Ex-Utah Tech University president gave phallic gag gift to his V.P. — one of many misconduct allegations, new lawsuit claims

After a vice president on his Cabinet had surgery, the then-president of Utah Tech University decided to leave a gift on the man’s porch.

President Richard “Biff” Williams allegedly bragged to at least one other administrator that he thought everyone would get a kick out of his idea for well wishes: Two eggplants and a long zucchini, arranged like male genitalia, alongside a note.

“We wanted to wish you well as you recover from your outpatient procedure,” it said, according to a copy shared with The Salt Lake Tribune. “We thought some delicious produce from our garden would help you with your recovery. Here are two delicious egg plants (sic) and our award-winning zucchini, or as we like to call it our ‘zuweenie.’”

Only Williams didn’t sign his own name to the bawdy vegetable display he delivered in November 2023.

Instead, he allegedly signed the message “all the best” from three other staffers — 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.

Now those three employees — Becky Broadbent, Jared Rasband and Hazel Sainsbury — have filed a federal lawsuit over the misattributed gift that they say was the latest in a long string of harassment they’ve faced at the St. George-based school. They describe Utah Tech as having a deep-seated toxic culture that not only stems from the top but is encouraged by it.

The 42-page filing submitted to Utah District Court on Thursday is filled with such allegations. It says that in their work on campus the three tried “to establish an environment free from harassment and discrimination. Yet in doing so, they faced resistance, intimidation, harassment and retaliation from Utah Tech’s highest leaders.”

The university, it adds, “has continuously and openly flouted the protections of Title IX.”

Broadbent, Rasband and Sainsbury say their trainings for employees 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.” Other staff tried to bully them, they said, when the findings of a misconduct complaint didn’t go their way.

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 recently put on administrative leave for three months. The university changed its name in 2022 because of associations with racism.

The three employees say in their lawsuit that most of their concerns weren’t taken seriously.

After the gag-gift incident with Williams, for instance, they say they faced retaliation for reporting it to the university’s human resources department, and they argue a “sham investigation” done by the school and the governing Utah System of Higher Education only served to protect the president.

Meanwhile, Broadbent was placed on leave during the investigation — which is not proper procedure, according to federal law, as she was the complainant and not the alleged perpetrator; reporting harassment is supposed to be a protected activity.

She has not been allowed to return to her position in the nine months since, despite the investigation having concluded, according to the lawsuit.

Williams, though, was allowed to quietly resign in January, less than two months after the report against him was filed. He planned “to pursue other professional opportunities” after a decade at the helm of Utah Tech, he announced.

He signed an agreement to leave, which The Salt Lake Tribune received a copy of through a public records request. According to that, he continued to receive his full salary of $357,000 annually from the school and could stay in the presidential campus residence until he started a new job as the president of Missouri State University in July; he was inaugurated last month. A spokesperson there declined to comment.

Williams answered a phone call Thursday, but he hung up as The Tribune asked for comment. Another person within earshot of the brief phone call could be heard shouting, “No.”

A call to Lacourse’s phone was answered by someone else, who said, “No, we’re not talking,” and also hung up. Lacourse is currently a candidate to replace Williams as president; he was given the school’s Excellence in Service Award by the board of trustees in April, despite board leadership having notice of the allegations against him, the lawsuit states.

Utah Tech University said in a statement that it is aware of the lawsuit and “committed to working closely with all parties involved to reach a resolution.”

“The university takes all allegations seriously,” the statement continued. “We have been actively following established university procedures to thoroughly review any concerns brought to the university’s attention, including hiring neutral third-party professionals to evaluate these complaints, and are taking necessary steps as appropriate.”

A spokesperson said because of the “ongoing proceedings,” the school could not provide additional details. The university has denied several requests from The Tribune about the investigation since May.

The Utah System of Higher Education also said in a statement that it couldn’t address specific details because of the pending litigation but remains “committed to fostering a culture where individuals feel empowered to report concerns.”

