Matt Lauer’s Alma Mater Will Continue Internship He Helped Start

Ohio University, where Matt Lauer finished his undergraduate degree, says they’ll continue the NBC journalism internship program that Lauer helped them start. TMZ reached out to the school, who said they have no intentions to stop sending students from Scripps College of Communications to intern at The Today Show every semester, despite this morning’s news of the journalist’s sexual misconduct.

After NBC announced that they were firing the Today Show anchor for “inappropriate sexual behavior” at work, all of his other engagements were called into question. They’ve clarified that Lauer will no longer co-host the tree-lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center, and now Ohio University has said that his legacy will survive through this internship.

Lauer dropped out of Ohio U. in 1979. However, he went back in 1997 to finish his degree at 39 years old. Shortly after that, in 2000, he helped his Alma Mater set up the program with his employer, NBC. The school says that more than sixty students have participated in the program, and four more are scheduled to go work in New York City this January.

Spokespeople for Ohio University told reporters that the school was saddened by the news of Lauer’s firing, and his alleged misconduct, but they saw the incident as “an opportunity for continued dialogue with our faculty, staff and students about ethical workplace and personal values.”

Lauer himself has yet to comment publicly on the news or the controversy. His former co-workers are all saying that they’re shocked by these developments, and voicing support for Lauer, his family, and his anonymous accuser through this trying time.