Michigan State waited too long to suspend Mel Tucker: Another chapter in a sad story

EAST LANSING — Mel Tucker is suspended.

What took Michigan State so long?

Title IX rules that keep details of allegations away from the accused's superiors until the investigation is complete is the easiest answer. Though when asked Sunday afternoon, during a news conference at Spartan Stadium, why Tucker wasn't suspended sooner, athletic director Alan Haller wouldn't specifically say.

In fact, neither Haller nor interim president Teresa K. Woodruff said much during the conference. Haller only took three questions; Woodruff took none.

MSU first received complaints last December that their head football coach had sexually harassed Brenda Tracy, an activist and rape survivor. An independent investigator, hired by the school's office of civil rights, returned a report to the office in late July and recommended a hearing.

Haller said Sunday evening that he chose not to suspend Tucker in July because he wanted to let the process conclude, but he knew enough to have placed interim measures on Tucker, including oversight of his program and a no-contact order.

A school spokesperson told ESPN that Haller didn't know the full details of the complaint until the USA TODAY story broke.

Still, did they need the full details?

Because at that point, in July, Haller and Woodruff knew Tucker had been accused of something that wasn't welcomed. They also understand the general nature of Title IX complaints. Yet they allowed Tucker to coach through fall camp and the first two games of the season.

“This morning’s news might sound like the MSU of old,” Woodruff said “It was not.”

Funny, it sure sounded like it, whether Tucker is found to have masturbated over the phone without Tracy’s consent or not.

Let’s face it, MSU doesn’t have the goodwill or, frankly, the trust from the general public to suspend its coach — without pay — call a news conference to formally announce it, take three questions and bolt.

It’s a bad look, and that’s a shame for the tens of thousands of students and faculty and student-athletes and coaches and alums who didn’t deserve yet another empty news conference, or the embarrassment Tucker has left in his wake.

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And if MSU's leaders don't want the public thinking it sat on news that Tucker sexually harassed a school contractor — Tracy was paid for lectures about consent and harassment, according to USA TODAY’s Sunday report, — then they should’ve said they didn’t have enough details and further explained the Title IX process. This would at least help explain their reasoning for why Tucker stood Saturday on the sideline of Spartan Stadium as MSU played Richmond.

Instead, Haller and Woodruff hid behind talk of “integrity” — a noble word — as if they didn’t know the generally ignoble nature of Title IX complaints. They may not have had the lurid and uncomfortable details, but they knew that their head football coach had been accused of something non-consensual.

When USA TODAY'S report was published, the details were damning and embarrassing, leaving Haller and Woodruff no choice but to finally suspend Tucker. But journalism shouldn’t dictate the smart — and proper — thing to do.

MSU has leaned into a suspend-first, investigate-later model when it comes to allegations of sexual assault or harassment for its student-athletes, as have many other universities (as have so many private companies for their employees, for that matter). But that didn't happen with Tucker, even though there was nothing preventing Haller — or Woodruff — from suspending Tucker instead of setting up more oversight and issuing a no-contact order.

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It was almost a callback to the days when student-athletes who faced such allegations were allowed to remain with their teams until charges were brought … or not.

It just doesn’t work that way anymore.

Is it fair?

Perhaps not always, but society is trying to swing the pendulum away from the days when so many complaints were too easily dismissed. Besides, reports of false allegations are less than 10% (with some studies estimating as low as 2%), according to Brown University.

For those that must endure a false allegation, the lack of due process, particularly in the court of public opinion, has real consequences. And that can be a blow. But the lack of due process given to victims has been deemed a greater issue, as our culture attempts to correct itself after decades of treating victims as pariahs — or worse.

Considering the school’s recent past, the lean toward caution with Tucker is troubling, though not shocking. No wonder Haller didn’t use plain language Sunday to describe what happened when the school first learned of the report in December: “Upon receiving the reports from the complainant, regarding Mel Tucker, MSU’s Office of Civil Rights immediately commenced a review of subsequent investigation, per university protocol, using an outside third-party investigator.”

That’s lawyer talk, with a minor in public relations talk.

Clearly, MSU has a responsibility — legally and morally — to be fair on both sides, and Haller and Woodruff were legally limited in what they could say. But if lawyers told them not to suspend Tucker until the hearing played out

They could have said that. That would’ve had a touch of transparency, at least.

Instead, they ducked behind the “unique” circumstances of the latest MSU scandal. But it isn’t unique. Unfortunately, it’s still too common.

Woodruff insisted that the school isn’t the same place these days as it once was. Maybe that’s true, in part. But that insistence acknowledges there were deep, foundational issues.

Not finding a way to keep a coach accused of sexual harassment off the sidelines suggests those issues still need addressing.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What took Michigan State so long to act on Mel Tucker situation?