The three plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial and an award for damages. Their filing argues they received a clear message through the school’s actions: “If you raise complaints against your president and other senior administrators at your public institution of higher education, you will not receive due process and you will face adverse consequences.”

The zucchini incident

Before he left the phallic vegetable arrangement on the doorstep for Vice President of Marketing Jordon Sharp on Nov. 8, 2023, the lawsuit says Williams stopped by the office of Courtney White to discuss it.

White was then an adviser to the president and associate vice president of executive affairs. Williams told White that he was going to “have a good laugh” about what the president was about to do, according to the court filing, which says that information was confirmed by Utah Tech’s investigation.

The school has not provided a copy of investigative findings to The Tribune because it argues the period for employees to appeal the findings is still ongoing. The news organization is currently appealing that decision to the Utah State Records Committee, which is currently unable to convene.

At the time, both Sharp and White were members of Williams’ Cabinet and his direct reports.

White is now the interim president, after Williams stepped down. He has also thrown his hat in the ring to be named the next president.

White could not immediately be reached. Sharp initially responded to a text, but then did not provide any comment.

The lawsuit says that once Sharp received the “obscene delivery,” he suspected Williams had really been the one to leave it and called the president. Williams apparently denied it at the time. But a video camera on Sharp’s doorbell captured a man who Sharp believed was the president running away while wearing a hooded jacket cinched around his face, according to the filing.

Another clue, the lawsuit says: Sainsbury’s and Rasband’s names were both spelled incorrectly in the note’s signature.

In the days after, Sharp asked around the office about the zucchini — but never contacted the three employees whose names were signed. He shared photos of the display and the falsely attributed note with other administrators and staff and made many jokes, according to the lawsuit.

None of those administrators fulfilled their obligations as mandatory reporters of sexual harassment, who are supposed to notify the school’s Title IX office or human resources when they learn about misconduct, according to the lawsuit. None of them contacted the three employees. And none of them discouraged Sharp from sharing the images, the lawsuit states.

Sharp also sent the photo in a group text to his employees in the marketing department, according to the filing. The lawsuit says several responded with inappropriate messages. One person claimed it was “all Becky,” referring to Broadbent. Another said, referring to Sainsbury, “Please report Hazel to....Hazel.”

“Most impressive zuweenie I’ve ever seen!” added a staffer.

Sharp also joined in. He said whoever left it “really did their homework …” and then added a winking face emoji, according to the lawsuit.

As Sharp continued to show the photo to others, including Cabinet members and members of the university’s board of trustees, the lawsuit says several administrators confronted Rasband about it during a luncheon that week.

Rasband is the senior associate general counsel for Utah Tech, working directly under Broadbent and specializing in Title IX sexual misconduct cases, where he collaborates with Sainsbury.

Rasband says in the lawsuit that those officials mockingly asked him about his interest in gardening zucchini.

He was “shocked, embarrassed, and humiliated by this unexpected encounter in the presence of a group of administrators senior to him on campus,” the lawsuit states. “… Despite the power differential, Plaintiff Rasband tried to make clear to this large group of Utah Tech Cabinet members and directors that he and the other members of the [Office of General Counsel] and the Title IX Office had nothing to do with this offensive act and it was not something they would ever do.”

Following that, Williams allegedly went back to White and said he was the one who’d left the vegetables for Sharp and was worried about getting caught.

The lawsuit claims that Williams told White he was concerned the incident would “end up on the front page of The Chronicle of Higher Education.”

Launching an investigation

Broadbent has served as Utah Tech’s general counsel since January 2020 and is the senior most female administrator there. She is also one of only two women in the president’s Cabinet.

She was upset with the gift being attributed to her and her staff, so she decided to report it to the university’s human resources department on Nov. 12, 2023. She told Human Resources Executive Director Travis Rosenberg that she felt they were being retaliated against by someone in the university for their past work to address sexual misconduct.

The next day, Broadbent said she called Williams — her direct supervisor — to also report what happened. She did not know at the time that he was the one who’d left the display.

