Michigan State University intends to fire head football coach Mel Tucker after the coach was accused of sexual harassment, the university announced Monday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI, with the support of administration and board, have provided Mel Tucker with written notice of intent to terminate his contract for cause,\u201d the school\u2019s vice president and director of athletics Alan Haller said in a news release. \u201cThis notification process is required as part of his existing contract. The notice provides Tucker with seven calendar days to respond and present reasons to me and the interim president as to why he should not be terminated for cause.\u201d <\/p>\n
The move comes just over a week after USA Today reported Tucker was under investigation for alleged sexual harassment, leading the university to suspend him without pay. <\/p>\n
In a statement Tuesday, Tucker said the university knew since at least March about the information it relied on to end his contract. He said the move to terminate him only came after the allegation was leaked to the press. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation is designed to determine if I violated policy. I did not. But regardless, basic fairness requires that process play out before any sanction(s) are determined,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
Tucker also said the notice came after he emailed Haller to request medical leave \u201cfor a serious health condition.\u201d <\/p>\n
When asked about Tucker\u2019s statement, Michigan State University said it had no additional comment beyond the notice of intent and statement sent Monday. <\/p>\n
According to the USA Today report, Tucker is alleged to have made sexual comments and masturbated while on a phone call with Brenda Tracy, an advocate and rape survivor. <\/p>\n
Tracy reported her call with Tucker to the university\u2019s Title IX office, USA Today reported. \u201cThe idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it\u2019s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,\u201d Tracy told USA Today. \u201cIt\u2019s like he sought me out just to betray me.\u201d <\/p>\n
The investigation into the coach\u2019s conduct began in December 2022, Haller said at a news conference earlier this month. <\/p>\n
Tucker, a defensive coach in college and the NFL over the past two decades, became Michigan State\u2019s head coach in 2020. In his second season, the team went a sterling 11-2, and he signed a massive 10-year, $95 million contract that made him one of the highest paid coaches in college football. Last year, though, the team finished a disappointing 5-7, including blowout losses to rivals Michigan and Ohio State. <\/p>\n
The university released a copy of the notice they sent Tucker, along with a copy of his employment agreement signed in 2021 \u2013 which they claim he violated and admitted to violating during the investigation. <\/p>\n
The notice says Tucker \u201cmade unwelcome sexual advances towards\u201d an activist contracted by the university to provide sexual misconduct education to the school\u2019s football team. Tucker \u201cmasturbated on a phone call without her consent,\u201d the document says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the formal grievance process proceeds, the above-described undisputed facts provide multiple grounds for termination under the Agreement\u2019s Early Termination Provision,\u201d the notice to Tucker reads. <\/p>\n
The notice claims Tucker admitted to making comments about the activist\u2019s body, made flirtatious comments, masturbated and made \u201csexually explicit comments\u201d about himself and her while on a phone call with the activist. <\/p>\n
The coach\u2019s behavior \u201cconstitutes a material breach\u201d of his duties, \u201cdemonstrates \u2018conduct which constitutes moral turpitude,\u2019\u201d and \u201chas brought \u2018public disrespect, contempt, or ridicule upon the University,\u201d all of which are grounds for his firing, according to the document. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe unprofessional and unethical behavior is particularly egregious given that the Vendor at issue was contracted by the University for the sole purpose of educating student-athletes on, and preventing instances of, inappropriate sexual conduct,\u201d the document reads. <\/p>\n
The school is conducting an investigation into the incident in accordance with its \u201cRelationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct\u201d policy and Title IX. <\/p>\n
An attorney for Tracy, Karen Truszkowski, said no police report was filed. She issued a statement on behalf of her client last week. <\/p>\n
\u201cBrenda Tracy had no intention of publicly disclosing her identity,\u201d the statement read. \u201cShe was and continues to be committed to complying with and concluding the MSU internal investigative process. She respected the process and chose not to go to the media to preserve the integrity of the process. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the investigation process was completed, we would have determined, what, if any further steps to take. Instead, her identity was disclosed without her knowledge or consent, warranting express actions to protect her. Her choice to allow this process to proceed privately was taken away.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Michigan State University intends to fire head football coach Mel Tucker after the coach was accused of sexual harassment, the university announced Monday. \u201cI, with the support of administration and board, have provided Mel Tucker with written notice of intent to terminate his contract for cause,\u201d the school\u2019s vice president and director of athletics Alan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}