Fired OSU Band Director Details Changes In Report

From the beginning, fired Ohio State band director Jon Waters has vowed to clear his name. Waters claims he was in the process of making changes to the OSU band culture before the investigation that cost him his job. Those changes are detailed in a report Waters gave investigators last month. In its report released last week, OSU investigators gave explicit examples of a sexually-charged culture within the OSU Marching Band. But the report left out a 7-page document Jon Waters submitted to university investigators July 14. In the report, Waters acknowledged the band's culture was not in a "good place" and in "dire need of change." He wrote when he took over in 2012 he began a process aimed at bringing "real, lasting change" within the band. He said hazing and inappropriate behavior on buses would not be tolerated. Waters outlawed the explicit student-written newsletter. He noted student band leaders attended training sessions on alcohol abuse, hazing and sexual harassment. Waters attorney David Axelrod said he hosted many more of these sessions than previous band directors. "He definitely cracked down on us," said former band member Victoria Nolte, who played trombone from 2010 to 2013. She graduated last year. "He was the one guy who came in and started changing stuff. Some of the vets got pissed. They were like, oh my gosh, it's the fun police. We're not going to have any fun anymore." Nolte's nickname was listed in the OSU report. She declined to elaborate what it meant, but she said it had a sexual connotation to it. Nolte added it didn't make her uncomfortable. But it may have made Waters uncomfortable. In his response, he writes he had worked for two years to reduce the number of inappropriate nicknames given to first-year band members. Nolte said Waters wanted to make the long-standing traditions a little cleaner. “He would sit there and get feedback from us and saying, how can we change this so that it's not as uncomfortable, so that it's not as racy. So that we can still participate in something that's been going on for 50 years," Nolte said. Water stressed student leadership was crucial in cultivating any kind of change because as he put it, "the students are the individuals...creating the culture in the band." Where the OSU investigation and Waters' response differ is on timing. The university says OSU policy and federal law mandate that Waters should have acted immediately and decisively to eliminate any sexual harassment. Waters stressed change was a process. And many of the changes "like banning the midnight underwear march, completely prohibiting nicknames, and banning all drinking" only came after Waters was confronted with May's formal complaint. Nolte said she thinks Waters did what he could to cultivate change considering she said he faced push back from veteran band members and others. "If he would've gone in there and just said we are not doing 100 percent of the traditions anymore, do you understand our alumni association would have been up in arms?" Axelrod agreed Waters likely faced significant challenges to his vision of a new OSU Marching Band. "It does seem likely that there would have been a lot of push back," Axelrod said. "Again, for things to change, for things that have been going on for a long time, and are perceived as entitlements to change, it has to happen organically from within rather than by decree." It's unclear what the next steps are for Waters. Axelrod said they want to find a way to get Waters reinstated. And Axelrod said he has been in contact with university attorneys.