Ohio State president Ravi Bellamkonda said the university has used more than $61 million to settle cases tied to former team doctor Richard Strauss so far. Ohio State says those agreements now cover 317 survivors.

“We can’t make it go away what happened. But we will do our best,” Bellamkonda said during his recent sit-down with 10TV. “I feel for them, and we would like to do right by them as best as we can. We believe we’ve been quite generous,” said Bellamkonda. “$61 million has been used so far, 317 settlements, and we are committed to continuing that dialogue to arrive at a place where the remaining victims feel comfortable. Nobody is more committed than we are to get this behind us.”

That number carries weight because it is not a one-off payment. Ohio State says the settlements now cover more than half of the plaintiffs who sued the university over Strauss. While $61 million sounds like a toll on the budget, OSU is staying firm on its promise that they are not dipping into student tuition money, taxpayer funds, or specific donor gifts.

Instead, they’re pulling cash from their own reserves and discretionary funds to make sure current students and academic programs aren’t affected by the payouts. This is a major legal and financial reckoning because an independent investigation by the law firm Perkins Coie found that Strauss, who served as the team doctor from 1978 to 1998, engaged in improper conduct with over 177 male students.

The central allegation in the case, though, is that officials knew of complaints and failed to act. The officials allegedly knew about the complaints as far back as 1979, just months after he started, but failed to stop him or report him to the police for decades. He was finally suspended in 1996, but was allowed to keep his faculty title and even opened a private clinic nearby where the abuse continued. He ended his own life in 2005, years before the full scope of his crimes became public in 2018.

The legal fight also shifted on April 28. A federal judge ruled that the remaining plaintiffs can seek damages tied to lost educational opportunities, lost earnings and earning capacity, and treatment for physical injuries, not only tuition-related losses.

They can now seek damages for lost future earnings and the long-term physical damage the abuse caused. This is a relief for survivors because it rejects the university’s attempt to limit the costs of the harm done. While they still can’t sue for certain types of emotional distress under current federal law, this ruling opens the door for much larger payouts in the upcoming “Bellwether trials” set to begin in October 2026.

Ravi Bellamkonda is now overseeing Ohio State’s response

Ravi Bellamkonda is the man tasked with finally ending this. He’s been much more vocal about wanting to “do right” by the survivors and keep the conversation going. But he’s still facing pressure and scrutiny from groups like the AAUP-OSU faculty coalition, who want way more transparency about who exactly covered up the abuse back in the day.

Looking forward, the legal scrutiny continues. Beyond the court cases, there’s a new HBO documentary called “Surviving Ohio State” that just premiered, bringing the survivors’ stories to a global audience.

The university is also still dealing with pressure to remove billionaire donor Les Wexner’s name from buildings because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, adding to the general feeling that the school needs a “cultural reset.”

Ohio State says it will keep providing counseling and medical support for survivors and their families as settlement talks continue. That makes the $61 million figure look less like an ending and more like the latest count in a case still moving forward.