Norwood Teague was as high-profile as a University of Minnesota administrator can be, so it was big news when the athletic director was forced out Friday for sexually harassing a pair of University employees.

The scandal got bigger Sunday evening when the Star Tribune published a first-person account by its men’s basketball reporter, Amelia Rayno, detailing Teague’s harassment of her. Rayno, a novice reporter when Teague started the harassment, did not report it to the University because she did not want to risk losing her beat. In her words, she “didn’t want my career interrupted because of a powerful man’s misdeeds.” (She did consult with her editors and newspaper’s human resources department and document the incidents.)

Rayno’s tale raises the very real possibility that there are other women harassed by Teague, regardless of whether they were University employees. Eric Kaler, university president, on Friday acknowledged “rumors” about the athletic director: “This was the first report of sexual harassment that the university had received on Norwood Teague. People talk; there are rumors all the time about lots of people, so I’m not going down that walkway with you.”

Rumors are rumors, and Teague’s priorities as athletic director (building up the revenue-producing sports) rubbed many in his department the wrong way. Teague’s superiors presumably shared those priorities and expected grumbling from those who felt otherwise. Both Minnesota and Virginia Commonwealth, Teague’s previous employer, had settled gender-bias complaints about him. Those complaints were not about sexual harassment.

But if Teague was indeed a serial harasser and his victims didn’t report him because they expected that nothing useful would result from their complaints, that’s a problem.

On Friday Kaler said the school’s investigation of Teague ended with his resignation. After Rayno’s story was published, Kaler essentially reopened it by asking that any others with similar tales report them.

This time, the focus should be not on Teague, but on the people around and above him who might have protected him from the consequences of his actions.

 

— Mankato Free Press, Aug. 13