OSU Staff Member Resigns Over Racist Letters

Associated PressPublished: February 3, 2009
COLUMBUS, OhioThe former director of campus housing at Ohio State University says he was forced to resign over his handling of racist letters mailed to students.
Steven Kremer’s lawsuit also says the university slandered him by making false and negative comments about his job performance.

Kremer says Rich Hollingsworth, Ohio State’s former student affairs director, wanted to delay delivery of a batch of racist letters sent to students in April 2007.

Kremer says delaying the mail would have violated federal law and that university lawyers had previously said the school couldn’t halt delivery of such mail.

Kremer says he developed a system for handling such letters when a previous batch was received in January 2006.

“Hollingsworth, upon learning of the mail, wanted university housing staff to stop or delay the mail from being delivered while he prepared a response on behalf of the university,“ according to the lawsuit filed in the Ohio Court of Claims and federal court.

“Such intentional delay, however, was tantamount to tampering with the US mail, and was illegal,“ the lawsuit said.

Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch said the university is reviewing the lawsuits. A message was left with Hollingsworth seeking comment.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in North Dakota fired an agency intern last year for sending the letters to students at Ohio State, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Rhode Island.

Kremer, 48, left Ohio State in January after 20 years and has a similar position as campus housing director at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.

OSU Staff Member Resigns Over Racist Letters