UMBC Failed to Stop Alleged Harassment of Athletes, U.S. Finds

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County failed to respond to allegations of a former coach’s sexual harassment of male swimmers and discrimination against female athletes, the U.S. Justice Department said in a letter informing the university about the results of an investigation Monday.

The agency said in a news release that the university’s failure “violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and that UMBC’s failures allowed the former head coach to exploit his power over student-athletes, prey on student-athletes’ vulnerabilities and engage in egregious and ongoing abuse spanning many years.”

The Justice Department said that its inquiry found that from 2015 through 2020, UMBC officials “failed to respond adequately to allegations that the former head coach filmed students while showering and sexually touched male student-athletes on the pool deck,” and that from 2016 through 2020, the university’s athletics department “failed to report several incidents of dating violence by male student-athletes against female teammates.”

WBAL identified the former coach as Chad Cradock. UMBC placed him on leave in October 2020, and he died in March 2021, according to the DOJ’s letter.

“We will not tolerate sexual harassment and abuse of student-athletes on college campuses in our country,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Too many school officials and administrators knew something for UMBC to have done nothing.”

Valerie Sheares Ashby, president of UMBC, provided a statement to CBS News saying: “An agreement with the DOJ will be signed and shared publicly in the coming days. It will specify critical changes in the way the university responds to reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination. We have also reset the Athletic Department’s structure, governance, and reporting mechanisms, starting with making the athletic director a direct report to me.”