BATON ROUGE, La. — On March 5, during the LSU Board of Supervisors meeting, Husch Blackwell presented the findings of their independent investigation of how LSU handled allegations of sexual and domestic assault in years past.
During the meeting, LSU President announced the suspension of Executive Director AD Verge Ausberry for 30 days without pay, as well as Sr. Associate AD Miriam Segar, for 21 days.
Both will undergo sexual misconduct awareness training while suspended.
Page 52 of the 262-page report also shows that former school athletics director Joe Alleva had “recommended to terminate” then LSU head football coach Les Miles in an email sent to Chancellor William Jenkins in 2013:
“As we move closer to deciding how to handle the results of our investigation, I want to recommend at minimum a few items,” started Alleva before listing penitence for Miles. “I think [Miles’] employment needs to be seriously considered.”
The report also states no response to Alleva’s email has been located.
THE FULL, 262 PAGE REPORT CAN BE FOUND HERE.
The following announcement was sent to the LSU campus on Friday morning:
“I want you to know in advance of today’s Board meeting that this report shines light on some very serious issues with how the university has handled these cases. After hundreds of interviews and countless hours of research and investigation, Husch Blackwell has delivered exactly what we need: a brutally honest and objective evaluation of our culture. It will be hard to hear and even harder to read, but if we are to fix our future, we must first face our past.
Perhaps most troubling of all the report’s findings is the understanding that, whether through our actions or inactions, our institution betrayed the very people we are sworn to protect. Our job is to protect our students and support them in their times of need. It has become clear we haven’t always fully lived up to our commitment. That will no longer be the case. After the report is done, I will share a few of the many steps we must take toward strengthening our ability to support survivors of sexual and domestic violence. And in the coming weeks, I will meet with many of you to share more details about how we will do that together.
We are committed to bringing about real, concerted change that will make us a better, safer university moving forward. We owe it to the brave survivors who brought forth their experiences, we owe it to our past, current, and future students, we owe it to you — our LSU community — and we owe it to everyone who has ever put their trust in LSU. But words are hollow — it is our actions that will make a difference. I’m asking every single member of our LSU community to work with us to create positive change and to hold us accountable in our pursuit of improvement.
Sincerely,
Thomas C. Galligan
Interim LSU President and Professor of Law”