Broadbent said the president didn’t tell her it was him but did try to “manipulate and silence” her from reporting it. Williams, according to the lawsuit, told Broadbent that no one was trying to retaliate against her and that she and her staff were “loved” and “part of the family.”

A few days later, Rosenberg called Broadbent back to start an investigation. According to the lawsuit, he said that White told him about Williams’ alleged confession and that human resources was required to look into it.

Sainsbury would not be allowed to serve as the Title IX coordinator for the case because of her involvement, Rosenberg said. But he promised the school would hire an outside consultant.

In order for that to move forward, Broadbent said she was pushed to formalize the complaint, which isn’t required. She did so, naming several university administrators.

But the university “ignored or intentionally avoided the applicable policies, processes, and timelines which should have been afforded” to her and Rasband and Sainsbury, according to the lawsuit.

The three employees said it was already a hostile workplace made worse in the fallout, but nothing was done to address it, and they had to continue working with the same administrators they reported.

Both Broadbent and Sainsbury said they were never contacted for investigative interviews. Broadbent said she was told only to type up a copy of what she said had occurred.

She said she later learned, too, that Rosenberg told the president that human resources started the investigation because of her — not because White came forward.

The lawsuit says that Utah Tech hired Grand River Solutions to outsource the Title IX investigation into the president.

The Utah System of Higher Education, or USHE, which oversees the public universities in the state, contracted to involve investigators with the state’s Division of Human Resource Management. The attorney for the system contacted the three employees on Dec. 5, 2023 to notify them.

But by Dec. 21, Williams had negotiated with system officials and signed a separation agreement. The board and commissioner overseeing higher education “knew of Williams’ misconduct and condoned it by providing him a highly favorable separation agreement in lieu of discipline,” the lawsuit alleges.

Williams then got “use of Utah Tech’s media platforms … to disseminate his desired narrative about his departure.”

A few days after he signed the contract to resign, USHE’s attorney sent the plaintiffs a letter, saying their claims against the president would be dropped “due to a lack of continuing jurisdiction.”

Under the law, though, Title IX complaints cannot be dismissed just because someone resigns their employment; having worked in that field, Broadbent, Rasband and Sainsbury knew that and pushed back.

That portion of the complaint was then reopened, while the other allegations against Williams were dropped, according to copies of the letter attached to the lawsuit as exhibits.

“The board takes your claims very seriously and is grateful for your fortitude and courage in bringing these issues to its attention,” the letter from the USHE attorney states. “The board is also committed to finding a permanent president who will support the important work of you and your department.”

But the investigations that continued from there, the lawsuit says, were a “sham” in favor of the university and USHE. And Broadbent was retaliated against for reporting, she alleges.

Why was a complainant put on leave?

About two months after the president stepped down, White and Rosenberg told Broadbent on Feb. 26 that she was being placed on leave “as a supportive measure” during the investigation into her claims.

Federal Title IX law does not advocate for any adverse action, including leave, against a complainant. It states that if workplace accommodations need to be made, those should instead involve moving an alleged perpetrator to a temporary new position until an investigation is completed.

Instead, Broadbent said in a “humiliating and disruptive” way, she was escorted off campus by two human resources employees. She was then instructed to turn in her university-issued laptop, building access card, office keys and purchasing card. And she was told she could not visit the public university without permission.

She said that she considered dismissing her complaint because of that, but ultimately did not. She felt that was likely the intent of the action.

At the same time, the president was allowed to keep his work laptop during his “transition year,” according to the separation agreement.

Nine months later, Broadbent has not been allowed to return to her position. All investigations concluded by the summer, the lawsuit says, and her complaints were substantiated, but Broadbent still has not been given any notice. She reached out in September and was met with silence, she said.

Broadbent says in the lawsuit that the chair of Utah Tech’s board of trustees, Tiffany Wilson, has pushed for her termination. Wilson responded to The Tribune’s request for comment, saying she is away visiting family and referred to the statement released by the university. She also said she would take time to review the filing.

The lawsuit says Wilson knew of the allegations against President Williams by Nov. 17, 2023.

