EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A Michigan State University physiology professor who was suspended after more than half a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment has returned to work at the school that has been beset by allegations of sexual misconduct in recent years.
Robert Wiseman, who teaches at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, was suspended without pay from Feb. 22 through April 4, school spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the Lansing State Journal in a story published Tuesday.
A report produced by MSU’s Office of Institutional Equity - which investigates complaints of discrimination and harassment - determined Wiseman engaged in a pattern of “unwanted, persistent and pervasive” sexual behavior that created a hostile environment.
Wiseman started working at the East Lansing school in 2001, and the allegations against him date back to 2002, according to the report. The first woman to file an official complaint about him did so in January 2018.
The report said Wiseman told investigators the allegations by the women were not specific and he denied acting inappropriately. Wiseman didn’t respond to a request for comment, the Journal said.
The complaints against Wiseman were just the latest in a series of sexual assault allegations at Michigan State. Earlier this month, a jury found former Osteopathic Medicine dean William Strampel guilty of neglect of duty and misconduct in office.
Strampel, 71, had been accused of abusing his power to sexually proposition and harass female students for years and not enforcing patient restrictions imposed on then-sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar following a 2014 sexual misconduct complaint.
Nassar is serving decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women - including athletes at MSU - said he molested them under the guise of medical treatment.
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Information from: Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com
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