Report: Former Minnesota AD Faced Sexism Complaints Going Back Years

First, Norwood Teague resigned as the University of Minnesota athletics director after two university employees filed sexual harassment complaints against him for sending them incredibly explicit, and incredibly disgusting, text messages. Then, a Minnesota basketball reporter detailed her own experience being sexually harassed by Teague. And now, the Star Tribune reports that both the University of Minnesota and Virginia Commonwealth University, Teague’s previous employer, have paid a combined $300,000 to settle claims brought about by Teague’s behavior.

In 2012, then VCU women’s basketball coach Beth Cunningham filed a complaint accusing Teague of gender discrimination. The records the paper was able to get their hands on don’t specify the exact reason for the complaint, but do say that the University settled it for $125,000. Cunningham left VCU in 2012 to become the associate head coach at Notre Dame, her alma mater.

Teague was hired by the University of Minnesota in April 2012, and it took fewer than six months for his actions to get his employer in trouble. Via the Star Tribune:

In March 2013, Regina Sullivan, a senior associate athletic director for the University of Minnesota, filed a federal complaint against the U after she was fired from the school in October 2012. Teague, she said, “expected a woman in my position to take a passive role and defer to men’s opinions” on issues pertaining to Title IX, the law that bans sex discrimination in any federally funded school.

In her complaint, Sullivan said Teague fired her because she questioned his “commitment to Title IX.” Records show the U settled with Sullivan in April 2014 for $175,000.

And if you think that’s all, well, you really haven’t been paying attention. Besides the blatant sexual harassment of Star Tribune reporter Amelia Rayno and the two unnamed University employees by Teague, the Star Tribune paints the picture of an athletics department institutionally discriminating against women. It quotes former Gophers women’s volleyball coach Stephanie Schleuder, who sent a letter to the University Board of Regents in 2013 that was ignored. The letter “demand[ed] that Teague apologize for comments he made in the Star Tribune, saying the school could not add more sports because of Title IX.”

The University of Minnesota is also being investigated by the federal government for its compliance with Title IX, after an anonymous complaint alleged that women’s athletics teams were getting too little funding, and that the roster for them were getting smaller.

[ Star Tribune]

h/t Caitlin Kelly

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