Over 100 people protested Sunday outside Ohio State University’s new Wexner Medical Center tower, braving cold and snowy conditions to call for the removal of Les Wexner’s name from the hospital system.
The group, organized by the Ohio Nurse's Association, shouted "Wexner equals pain. Remove the name," and more protest chants that echoed off the 26-story tower and other massive university buildings.
Union members, students and community members at the protest argue Wexner's ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is a reason to remove his name from the hospital system and other buildings around Columbus.
ONA President Rick Lucas told the crowd that Ohio State is looking the other way despite Wexner's proximity to Epstein's international trafficking of children for sexual exploitation.
"This is not a criminal trial. This is about proximity, trust and accountability. Wexner's money funded a network that exploited women and children," Lucas said.
Lucas said they are trying to prevent the university from side-stepping this issue.
"What we're demanding is not cancel culture. It's about consequences. Consequences for the rich elite to exploit us in every way they can as long as they can get away with it," Lucas said.
Wexner made his fortune by founding L Brands and building up brands like Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie and Fitch and others into what they are today.
Epstein was hired to manage Wexner's fortune from the late 1980s until Wexner claims he broke ties with Epstein in 2007, before Epstein pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Lucas, who is also a nurse at OSU, also called attention to the new tower's labor and delivery room being named for Dr. Mark Landon. It was revealed in the Epstein Files that Landon received several payments from Epstein in the early 2000s. Landon also had a close relationship with the Wexners, helping deliver Les Wexner's children.
"Labor and delivery should be a safe space of safety, dignity and care. Not a reminder that someone connected to abuse will deplete the honor of our hospital," Lucas said.
Landon denies wrongdoing and said he was hired to consult on potential biotechnical investments. The university is investigating Landon's ties to Epstein. The university said Landon is fully cooperating with the inquiry.
OSU Wexner Medical Center spokesperson Marti Leach said in a statement that the hospital system respects the community’s right to speak publicly about issues that are important to them. Leach pointed out that there is an established process for considering renaming requests at the university.
"Our team members are focused on safely moving more than 425 patients into our new University Hospital. This demonstration does not impact our commitment to providing excellent care for our patients," Leach said.
The university committee in charge of handling renaming requests already ruled against one attempt to rename the Les Wexner Football Complex at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center.
Both the football complex and the medical center were named through an honorific resolution passed by the OSU Board of Trustees. There is no contract tying the naming to any of Wexner's donations, totaling an approximate $200 million over several decades.
Sunday's protest happened days after Wexner was deposed by U.S. House members and staff at his New Albany mansion as they investigate people connected to Epstein as shown in the Epstein files. In one document, Wexner was named as a co-conspirator in the FBI's 2019 sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
Wexner denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Epstein. Epstein allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Wexner, which protesters and the House Democrats who deposed him argue enabled Epstein to build his sex trafficking ring.
Ohio State Senator Bill DeMora was among the crowd. He said the Epstein files document that named Wexner as a co-conspirator was the last straw for him.
"This isn't over, and if Ohio State doesn't get in front of this stuff and get... Get it out of the way we're talking about it for years and years and that just brings down the entire university the reputation of my university of everybody else every student here," DeMora said.
DeMora and others also want Ohio State Board of Trustees Chair John Zeiger to resign. Zeiger is an attorney whose law firm represents Wexner.
"We're not asking for convenience, we're demanding integrity, we are demanding restored trust and we're demanding a university that puts patients, students and survivors first. Not billionaires, not donors," Lucas said.
Steve Snyder-Hill, who is a survivor of sexual abuse by former OSU team doctor Richard Strauss, also joined calls to remove Wexner's name. Snyder-Hill said OSU can't guarantee that sexual assault won't happen to any of its thousands of students or employees.
"The only thing that they can do to assure the parents of kids that come here, and their donors, and the public at large, is if they can assure us that when — not if — it happens again, but when it happens again, that they're going to appropriately respond," Snyder-Hill said.
Snyder-Hill and a group of other Strauss survivors have been calling on the university to rename the Les Wexner Football Complex at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center. Many survivors are suing the university in court over the sexual abuse, arguing university leaders like Wexner enabled Strauss.
