Edward John Ray

Edward John "Ed" Ray (born September 10, 1944)^[1] is an American economist who became the 19th president of Oregon State University on July 31, 2003.^[2] Prior to joining Oregon State, Ray was executive vice president and provost of Ohio State University for the previous six years.^[3] As president of OSU, Edward Ray earns a gross salary of $414,377 in 2010.^[4] He also serves as chairman of the NCAA's Executive Committee.

Ray was a member of the Economics faculty at Ohio State from 1970–2003, serving as economics department chair from 1976 to 1992. He served as an associate provost from May 1992 until May 1993, senior vice provost and chief information officer from 1993–1998, and executive vice president and provost from 1998-2003.

His work has been published in The American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Review of Economic Studies and other leading journals. He has co-authored a principles text, and his book, "U.S. Protectionism and the World Debt Crisis" was published by Quorum Press in 1989.

Dr. Ray received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Queens College, City University of New York in June 1966, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his master's degree in economics from Stanford University in 1969 and his doctorate in economics from Stanford in June 1971.

His wife Beth (1946-2014) was a counselor and assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences while at Ohio State. They have three children and three grandchildren. On March 21, 2014, she died from lung cancer.^[5]

NCAA Chairmanship

Ed Ray was one of the key architects, along with NCAA President Mark Emmert, of the unprecedented sanctions against the Penn State football program in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. On July 23, 2012, the NCAA issued penalties that included a 4-year bowl ban, severe scholarship reductions, the vacating of 112 wins from 1998-2011, and a $60 million fine against the school.^[6] The decision by the NCAA was extremely controversial, as the NCAA has never involved itself in a criminal matter and the NCAA had nothing in its bylaws that would justify this action. Many claimed that the decision was made to bolster the NCAA's public image, which had taken a hit in recent years due to weak punishments for infractions. In response to the sanctions, Pennsylvania state senator Jake Corman and the estate of former Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno, filed separate lawsuits against the NCAA.

During the discovery phase of Corman's lawsuit, it was revealed in internal emails that the NCAA worked closely with Louis Freeh^[7] in his investigation of the Sandusky scandal. In addition, emails revealed that many in the NCAA questioned whether they had the authority to sanction Penn State and that some officials wanted to "bluff" Penn State's leadership into accepting a severe punishment, because they believed that they did not have the authority to punish Penn State.^[8]

On January 15, 2015, Ray's deposition in the lawsuit was made public, in which he admitted under oath that he did not read the Freeh Report nor had he reviewed the consent decree drafted by the NCAA before he appeared in a press conference, along with Emmert, announcing the sanctions against Penn State that almost crippled Penn State's football program and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Penn State and the local community.^[9] Ray claims that he was vacationing in Maui at the time and was unable to read the documents. (Some who evaluated Dr. Ray's deposition testimony even felt he may have committed perjury.^[10]) The following day, the NCAA settled the Corman lawsuit by withdrawing all remaining sanctions against Penn State, including the vacating of the program's victories from 1998-2011, making Joe Paterno the winningest coach in Division 1 football history.^[11]

References