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Minnesota Athletic Director Norwood Teague Resigns Following Multiple Confirmed Instances Of Sexual Harassment

The resignation was just announced by University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler.

By GoAUpher

*Note: This post's headline has been updated to reflect the details released by the University.

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler has confirmed that athletic director Norwood Teague is resigning. The reasons stated for the resignation are reports of sexual harassment. The interim athletic director has been announced as Beth Goetz, who already serves as deputy athletic director. This information was communicated to University staff via email just a little while ago. Here is the text of the email:

I wanted you to be among the first to know that I have accepted the resignation of Gopher Athletics Director Norwood Teague, effective immediately.

Norwood's resignation follows the report of two recent incidents of sexual harassment of two non-student University employees. I will deliver additional comments at a 12:15 p.m. press conference today. Those will be available at discover.umn.edu at that time.

To be clear, sexual harassment will not be tolerated at the University of Minnesota and I sincerely regret that our employees experienced this behavior. The University has an explicit policy and a strong code of conduct that articulates our standards. Ensuring a healthy learning, working and living environment for all in our University community is very important.

My focus is to ensure the well being of our students, faculty, staff and visitors across the University system. I am also working closely with Gopher Athletics to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Beth Goetz, deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator, has agreed to step in as interim athletics director. I have great confidence in our athletics program, its current direction and its recent successes. We will have more information about the next steps for Gopher Athletics within the next couple weeks. Thank you in advance for your patience and continued support for Gopher Athletics during this time.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Kaler
President

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UPDATE 2:40 pm CT: Details of the complaint (including the texts) are on SBN. They are not good. Stress NOT GOOD. Please know there is sexually explicit stuff in the texts. And despite the limited statement Teague gave earlier today, there was very inappropriate physical contact with the victims who reported this to the U. The full U reports are on Scribd via Deadspin.

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Norwood Teague has confirmed to reporters that he sent inappropriate texts two weeks ago.

If there is any additional information I expect President Kaler will announce it during the press conference at 12:15 CT. We will bring you updates as we know more.

Update: More from Teague via Kare 11 reporter Jana Shortal

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