Allegations of Abuse by Former University of Michigan Doctor Robert E. Anderson
Allegations have come forward against a former Michigan doctor named Robert E. Anderson. He was a former Director of University Health Service and athletic team physician.
He was a doctor for teams under Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr with these allegations ranging from the 1970's to the 1990's. The nature of these allegations is similar to the ilk of Nassar where they were taking place during medical exams.
There is no word yet on who knew what and when as this is all coming out, but Michigan is investigating this matter. They have created a hotline for people to call if they were victims of Doctor Anderson and they have started conducting interviews to try and get to the bottom of this.
More details will likely come out as time goes, but below is a link to the initial report.
Robert E. Anderson retired in 2003 and passed away in 2008.
Link: https://record.umich.edu/articles/patients-of-late-u-m-campus-physician-asked-to-call-hotline/
February 19th, 2020 at 10:45 AM ^
I feel like anyone new I or family associate with requires a background check.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:03 AM ^
I'm not gonna lie, I vet the adults in my childrens lives (teachers, friends parents, etc).
February 20th, 2020 at 12:56 AM ^
Tbh wouldn’t be a bad idea to run it on people you already know either. Often it’s people you know/trust that do this kind of shit.
February 19th, 2020 at 10:16 AM ^
Disturbing quote: "During the course of the investigation, detectives interviewed dozens of people and identified several individuals who described incidents of sexual misconduct by Anderson. The university now is asking anyone to come forward if they have additional information to share."
Based on the years he was working with the team I know a LOT of people that would've potentially come into contact with this guy. This makes me sick.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
Wow, this is shocking to me and very sad news. I worked with Doc A from 1982 to 1986 when i was a student trainer for the football team and never witnessed anything of the sort in his follow up appointments with players recovering from injuries or sickness. I was also treated by him when i was sick several times and also recovering from a broken bone in my hand, and never any issues. Truly sad news if true and I feel for the victims.
February 19th, 2020 at 10:29 AM ^
Did I read this correctly, it appears the University was aware of claims and instead of investigating or terminating, they transferred him.
"Stone said he learned from UM officials that the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office was reviewing his case, along with "many other victims" who have come forward with similar claims. He also said a UM police detective told him the university became aware years ago that there were allegations against Anderson, then moved him from his post at UM Student Health Services to become the team physician for UM athletes."
February 19th, 2020 at 10:31 AM ^
Yes, that is what a detective apparently told Stone who is one of the people coming forward. I believe Stone is especially surprised to learn this because he didn't tell anyone besides a friend who recommended Anderson to him as a doctor.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
Large scale institutions always protect people in power and the image of the institution. Whether that is MSU, OSU, PSU, Baylor, politics, hollywood, corporate america, non-profits, religious institutions or Michigan nowhere is above it just because you like the place. I never got why people were so sure nothing like Nassar could have ever happened at Michigan, of course it could have because its the same everywhere.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
Because people are so blinded by their feelings towards their school, that they’re convinced beyond any doubt that these kind of terrible things could NEVER happen here.
I warned all these smug ass fucks, who delighted in what was happening at MSU, PSU, and OSU, not to not get too high and mighty because there was every possibility that we could find ourselves involved in a similar situation in the future. Only to have them get all furious at me for thinking that something like this could ever happen at the University of Michigan because we hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Well, guess what? The chickens have come home to roost and now we’re the ones that are going to have to endure the taunts they we’re an institution that covers up for sex offenders. Enjoy the ride everyone, because it’s going to fucking suck.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:57 AM ^
It seems that we are doing the opposite of covering it up though ? MSU was literally covering up Nassar 5 years ago. Manuel immediately took action on this, and Schliessel has also done whatever is possible. It’s not similar at all.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
Did you read the article? One of the most notable components is that the doctor was simply reassigned once accusations were levied - that's very troubling. Schlissel will very, very likely handle this well - but previous leadership quite possibly took horrible action. We'll have to see how this all falls.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
This and the Philbert stuff is being addressed (hopefully) now because we're in a post-Nassar and post-Harvey Weinstein world.
For decades, as recently as the 2000s, (as recently as Philbert becoming provost in 2017 despite complaints going back for his entire career), UM and MSU handled these similar situations in a similar manner.
If I can draw any distinction in UM's favor, it's that we actually (hopefully) might be learning from when the other institutions get exposed and changing for the better. MSU, OTOH, saw what happened to PSU with Sandusky and said at some point after that "Yeah but Nassar's okay because he's an important doctor."
