MEMORANDUM AND ORDERINTRODUCTION Plaintiff Jeffrey Menaker (“Plaintiff”) brought this action against Defendant C.D. (“C.D.” or “Defendant”) for defamation. Presently before the Court is Defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. (“Rule”) 12(b)(6).1 For the reasons explained below, the motion to dismiss is denied.BACKGROUNDThe following relevant facts come from the Amended Complaint and are assumed true.2On or about January 15, 2016, Hofstra hired Plaintiff as the Director of Tennis and the Head Coach of the men’s and women’s varsity tennis teams. (Amended Compl. (“Compl.”) [DE 18]4.) Plaintiff alleged that he inherited the “annual allocation of athletic scholarship funds to members of the tennis teams” from his predecessor. (Id.7.)In late April 2016, just before the season-ending conference tournament, Defendant approached Plaintiff to confirm that her scholarship would be increased from 45 percent to 100 percent.(Id.8.) Defendant claimed that this increase had been promised by Plaintiff’s predecessor. (Id.) Plaintiff said he was not aware of the promise, but that he would investigate. (Id.) He conversed with his supervisor, Alyssa Morales-Kelly (“Kelly”), who confirmed that the Department had no record of a promise to increase the scholarship. (Id.10.) Plaintiff then informed Defendant that he could not increase her scholarship for her sophomore year, but he could give her a full scholarship for her junior and senior years. (Id.13.) In May 2016, Defendant’s father called Plaintiff and yelled at him on the phone about the scholarship situation. (Id.14.) Plaintiff reported the call to Kelly. (Id.16.)That same month, Defendant visited Plaintiff’s office to inform him that she could no longer afford to attend Hofstra. (Id.17.) Defendant later called Plaintiff to ask him to “release” her under the NCAA rules so she could transfer to another University and tennis program. (Id.21.) Plaintiff and Defendant texted back and forth regarding whether she would look for another school, under which circumstance Plaintiff informed Defendant that he would rescind the offer for a full scholarship for her junior and senior years. (Id.
24-27.) In June 2016, Defendant informed Plaintiff that she had decided to return to Hofstra for her sophomore year. (Id.27.) Around this same time, Hofstra Athletic Department administered anonymous reviews of the coaching staff. (Id.19.) Thereafter, Plaintiff met with Kelly to discuss the reviews, which she said were all positive. (Id.20.)In July 2016, Plaintiff was summoned to the office of the Deputy General Counsel, Jennifer Mone (“Mone”), along with the Vice President and Director of Athletics, Jeffrey Hathaway (“Hathaway”). (Id.29.) Mone asked Plaintiff about his methods of communicating with students, and then presented him with a letter Defendant had received from the Student’s attorney. (Id.
