Former Utah Tech University President Richard “Biff” Williams will keep his new job in Missouri, which he stepped into about six months after he resigned here while under investigation for misconduct.

The governing board at Missouri State University voted unanimously Friday during a closed session to support Williams and continue to have him lead the school despite the allegations that have drawn widespread attention.

The decision comes, too, after the Faculty Senate at Missouri State took a vote of no-confidence in Williams’ leadership the day before. The school’s Board of Governors said in a statement released to The Salt Lake Tribune that it considered that faculty resolution before deciding to stand by Williams.

“This decision was made after thoughtful consideration of the viewpoints heard from all constituencies,” the board said. “Missouri State University has very high expectations for our leaders personally and professionally, and President Williams is working with the board on actions that he will take as part of his commitment to strengthening relationships across our campus community.”

The school did not provide details on what those actions from Williams will include.

Williams has already apologized to the Missouri State community for the attention the allegations from Utah have brought there. But he has not apologized to the Utah Tech campus.

The Faculty Senate at Utah Tech also passed a no-confidence resolution Thursday, noting that omission and saying that members are concerned with how school leaders responded to the accusations against Williams.

Those first came to light in a lawsuit filed earlier this month. Three employees — Utah Tech attorneys Becky Broadbent and Jared Rasband, as well as Title IX Director Hazel Sainsbury — said in their filing that the university has a toxic culture that stems from the top and was often encouraged by Williams. Their efforts to address it, they say, were ignored or mocked.

It culminated in November 2023 when Williams gave what he’s since acknowledged he meant as a gag gift to a member of his Cabinet after the man had surgery. It was vegetables made to look like male genitalia, alongside a note wishing the man a speedy recovery.

Only Williams didn’t sign the note from himself. Instead, he used the names of Broadbent, Rasband and Sainsbury. When they tried to report that, their lawsuit says, they faced further retaliation and harassment.

Meanwhile, Williams quietly stepped down two months after they reported, saying he planned “to pursue other professional opportunities” after a decade at the helm of Utah Tech. He continued to receive pay from the school for six months until he started in Missouri. He was inaugurated there last month.

Williams told students, according to reporting by the Springfield Daily Citizen, after the lawsuit came out that the board at Missouri did not know about the allegations prior to hiring them because the Title IX process is private.

However, Williams says he personally told the board chair shortly after he was selected as the next president there. He has also denied some of the allegations included in the lawsuit.

The Missouri Tigers and the Pacific Tigers had more things in common last year than just their monikers, as both teams finished winless in conference play. With those woes looming on their heads in this season, both teams have something to prove coming into this one and would benefit greatly from a victory at this point in the season. Missouri picked up that benefit tonight in a 91-56 victory. It was their fourth win in a row after their loss to Memphis to open the season.

Pacific came into the game with a reputation of keeping games interesting this season, with their previous bout against No. 19 Arkansas having as close as a two-point deficit with 12 minutes left. Their reputation being upheld seemed to be imminent as Pacific raced out to a 7-2 lead to start the game behind good play from Elias Ralph. The 6-foot-7 senior who played the majority of his career playing Canadian college basketball for the University of Victoria, just transferred to Pacific this year. Ralph finished the game with 19 points, leading his team.

After the hot start, head coach Dennis Gates’ group woke up as they dominated the half with multiple large scoring runs including a 14-2 run to end the half. Caleb Grill continued his good run of form shooting seven-of-nine in the first frame with five shots from beyond the arc for 19 points. Grill would finish the game with 25 points, his second-best mark of the season.

A quintessential pillar of Missouri’s ability to straighten their course after the early deficit was their clean basketball and forcing of dirty basketball on Pacific. The black-and-orange Tigers had seven turnovers while Gates’ group had none in the entire half. The black-and-gold Tigers picked up 12 points off those turnovers, marking a huge advantage in the game.

While Ralph was beating them, Missouri didn’t let anyone else on Pacific achieve the same feat. The rest of the Pacific team shot 41% in the first half, a contrast to Ralph’s 60%. A key to this game that I highlighted was dominating the offensive glass, and Missouri did so picking up seven offensive boards to Pacific’s three.

With all the joy that was the first half for Missouri, a key aspect was continuing to build a habit of having good second halves. The Tigers continued their trend of forcing turnovers as they forced three more before giving up their first of the game five minutes into the second half.

Grill’s value to the team in putting points off the bench was emphasized even more when at the final-12 minute mark, Grill had accumulated just six less points than the entire starting lineup.

Defensively, absent from the first half thanks to the slow start, Missouri did a great job suffocating Pacific and preventing them from getting favorable looks. This aggressive style of defense caused Pacific to only have 13 points with five minutes left in the second half. Pacific went under a seven-minute scoring drought

As the Tigers were clamping down on Pacific on one end, they were still putting the pain in on offense. A 10-0 run towards the end of the game solidified the win, if it wasn’t already. The offensive performance for the second game in a row was a team effort aside from Grill as six players had at least seven points.

After outscoring Pacific 37-25 in the second half, Gates’ group picked up a comfortable win as they utilized efficient shooting, turnovers, and free throws to pick up the 35 point win.

Overall, Missouri shot 49.2% from the field while Pacific 37.3%. The real difference maker was Missouri shooting 46.7% from three-point land Pacific’s 20.7%. Missouri outrebounded Pacific 38-32, and Pacific out-turnovered Missouri 14-6, with Missouri having the advantage 24-6 in points off of turnovers.

The Tigers next bout is against Arkansas Pine-Bluff on Sunday Nov. 24 at 4 PM CST. The game continues the Tigers’ non-conference home slate.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The Missouri State Health Department has provided the results of lettuce taken as part of an E. coli investigation that impacted local high school students.

The St. Louis County Health Department has said that 106 E. coli cases have been found to be connected to events hosted or catered through Andre’s Banquet and Catering. More than half of the cases were connected with Rockwood Summit High School.

On Friday, the Missouri State Health Department said that an unopened package of lettuce collected from Andre’s Banquet and Catering tested negative for E. coli.

The owner of Andre’s Banquet Center provided a statement following the release of the results:

“Recently, it was brought to my attention that members of our community have tested positive for E. coli.  In particular, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health (”Department”) contacted me and indicated there was a concern that lettuce served at two (2) events affiliated with Andre’s Banquet Center may be the cause of the E Coli.  I immediately cooperated with the Department and provided samples of the lettuce which was served at the events.  The Department, in turn, provided these samples to the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory.  However, prior to the Department obtaining samples of the lettuce, St. Louis County issued a Press Release wrongly suggesting that Andre’s was the source of the E. coli.  Earlier today, an Environmental Public Health Specialist from the State of Missouri notified me that testing done on the samples was negative for E. coli.  While I am relieved to learn of the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory’s negative test results, I will continue to cooperate with the state and local health departments as they now work to determine the source of E. coli that has caused illnesses in the region and which has resulted in individuals who did not attend any events affiliated with Andre’s contracting E Coli.”

Bill Marler of the Marler Clark law firm in Seattle has filed two lawsuits over the E. coli outbreak.

“People eat the evidence,” he said of the health department not finding any contamination in the provided product. “I mean, the fact of the matter is that the food that’s being tested now is not the food that people ate.”

He told First Alert 4 that it is not uncommon for the food to test negative in outbreak situations.

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