February 19th, 2020 at 2:26 PM ^
That’s a very, very hollow victory.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
Agree. Just throwing Gucci a bone.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:29 PM ^
Read the article, Gucci Mane. It definitely doesn't look good. Warde took action... when? Sure sounds to me like it should have been years before Warde was even on board.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:20 PM ^
You seem to be ignoring the very real possibility that the fact these allegations are just now coming to light is because they were ignored/covered up for decades by the people in power at the university.
Simply saying “Well the current people in power are dealing with it appropriately now that it’s come to light” doesn’t undo the possibility that there were a hell of a lot of others who did what they could to protect these monsters and their actions.
And, yes, people had better brace themselves for the possibility Bo Schembechler is shown to have had a role in all of this. You’d have to be naive or willfully ignorant beyond belief to think there’s absolutely no chance the HC/AD during much of this time knew what was taking place.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
Bullshit it’s “not similar at all” to what we’ve seen happen at other schools.
The Sandusky scandal blew up almost a decade ago. Briles was 4 years ago, and Nassar was 3 years ago. So why is this all just coming to light now? It seems to me that the only reason UM is handling it the “right way” now is because they couldn’t keep it a secret anymore.
They could have come out the year after the Sandusky scandal and said “In the interests of total transparency and accountability, here’s a situation that was present at UM.”
We didn’t see that, did we?
They hid it as long as they could. Period. End of story.
February 19th, 2020 at 12:26 PM ^
Ehh, anyone who laughs at stuff like this because they root for some other school is an idiot. Hell, we elected our cover-up artist to Congress (In the most gerrymandered district in the state)
February 19th, 2020 at 1:04 PM ^
First off, great post. Those same people you described who take some sort of pleasure in these types of scandals are also the ones who have such fake outrage about said scandals. Their first instinct is not sorrow for the victims, but rather to gloat about how that school had issues their school did not. Yes, there will be people ridiculing Michigan. I am not one of those people, and I also realize that it is possible to both be disgusted about certain things, and still be a fan of that school/team, etc. What bothers me is when it's implied that my morals and ethics are compromised because I dare still root for a team that may have done things I dislike, or the school I attended may be involved in situations I don't like. Will those same people cease to support Michigan? Of course not
February 19th, 2020 at 1:35 PM ^
It's really simple for me. If Michigan doesnt hold themselves to the higher standard I believe, then my Saturday's just got a whole lot more free and my walls much more bare.
February 19th, 2020 at 4:04 PM ^
Michigan must hold those accountable who have done wrong. It seems to me they are. It also seems to me in the past they may not have. But as far as I can tell in the past sexual assault wasn’t viewed this way ? Maybe someone older can tell me. But weren’t men fucking their secretary and stuff like that ? Men sought power with the purpose of using it for their sexual pleasure. It wasn’t till the last 20 years, and even more so the last 5 years that this type of behavior has been targeted specially as disgusting.
And I believe we must differentiate among sexual assault and misconduct. It’s not all the same. Telling a coworker she has some nice boobs is gross, it is not the same as fingering a young girl under the guise of medicine.
Hopefully uofm does what they can to uncover the truth. This may even involve asking people to come forward to defend the accused. We want true justice.
February 19th, 2020 at 4:50 PM ^
What a crock of shit.
If you’re saying that “Sexual assault was viewed differently back then, so its really no big deal” then you’re excusing the whole Sandusky/Paterno scandal because that’s almost exactly the same timeframe their actions were occurring as well.
It didn’t work as an excuse for them trying to weasel their way out of their criminal acts and, if these allegations are true, it’s not going to work for anyone from UM, living or dead, as justification for their acts.
If this is shown to be true then, AFAIC, the people involved are no better than the bunch of scumbags at PSU who did it to protect the program. And any Michigan supporter who gleefully pilloried PSU, or MSU, or OSU but tries to say “Oh, but this is different because of reasons and (insert name here) is in no way as bad as those other people” can go get truly fucked in every way.
February 19th, 2020 at 10:35 AM ^
Yeah that's not good at all. Hopefully we don't end up down a similar rabbit hole to MSU. I want to think otherwise... wait and see I guess.
February 19th, 2020 at 10:39 AM ^
Michigan has seemingly learned from MSU's shitty response to Nassar by trying to be as active/responsible as possible. They've created a hotline encouraging more people to come forward if there are any and seem to be taking it seriously.
