, which was first published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle, an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom, which includes the Louisiana Illuminator.
source: https://www.businessreport.com/business/in-responding-to-lsu-title-ix-scandal-f-king-alexander-may-have-violated-oregon-law
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