Before joining Missouri State University on July 1, 2024, Williams was president of Utah Tech from 2014 through early January of last year.
Utah Tech spokesperson Jyl Hall on Thursday declined to provide a copy of the recently completed investigative report to Ozarks Public Radio, saying, “The report is not public because there were no sustained findings.”
Missouri State University declined to comment the same day, saying it “does not comment on investigations conducted at other universities.”
Missouri State did not directly respond to a KSMU question as to whether any university officials, including members of the MSU Board of Governors, have had an opportunity to review the report on Williams by Utah Tech.
Williams and several others — including the Utah Tech spokesperson quoted in this news report — were named as defendants in an ongoing federal lawsuit filed last fall by two of the school’s top attorneys, along with its Title IX coordinator.
A Title IX coordinator is an employee designated to ensure compliance with a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
A 2023 incident, detailed in the lawsuit petition against Williams, involved eggplant and zucchini arranged in the form of male genitalia. They were left at the home of a Utah Tech executive. Then-Utah Tech President Williams has said he left a note with the vegetables, signed with the names of the three plaintiffs, as a "prank."
KSMU reached out on Thursday to attorneys for Williams — and for the three plaintiffs alleging harassment and retaliation — but did not immediately receive a response from either side.
Last November, Williams emailed the Missouri State community to say in part, “I regret my lapse in judgment, and I accept this as a learning moment."
Later that month, after meeting in four closed sessions, the MSU Board of Governors announced it decided unanimously to allow Williams to continue as president.
The news was first reported by Salt Lake Tribune.