We'll see who knew what and did what as this story continues to come out, but we can hope that the current administration continues to be as straight-forward and proactive as possible so the victims can be heard.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:04 AM ^
Props to the current administration for sure (I really like Schlissel). The accusation that previous leadership simply reassigned him is very troubling.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
None of which undoes the fact that, if these allegations are shown to have any merit to them, a lot of people in power over the last several decades are very possibly going to be implicated in covering up or ignoring these actions in the exact same way PSU did with Sandusky, MSU did with Nassar and OSU did with Strauss.
And that list might include esteemed names like Robben Fleming, Donald Shapiro, James Duderstadt, Don Canham, Lloyd Carr and Glenn E. “Bo” Schembechler.
Saying “Well, Manuel and Schlissel are doing the right thing” isn’t going to change that one iota.
February 19th, 2020 at 3:07 PM ^
They seem to have learned *now* because of the MSU response to Nassar.
It remains to be seen if they learned not to cover this kind of bullshit up in the seventies and eighties--and unfortunately it does not look good on that score.
February 19th, 2020 at 5:01 PM ^
Sorry but saying “Well, thanks to MSU, they learned that when a scandal that was hidden for decades is finally uncovered, be sure you make good PR moves that don’t make you look worse” isn’t exactly a huge moral endorsement.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:19 AM ^
This would be why I haven't piled on MSU with Nassar as much as others have. Was that whole situation appalling, of course. I hope the man rots in hell. But, I've worked with physicians on the financial side most of my professional life, and it isn't quite as easy as some people seem to think to fix. It never is.
Their biggest problem is physicians set themselves up as "self-policing" a long time ago, so most administrators can't do anything but "recommend" to the various physician committees disciplinary action. And, like any committee, those physician committees tend to be filled with the people most concerned about some day being disciplined, so they don't do much.
Add in the fact that universities and other rather static organizations in the same vein tend to attract managers who don't want to make hard decisions, and it isn't exactly a surprise this is happening where it is.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:30 PM ^
Agreed on all points.
February 19th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
Worst title screw up of all time?
February 19th, 2020 at 10:45 AM ^
Yes, I realized it about 10 seconds after it posted and immediately felt a pit in my stomach. MGrowOld emailed Seth to try and have them update the title since it won't let me do it.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:29 AM ^
Biggest exaggeration of all time?
February 19th, 2020 at 10:57 AM ^
Glad it's coming to light now, but it's depressing that a number of these abuses happened in the 70's and I'm sure were ignored or dismissed at the time.
Anyone who knew about the allegations and helped to move him around should be punished.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:00 AM ^
I assume many of those people were already middle-aged or more in the 70's, so we will see what comes about.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:02 AM ^
I know this point pales in comparison to the topic at hand in the OP, but unless and until HUEL/MGoBlog can figure out the solution to the apparently insurmountable technical problem of not being able to edit OPs, the only solution is to do the same basic thing that editors and authors have been doing forever:
Before you post, proofread what you've just written. Then, proofread it again. You'll be surprised how many errors you will routinely catch.
To the bigger issue: it's disheartening—but not truly surprising—that people in positions of responsibility at U-M are capable of making the same grotesquely wrong decisions that people at other institutions across the world seemingly make on a daily basis.
There are bad people everywhere, and the real difference is how you deal with them once you find out. Michigan already fucked up in the past re Anderson; now the onus is on Schlissel and the rest of the upper UM administrators to deal with it.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:11 AM ^
This is the first thread that I created with an error in the title. The mistake was a result of me realizing the Doctor's name after creating the title and then going in and changing it in my post, but not checking my title as well.
It's an unfortunate mistake that I've already owned.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
Everybody makes mistakes; god knows I've made more than my share of them myself. The main advantage for me is that my professional career—graphic design focusing particularly on publications—drilled into me almost 40 years ago the absolute requirement of proofing before committing to print. All of the editors and authors I've worked with have the same fanaticism about proofing, particularly when it involves their own work.
The inability to edit OPs here at MGoBlog is almost comically bizarre. I routinely post comments on other blogs, and have had the ability to edit them long after initial posting for years.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:46 AM ^
Everything you're saying is true of course but the missing ingredient between what you do and what the OP did is "the need for speed". When breaking news of this magnitude occurs there is a seeming rush to post so the OP can claim first dibs on the report. This obviously reduces the desire to proof read (somebody else might beat me to the post if i waste time) and also leads to errors like the one in this thread title.
