Nathan Rees was a professor at University of North Dakota in the Art and Design Department from 2013 to 2015. He was also a friend of Ray Holmberg. He received emails from Holmberg describing how he was grooming and sexually abusing a UND student in Prague. He did nothing.
Doing nothing was not illegal because higher education teachers are not required by law to report sexual abuse of their students. Efforts to change the mandatory reporting requirements were stymied in the North Dakota Legislature.
While the investigation by the University reveals they did nothing illegal, remember that something can be morally wrong and still legal. Knowing a student was being groomed and abused and saying nothing is wrong. Just as Jim Jordan.
While I know better than to expect perfection from anyone or any institution, I feel a bit betrayed by the University of North Dakota. Both of my parents and one of my siblings have donated their bodies to UND’s medical school. Two more of my siblings have signed up to do the same. That doesn’t give us any special relationship, but it still makes this one hurt a bit more.
- Valley News: North Dakota University System responds to recent reports regarding former Sen. Ray Holmberg
- KFGO: NDBCI report reveals emails Ray Holmberg sent to others detailing decades of sex abuse
- Fargo Forum: North Dakota higher ed leaders to investigate whether staff failed to report senator’s sexual misconduct