Todd D. Milewski | Wisconsin State Journal , Jim Polzin | Wisconsin State Journal
The first step for University of Wisconsin athletes who feel their coach has been unfair or acted inappropriately is to talk to the coach they feel wronged them, according to university policy.
That’s a common initial part of the complaint process for Big Ten athletes who feel like they’ve been mistreated by a coach or another staff member. But some who’ve competed for Wisconsin say the athletic department’s policy isn’t effective.
A lawsuit filed against Wisconsin, former women’s basketball coach Marisa Moseley and former administrator Justin Doherty called the athletic department’s complaint process “deficient by design” and said it reflected the school’s failure to protect its athletes.
If a Badgers athlete goes through with a complaint, either directly with the coach or through alternate methods involving a sport administrator or compliance official, there’s no guarantee of anonymity in the process. Likewise, players said they’re easily identifiable in postseason reviews that are supposed to be anonymous.
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The lawsuit filed Aug. 15 by attorneys for former Badgers basketball players Alexis Duckett, Krystyna Ellew, Mary Ferrito, Tara Stauffacher and Tessa Towers criticized Wisconsin’s reporting mechanism, which Wisconsin officials said is shared with athletes annually. It said Doherty told Stauffacher that because she didn’t put her complaints about Moseley in writing, there was nothing he could do about them.
Stauffacher and her father met with Doherty in April 2022, according to the complaint, and she told Doherty that players were “miserable” and provided evidence of what she said was psychological abuse. Doherty, according to the lawsuit, told Stauffacher that unhappy players should report complaints on an anonymous end-of-season form given to athletes.
“It is an unspoken secret among UW-Madison athletes that the form is anything but anonymous,” the lawsuit said, noting that it requires information that could be used to identify the writer. Players were reluctant to complain about Moseley on the form, the lawsuit said.
Eight former Badgers athletes publicly described to the Wisconsin State Journal earlier this year what they called verbal abuse from their coaches — Moseley in women’s basketball and Mackenzie Wartenberger in women’s cross country. Both coaches resigned without any public acknowledgement of athlete grievances.
Wisconsin said it didn’t receive any formal complaints against either coach, and the State Journal verified that with public records requests for their personnel files. But letters obtained by the State Journal and interviews with former players and parents confirmed that accusations had been brought to the attention of the athletic department and university leadership.
An athletic department spokesperson declined a request by the State Journal for an interview about Wisconsin’s student-athlete complaint policy and said student privacy law prevents the department from discussing the matter. “We take seriously our responsibility to look after every student-athlete’s well-being,” Wisconsin’s statement said. “Any concerns put forth by our student-athletes are treated with the utmost respect and care.”
The statement also said the university won’t comment on the lawsuit “other than to say that we disagree with the allegations of wrongdoing and will defend the lawsuit vigorously in court.”
The discrepancy on there being multiple accusations against coaches made to athletic department officials and Wisconsin saying there were no formal complaints comes down to the definition of a formal complaint.
Explaining Wisconsin’s complaint policy
Wisconsin’s student-athlete complaint process, codified in university policy No. 622, details multiple layers athletes have to clear in reporting allegations to athletic department officials. They can avoid a confrontation with their coach if they don’t feel comfortable with the idea, but it’s encouraged as the first step.
The alternate initial step is reporting the complaint to the sport administrator, who “will attempt to facilitate a resolution through informal means, such as suggesting strategies for resolution or facilitating a conversation between the involved parties.”
A grievance that isn’t resolved after that point can be elevated to a formal complaint to the senior associate athletic director for compliance. That official, the policy says, will investigate and make a report to the athletic director with recommendations on actions. It’s up to the athletic director, not anyone outside the athletic department, at that point to decide whether to implement the recommended resolution.
Athletic director Chris McIntosh said in a May 31 statement to the State Journal that he was “confident in the systems and processes we have in place to ensure matters of concern brought forward are handled appropriately.”
It is the responsibility of the athlete, not the sport administrator who heard the informal complaint, to launch an on-the-record review.
Some other Big Ten schools have similar processes for filing complaints listed in their student-athlete handbooks. Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio State also start with informal procedures to attempt to resolve issues raised by athletes.
Wisconsin’s policy says the athletic department “will make every effort to protect the privacy of student-athletes pursuing a complaint” but doesn’t offer a specific path to anonymous reporting.
There are anonymous options through the university for reporting discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual violence but not for complaints under the purview of the athletic department.
Reporting without anonymity can be ‘intimidating’
The setting matters for building trust in reporting concerns, said David Chadwick, the founder and CEO of a company that offers a way to provide confidential feedback.
Chadwick, a former basketball player at Valparaiso and Rice, came up with the idea for what became RealResponse in a college entrepreneurship class. He said college students prefer to communicate through mobile devices more than in person, where there can be greater pressure to be precise in the moment.
He said he saw a need for athletes to be able to share feedback and concerns and for administrators to be able to better monitor sports for which they were responsible.
The RealResponse platform includes a way for athletes to make allegations against staff members anonymously but still allow administrators to ask follow-up questions through the app without knowing the athlete’s identity.
“In our world, we can create a really comfortable setting for that reporter to be able to come forward and bring their concern,” Chadwick said. “Then once the organization follows up, they can be thoughtful with their response. You’re building a trust as a result in the investigative process, which ultimately leads to better information coming forward.”
The power dynamic in college sports makes it important for there to be an anonymous option in reporting allegations, Chadwick said.
“Student-athletes have a fear of repercussions, and their currency oftentimes is their playing time,” he said. “In today’s new world, I guess it could be NIL. It could be future career aspirations: I want to be a coach and I don’t want to burn a bridge with a specific person. So there’s just a reluctancy to be the person attached to that formal report.
“The analogy in another space would be someone being reluctant to be on the police report, to be the whistleblower on some type of formal investigation. It’s really intimidating. There’s a lot of red tape and process that goes around it.”
Northwestern announced in 2024 it was starting to use RealResponse for athlete feedback as part of the school’s response to allegations of hazing in its football program. A study of accountability mechanisms in place at the school found that athletes generally were aware of formal methods to report misconduct but didn’t use them as a primary outlet.
Wisconsin’s statement in response to a State Journal request for an interview didn’t address questions sent to a spokesperson about whether the athletic department has considered changes for the complaint policy or incorporating more anonymous reporting options.
‘No safe way to report,’ former athlete says
Former Badgers runner Brogan MacDougall said she initially wasn’t comfortable detailing allegations of mistreatment by former women’s cross country coach Wartenberger to athletics administrators.
“I remember feeling there was no safe way to report what was going on because I was just paranoid it was going to get back to her and make everything worse,” MacDougall said.
MacDougall, part of Badgers cross country and track and field teams in 2020 and 2021, eventually met with an administrator about her wish to medically retire and keep her scholarship amid what she called insulting and degrading treatment by Wartenberger.
She said she didn’t remember any follow-up from Wisconsin officials as a result of her description of Wartenberger’s actions to sport administrator Doug Tiedt, the senior associate athletic director for student services.
Wartenberger resigned her coaching position in January 2022.
Wisconsin’s policy includes a ban on retaliation against an athlete who brings a complaint or participates in a formal review. Even with that in place, former Badgers runner Victoria Heiligenthal said athletes who fear for their playing time or scholarship might not be willing to take part in a complaint.
The policy, she said, is “almost like a quick fix just for show, just for image, that they have something.”
“To me, it doesn’t sound like it’s building a lot of trust in people,” Heiligenthal said. “It’s kind of just creating this safety blanket for them when in reality there should be some other pieces put into place.”
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