I feel really bad for the OP. He fucked up - God knows we have ALL done that - and he's powerless to fix it. FYI - I also DM our one and only Mod LSAClass of 2000 on Twitter and gave him a heads up too but he's stuck in a meeting and cant break free to help right now.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:07 AM ^
Great opportunity to see what you're really made of here UofM. This immoral and incomprehensible shit happens at far too many places. Your response is how we will judge you.
Pull any of the bullshit MSU did and I'm never giving another cent to the University. Athletics or otherwise. I know plenty of MSU fans who posted bullshit Facebook photos about Nassar and then immediately went back to tailgates and threw money at MSU while Engler wiped his ass with the University.
There might not be anyone left around to hold accountable. If so, fine. Doesn't mean there's nothing to make amends for.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:33 PM ^
I feel like people here are only responding to the body of the post itself, not the article. It certainly appears to me that UM should have taken action decades ago. Glass houses, and all of that.
February 19th, 2020 at 1:52 PM ^
UM should have taken action decades ago. Glass houses, and all of that.
Yes, absolutely. However that's not very pragmatic. You can't wave your hands and say "o well, it was 30 years ago so what can ya do?" nor can you say the University is irredeemable because actors didn't take action those 30 years ago.
They can something now. So do it.
February 19th, 2020 at 8:17 PM ^
The only thing admin can do to not “pull any of the bullshit MSU did” is to not create a PR nightmare by coming off as a bunch of callous and reprehensible buffoons like the shitheads at MSU did on a regular basis.
As far as handling the alleged allegations against Anderson go in a morally responsible manner instead of covering them up to protect the school and program from scandal.......It’s looking like that ship sailed LONG ago. And, if these allegations are true, a lot of leaders at this school over the past 50 years, have been every bit as guilty and morally repugnant as the ones involved in the Nassar scandal.
February 19th, 2020 at 11:09 AM ^
Duplicate
February 19th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
Just so you know.
The most despicable abusers have a crowd of people whom they have treated in wonderful and appropriate ways. I am sure that Dr. Nassar treated hundreds and hundreds of young girls and women appropriately. Otherwise, you/all of us may wish to become familiar with the behavior that is known as "grooming".
February 19th, 2020 at 11:52 AM ^
Yup and I can personally attest to that regarding Nassar. My partner's daughter is a world class ballet dancer and for years he would take her up to be treated by Nassar. Obviously he was worried sick when the news of his abuse of patients broke so he asked his daughter if anything odd ever occurred when she was alone with him. She SWEARS he was completely normal, professional and a great doctor and based purely on how she acts today (100% totally normal) I would have to say she was one of the lucky ones he didnt molest.
The sick perverts dont go after every patient so it sounds like he might have been one of the lucky ones. Just like my partner's daughter.
February 19th, 2020 at 2:35 PM ^
I do not speak from a victim's perspective, but I don't think you should discount them seeking some kind of acknowledgment and closure. If that's with money, either for counseling or just to be punitive, then that's fine with me. But just letting it be water under the bridge and ignored because it was in the past doesn't seem right to me. Among other things, I think it's important to explore it to highlight these things, keep it from continuing to be normalized (and simultaneously normalizing speaking up about it without backlash), and trying to prevent it in the future.
At the same time, I'm fine with people also speaking up on his behalf and trying to make sure people still view him as a human and not a one-sided monster, but just don't be surprised if people take the very bad thing they know about him and vilify him as a result.
I am also a little curious, seeing as how you only knew him as such a professional, where did you think the nickname "Handerson" came from? Just because he's a doctor and uses his hands, like it's too good to pass up? Like how all Mikes are called Iron Mike?
Edit: I see my last question was addressed below. You say you "never had any reason to question it." I would say you do now.
February 19th, 2020 at 8:21 PM ^
You’re an idiot.
February 20th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
What a horrible take... Investigating multiple accusations of sexual misconduct is not “turning on a guy”. It’s just as bad as your “he’s dead so why share the dirt” style take on a previous response. I’m glad you had a good experience with him but to assert that the university did the right thing, when that may not be true and to deny the potential victims the right to have their claims investigated because it was a long time ago, is simply a horrible take.
February 19th, 2020 at 7:58 PM ^
Same. My brother had a collapsed lung and some scar tissue was causing him issues. No doctor could figure out what was happening until Nassar. He diagnosed the problem very quickly. Talked in depth to my family about everything. Then a decade later we find out about all the terrible things he did to others (including people I know).