Meanwhile, both Rasband and Sainsbury say they fear facing the same repercussions as Broadbent. Rasband said he’s been frozen out of some of his duties at work and kept from meetings he’d normally attend. The university has also hired someone to replace Broadbent and did not consider him, he says, though he was second in command for the Office of General Counsel.

Additional allegations of ‘a culture of hostility’

The three employees say they believe that the former president put their names on the zucchini note as payback after they repeatedly tried to raise past misconduct issues and improve Utah Tech’s culture.

The lawsuit states, “Utah Tech has exhibited a culture of hostility in its highest administrative offices.”

Their efforts to clean up the school met resistance first in September 2021. The three employees reported, as required by law, when they noticed that Sharp and his team members had been posting “highly obscene and vulgar” quotes on the walls of a public break room.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers attached photos of those quotes under seal to the lawsuit, so it’s unclear what exactly they said.

The lawsuit says that the misconduct was “minimized” by both Williams and human resources; no action was taken. After that, Sharp and his team treated the employees unfavorably, they say.

Additionally, when Broadbent, Rasband and Sainsbury tried to conduct required trainings on misconduct, harassment and discrimination, they say they faced resistance from administrators.

In June 2022, the lawsuit claims, Lacourse — the provost put on leave — “raged, yelled, abused, harassed and disparaged” both Rasband and Sainsbury when they tried to talk to him about how they were handling a recent discrimination complaint. His reaction was so extreme, Sainsbury says, she was “rendered unable to perform” her work for a time.

In November 2022, according to the filing, Lacourse also claimed that Title IX policies were being “weaponized” against good staff and faculty members.

A year later, in August 2023, Rasband says Lacourse harassed and verbally abused him when he was meeting with university leaders to ensure that no one would retaliate against a person who had recently submitted a Title IX complaint.

Sainsbury says Lacourse also discriminated against her based on her race. He often openly questioned her expertise on Title IX during meetings, according to the lawsuit, and once “aggressively slammed his fist on the table, demanding to know ‘who you think you are.’” Rasband says he witnessed the confrontation.

Lacourse sent an email to Williams after that meeting in which he referred to Sainsbury with “racially charged language,” according to the filing. Sainsbury says she felt emotionally and physically unsafe around the provost.

Her work on Title IX was also questioned and ridiculed, she says, by faculty at the school. At one point, the lawsuit says several deans held a “Title IX mocking party.” They celebrated one employee who had been named in a sexual misconduct claim and mocked Sainsbury during the event, according to the complaint.

They also passed around “gag gifts,” the lawsuit states, including the fake “Title IX for Dummies” book.

“This behavior was never addressed by the university, and no disciplinary action was taken against those who participated in this hostile and discriminatory activity,” the filing adds.

One dean also filed a complaint against Sainsbury with the Utah attorney general’s office, according to the lawsuit, after Sainsbury investigated a case where someone had reported him for misconduct. She says the dean didn’t appeal the findings but instead tried to take action against her for asserting there was evidence that he had acted inappropriately.

The lawsuit also comes one year after Utah Tech University suspended its women’s basketball coach, JD Gustin, for two games after he was accused of misconduct.

Players told The Tribune the coach regularly shattered clipboards, flipped over chairs, kicked basketballs and ejected players from practice in fits of rage. Some also said Gustin gave unsolicited back rubs and shoulder massages, and made comments about players’ bodies and sex lives, which they said made them feel uncomfortable.

The school ignored their complaints, they said. So they hired a private investigator who submitted a report to the university affirming the players’ allegations.

Utah Tech then hired a consulting firm that similarly substantiated the players’ concerns. The players had hoped it would’ve been enough to remove Gustin from his job; instead the university moved forward with the suspension.

The three employees who filed the lawsuit Thursday say this shows Utah Tech University doesn’t live up to its commitment of providing “a safe, tolerant and welcoming community.”

“Those who perpetrate misconduct will be outwardly rewarded and receive protective treatment from the institution and its governing and advisory bodies,” the lawsuit states.

As of Friday morning, none of the defendants named had filed responses to the complaint.