The former president of Utah Tech University is apologizing for giving a member of his previous Cabinet a phallic gag gift — what he said was “intended to be a humorous gesture.”
“I have since come to realize that the prank was not appropriate,” Richard “Biff” Williams wrote in an email Saturday. “This was a mistake. I regret my lapse in judgment, and I accept this as a learning moment.”
The message was sent to the campus community at Missouri State University, where Williams took the helm as president in July after resigning from Utah Tech earlier in the year. The apology was first reported by the Springfield Daily Citizen.
“I apologize for the undue attention this has brought to the university,” Williams added in his statement.
The gag gift is the center of a new federal lawsuit filed Thursday over sexual misconduct at the southern Utah school, where three employees allege a toxic culture there was encouraged by Williams and other administrators.
[Read more about the federal lawsuit and misconduct allegations at Utah Tech.]
They say Williams bragged about the gift he was planning to leave on the doorstep of a vice president after the man had surgery in November 2023. The present: Two eggplants and a long zucchini, arranged like male genitalia, alongside a note.
Williams didn’t sign his name to the message, according to the lawsuit. Instead, he allegedly signed the message from the staffers now suing — 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.
Those three employees — Becky Broadbent, Jared Rasband and Hazel Sainsbury — say in their federal filing that attributing the gift felt to them like payback for their efforts to try to clean up the issues with harassment, misconduct and racism at Utah Tech University.
After the gag gift, they say they faced retaliation for reporting it to the university’s human resources department. They argue a “sham investigation” was done by the school and the governing Utah System of Higher Education that served only to protect the president.
Williams quietly resigned shortly after the “prank” was reported. He stepped down in January, announcing that he planned “to pursue other professional opportunities” after a decade at the helm of Utah Tech.
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.
Williams accepted the post as the president of Missouri State University and was inaugurated there last month. A spokesperson for that school has declined to comment to The Tribune.
But Missouri State University’s Board of Governors issued a statement Saturday to the Springfield Daily Citizen, saying it stands by Williams and “continues to have confidence” in his ability to lead.
“We are committed,” the board said, “to working alongside him to ensure that the university is a safe and welcoming environment to all students, faculty and staff.”
Williams answered a phone call Thursday from The Tribune but hung up when asked for comment.
He added in his statement to the Missouri community: “This experience continues to remind me how important it is to always strive to foster a campus environment that is safe and welcoming to all students, faculty and staff.”
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.
She has not been allowed to return to her position in the nearly nine months since, according to the lawsuit, despite the investigation having concluded.
Utah Tech University has not provided a copy of investigative findings to The Tribune because it argues the period for employees to appeal the findings is ongoing. The news organization is appealing that decision to the Utah State Records Committee, which is currently unable to convene.
The school said in a statement Thursday that it is aware of the lawsuit and “committed to working closely with all parties involved to reach a resolution.”
