San Jose State’s former president Mary Papazian was alerted to allegations of sexual misconduct against former director of sports medicine Scott Shaw and accusations of retaliation against former athletic director Marie Tuite in a July 7, 2016 email.
Sue Martin, SJSU interim president from Aug. 18, 2015 - July 1, 2016, outlined issues she saw in the athletic and human resources departments in the email after conversations with faculty members.
Martin sent it to Papazian shortly after she became university president on July 1, 2016 and it was released in a Sunday Mercury News article.
“The working environment in athletics is toxic,” Martin stated in the email. “Administrators need proper evaluation [and] HR is not impartial.”
In 2017, the university conducted a nationwide search for a new athletics director. Tuite served as interim athletics director and was named the new director of athletics on May 17, 2017, according to the SJSU: For Your Information (FYI) webpage.
Martin stated in her email that a retired faculty member, Wiggsy Sivertsen, came to her in June 2016 with concerns regarding the athletic department that were primarily about Marie Tuite, then deputy-athletic director, including fear of retaliation expressed by several coaches.
The email also outlined Tuite threatened anyone who raised concerns regarding allegations against Shaw, which involved at least 20 female athletes, and would be “sued if they pursued it.”
In 2019, Sage Hopkins, swimming and diving head coach, circulated a 300-page dossier among the university, the Mountain West Conference and NCAA officials that detailed sexual misconduct claims from 17 swim and diving female athletes, according to an April 17, 2020 USA Today article.
Papazian opened a December 2019 external investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations after she “understood concerns” regarding the previous investigation’s inadequacies, according to the university FYI webpage.
Papazian reviewed materials including Martin’s email. Papazian “did not recall that reference to Shaw until she reviewed Martin’s 2016 email,” according to the webpage.
The investigation conducted by attorney investigator Marilou Mirkovich and supervised by Linda Hoos, California State University Title IX compliance officer, concluded that 10 students’ allegations against Shaw from the previous investigation and claims from three other students were substantiated, according to the FYI webpage.
The U.S. Department of Justice also concluded on Sept. 21, 2021 that the university inadequality responded to incidents of sexual misconduct and reached a $1.6 million agreement to remedy the violations.
Taylor Lehr, 2019 swimming and diving alumna, said while she believes Papazian might have ignored Martin’s email in her first week in office because of repercussions, she still risked students’ wellbeing.
“I feel like she was probably worried to speak out about [the email],” Lehr said in a phone call. “And I think that she kind of abused her position of power in that regard.”
She also said she feels it was unlikely Papazian didn’t hear about sexual misconduct claims against Shaw before opening the 2019 investigation because the knowledge of the claims was so widespread.
“I feel like there's definitely been reports of this going on,” Lehr said. “So there's no way that she didn't know. I think that, of course, she's going to say [she didn’t know]. I think that it's impossible for her to have said that she had no idea.”
Barry Shiller, former SJSU associate vice president for communications from December 2012 to December 2017, said Martin’s four-and-a-half page email is “rare, documented evidence,” according to a Sunday Mercury News article.
“[Papazian] could have put a stop to it years earlier,” Shiller said.
Over the past year, SJSU has introduced a new leadership team including an interim president, Title IX and gender equity officer, and an athletics director with “substantial improvements” to the university’s Title IX program, according to a Monday statement on the FYI webpage.
Sage Hopkins said in a Monday email statement to the Spartan Daily that knowing the contents of Martin’s email makes him “even more thankful” for new campus leadership.
“As I have said previously, San José State University is an amazing, diverse, and transformational institution,” he said. “These actions should be seen for what they are ... the actions of a small group of rogue administrators who do not represent the ideals that our campus stands for.”
