University of Iowa Will Drop Steve Wynn’s Name From Major Institute He Funded
Steve Wynn Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman February 1, 2018
The University of Iowa says it is planning to remove Steve Wynn’s name from a major institute on its campus in the wake of sexual assault allegations made against him, the Washington Post reported. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wynn had pressured employees into sex.
In 2013, the University of Iowa unveiled the newly renamed Stephen A. Wynn Institute for Vision Research. Wynn had made $25 million commitment to the school to support the institute. Wynn has hereditary blindness.
“University leadership determined retaining the name would be damaging to the institution’s reputation following recent allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Wynn,” the University of Iowa said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement added that the renaming of the vision institute was “in recognition of the gift, and not a condition of the gift.” The statement also said that Wynn had so far donated $20 million to the institute.
The day after the Journal’s story broke, Wynn resigned as chairman of the Republican Finance Committee.
Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
