An internal investigation of Peter Gray, senior academics adviser for the University of Iowa Athletics Department and staff member for about 13 years total, has turned up a laundry list of inappropriate behavior, all sexual in nature, mostly involving students in some form or another. Gray allegedly traded tickets and money to at least one outsider for sex, inappropriately touched and propositioned a student that came forward for the investigation (Gray admits that part, though he couldn't recall which student or how often), hung out in student bars, and generally engaged in a lot of "overly friendly" and "unsolicited" touching of students.
For years, coworkers requested not to work with Gray—one even left the school—and he was allegedly reassigned from the task of talking to prospective student-athletes and their parents because he used the presentations to make sexually suggestive comments. Gray's social media accounts make it pretty clear that he sought out students for sex and companionship.
Allegations against Gray, who was employed by the UI Athletics Department from 1993 to 1995 and again from 2002 until Monday, ranged from making sexual comments in a presentation to recruits and their parents to touching a student's genitals, the six-page internal report says.
Gray's inappropriate behavior was at least observed during his initial employment in the 1990s and persisted through this fall, the document says.
It's grimly incredible that Gray wasn't caught sooner:
Gray also was found to have inappropriate photographs stored on his work computer, including two that involved individuals engaged in sex acts with toys or stuffed animals, numerous pictures of college-aged individuals posing in swimsuits and a few of individuals dressed in underwear, the document states.
Gray also admitted that he had a photograph of male swim team members posing in their swimsuits as a screen saver on his work computer, the document states. Gray's supervisor also said he saw an inappropriate photo on Gray's Facebook page and asked him to remove it, the document states.
And, uh:
A publicly accessible online MySpace account under Gray's name, which appears to have gone unused in recent years, contains a number of photos dated 2008 showing Gray fraternizing in bars with males who appear to be college aged. In one photo, Gray appears to be trying to lick the back of the ear of one male while holding a drink.
As the Register points out, while it isn't clear exactly how long Gray's bosses at UI knew of his conduct, the internal investigation made it plenty clear that his behavior had been a concern in the Iowa athletic offices for years. The fallout so far has been odd: Iowa ordered its own investigation after evidence had mounted for more than a decade, and when that investigation found what they must have known it would—evidence of repeated sexual harassment of students—they allowed Gray to resign instead of firing him, explained the resignation as stemming from "personal reasons" to the Register, and called Gray's absence "a personnel issue" and a "personnel matter." UI Public Safety is not investigating Gray.
Gray's bio, a screenshot of which appears above, is still up at the University of Iowa website, where his favorite quote is listed as, "Nothing is older than yesterday's success." Click over for a PDF of the memo stemming from the investigation.
UI Athletics Adviser Accused Of Harassing Students, Trading Tickets, Money For Sex [Des Moines Register]