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Michigan State University suspended its head football coach Sunday after news reports that he had sexually harassed the rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy last year, the Associated Press reported.
USA Today reported Sunday that Mel Tucker, Michigan State’s coach, had allegedly made sexualized comments about Tracy and masturbated while on a telephone call with her in April 2022, according to a complaint Tracy filed with the university’s Title IX office in December.
According to the newspaper, Tucker and Tracy had developed a professional relationship as the coach and activist joined forces in a campaign to fight the culture of sexual violence in sports.
Within hours of the report’s publication, Michigan State officials confirmed that they had suspended Tucker without pay pending the results of the university’s investigation, which are expected by October.
They sought to make it clear that unlike in the past, when Michigan State failed to take seriously allegations of sexual misconduct involving the former athletics doctor Larry Nassar, the university was acting aggressively.
“This morning’s news might have sounded like the MSU of old,” Teresa Woodruff, the university’s interim president, told reporters. “It was not. It is not because an independent, unbiased investigation is and continues to be conducted.”
