Fired OSU Band Director Requests Reinstatement; Cites Flaws In Investigation

The fired director of Ohio State's marching band is formally requesting his job back, citing alleged flaws in a university investigation and a positive performance review issued weeks before he was terminated. In a letter Thursday, 38-year-old Jonathan Waters asked the university's board of trustees to act on the matter at its August 28-29 meeting. Waters was fired July 24. A two-month investigation had concluded he knew about, and failed to stop, a "sexualized culture" that included students marching partially dressed, playing groping games on buses and bestowing sometimes sexually explicit nicknames on new members based on suggestive stunts acting out orgasms, sex toys or body parts. Through legal counsel, Waters has called the firing a "rush to judgment." University President Michael Drake is standing by the decision.