This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
Utah Tech University says its investigation into the misconduct allegations against former President Richard “Biff” Williams concluded with no “sustained findings.”
It’s a surprising result to come out of the Title IX review, which was launched in November 2023 after the then-president left a phallic gag gift for one of his administrators — and signed it as if it were from lower-level employees. Williams has acknowledged that he was responsible for the display and that he now sees it “was not appropriate.”
But the outside team commissioned by the school determined that it did not amount to sexual harassment, according to the attorneys that represent Utah Tech.
The Salt Lake Tribune had been fighting for public records on the investigation since first learning about it in May 2024. The university denied all requests.
The Tribune challenged that with the Utah State Records Committee, which has since been disbanded. During a hearing earlier this spring, the committee concluded that because Utah Tech said there were no findings of a violation, the school didn’t have to provide any records, in accordance with state law.
During the hearing, a committee member asked Natalie Nelson, the attorney representing Utah Tech, to confirm that a completed investigation had found Williams’ conduct did not break any policies.
“That’s correct,” she said.
Nelson wrote the same in a briefing, noting: “Utah Tech does not have a report with sustained findings against former-President Williams that it can provide in response to the request.”
The records committee also declined to release a redacted copy of the investigation, despite it not concluding with findings, because it found that even if there was public interest, “the remaining information would be unintelligible.”
The St. George-based university declined to comment further for this story, citing ongoing litigation.
Utah Tech is currently being sued over the situation with Williams, as well as other misconduct, by the three employees who Williams misattributed as having left the gag gift: the university’s top attorney, its second-in-command attorney, and its Title IX coordinator, who is charged with responding to complaints of sexual misconduct.
In their November 2024 lawsuit, the employees say Williams openly bragged about the gift: Two eggplants and a long zucchini, arranged like male genitalia, left with a note for a vice president who had recently had surgery.
The three plaintiffs — Becky Broadbent, Jared Rasband and Hazel Sainsbury — say in their federal filing that attributing the gift to them felt like payback for their efforts to try and address issues with harassment, misconduct and racism at Utah Tech.
In a recent joint comment to The Tribune, the employees said they are not surprised the investigation concluded as it did, but said they are worried that all ways to hold Williams responsible were cut off “despite the former president’s own admissions of involvement.”
“We had long been concerned that ethical and political considerations might influence the path to accountability,” they wrote.
Williams left the school in January 2024, while the investigation was underway, signing an agreement that allowed him to continue receiving his full presidential salary in Utah until he took a new job leading Missouri State University in July of that year. The governing board at his new school voted to retain Williams after the Utah allegations came to light.
When he stepped down at Utah Tech, though, the overarching Utah System of Higher Education ended its investigation into his conduct, according to the lawsuit, saying it no longer had jurisdiction because Williams was no longer an employee.
Utah Tech did the same, the three employees said. The school later hired outside company Grand River Solutions to conduct an investigation after those employees pushed back, asserting that the university was federally required to complete a review related to their Title IX allegations.
The three employees said in their recent statement that the Utah System of Higher Education and the university had “a vested interest in preserving [Williams’] reputation and facilitating his transition to future opportunities, an interest clearly reflected in the favorable separation agreement they negotiated with him while simultaneously stalling our filed grievances.”
They say the result sends a “troubling message” about the priorities of public higher education in Utah.
Their lawsuit continues to move through the federal court system, and the plaintiffs have recently added another defendant — a professor at the school who they allege threatened them when they ruled against him in a Title IX case.
Overall, their lawsuit alleges a toxic culture at the southern Utah school that not only stems from the top but is encouraged by it — and they name several administrators in the case.
Broadbent, Rasband and Sainsbury say their employee trainings on avoiding sexual harassment were often ignored or made fun of. That included a party held by faculty who passed around a fake book titled “Title IX for Dummies.”
Crude quotes were also hung on office walls, they say, capturing phrases that administrators — including Williams — had said during work. And the lawsuit alleges Sainsbury, who is Black, was also the target of “racially charged language” in emails from one administrator, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Lacourse, who was put on administrative leave for three months and has since returned.
The university changed its name in 2022 because of associations with racism.
It alsohired a new president, Shane B. Smeed, who started on May 1.
