Past and present student-athletes from San Jose State’s swimming and diving team expressed discontent regarding former athletic director Marie Tuite, who was reassigned from her position on May 21.
President Mary Papazian stated in a May 21 campuswide email Tuite will assume the new role of special director of external relations and capital project development, where she will focus on increasing the athletics department’s financial support throughout facilities on South Campus.
A women’s swimming and diving team alumna, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy concerns, said Tuite’s reassignment wasn’t strong enough action from the university.
“I personally feel like [Tuite] only showed sympathy when her job was on the line and it benefitted her own [interests],” the alumna said in a text message.
The reassignment came after Sage Hopkins, swimming and diving head coach, filed a lawsuit in March to the Santa Clara County Superior Court against CSU and university administrators, including Tuite.
The legal action accuses administrators of ignoring reported incidents of sexual assault by Scott Shaw, former director of sports medicine, and retaliating against whistleblowers, according to the 93-page court documents obtained by the Spartan Daily.
Shaw was the director of sports medicine from 2008 to when he resigned in August 2020.
Claims of sexual assault during physical therapy against Shaw were initially determined to be unsubstantiated in the university’s 2009 investigation, as the investigator said techniques Shaw used were “bona fide means of treating muscle injury,” according to an SJSU document regarding the university’s summary of the investigation.
Hopkins circulated a 300-page dossier among the university, the Mountain West Conference and NCAA officials in 2019 that detailed sexual misconduct claims from 17 swim and diving female athletes, stating that Shaw inappropriately touched them while performing trigger point therapy, according to an April 17, 2020 USA Today article.
The dossier also detailed Hopkins’ claims of retaliation against him and his team for reporting the sexual misconduct, according to the same USA Today article.
After receiving the dossier from the Mountain West and NCAA officials, Papazian opened a reinvestigation into the handling of the 2009 investigation in December 2019, where investigators concluded the sexual misconduct claims were substantiated, according to the same university summary of the investigation.
The reinvestigation also substantiated sexual misconduct claims from ten other student-athletes, according to the SJSU Athletics Department and Investigations For Your Information (FYI) webpage.
The FYI webpage regarding the reinvestigation into Shaw’s sexual misconduct cases detailed the university’s narrative of the investigations and its findings.
Swimming and diving alumna Natasha Sondeno said she didn’t like how the university handled Tuite’s reassignment or the 12-year-long sexual misconduct cases involving Shaw.
“Most people in a situation [such as] this have been suspended immediately when the investigations begin,” Sondeno said in an Instagram message.
Sondeno said the university should’ve suspended Tuite while the 2019 investigation was pending.
Tuite wasn’t investigated alongside the reinvestigation because it primarily focused on the 2009-10 inquiry regarding Scott Shaw, according to the FYI webpage.
Tuite was hired as the university’s athletic department’s chief operations officer in 2010 and was promoted to athletic director by Papazian in May 2017.
Regarding her reassignment, the university periodically moves executives to positions such as the one created for Tuite, according to the FYI webpage.
As special director of external relations and capital project development, Tuite can participate in the investigations and continue to support “the university’s mission” through her fundraising efforts, according to the same FYI webpage.
An athletic department informant, who wished to remain anonymous for safety and privacy concerns, said Tuite’s reassignment was questionable and other SJSU employees in a similar position would’ve been terminated for lesser offenses.
“The fact that they haven't terminated her has to be in question because they would have terminated anybody else, definitely in a position of authority that did what she did,” the informant said.
The informant said university administrators are in a position where if they terminate Tuite, it would be their admission of guilt because there are too many pending litigations regarding her retaliation over the years.
Hopkins wasn’t the only SJSU athletics employee to recently file a lawsuit against university administrators, including Tuite, for retaliation. Former deputy athletic director Steve O’Brien filed a lawsuit in March against Tuite and university trustees for firing him in retaliation, according to a March 2 USA Today article.
O’Brien alleged that Tuite ordered him to discipline Hopkins when he resurfaced sexual abuse allegations involving Shaw from a decade ago by female student-athletes in 2019, according to the same USA Today article.
Tuite fired O’Brien without explanation on March 2, 2020 after he told other SJSU officials that her instructions to reprimand Hopkins could’ve been retaliatory, according to the USA Today article.
“If you didn't cover things up with Tuite, you were going to be gone,” the informant said.
Regarding the retaliation claims against Tuite, the university’s FYI webpage read that the university declined to comment on “details of pending litigation or other complaints.”
Papazian featured Tuite’s first public comment regarding student-athletes’ mistreatment, specifically the sexual misconduct cases involving Shaw, in a May 21 campuswide email.
“As a leader, I am deeply sorry our student-athletes were impacted by Scott Shaw,” Tuite was quoted in the email. “I will continue to fully cooperate with any and all investigations. My key objective here is to let our community heal.”
Rebecca Petoe, a current women’s swimming and diving sophomore, said it took too long for Shaw’s cases to come to light and the university to take action to protect student-athletes.
“Being an athlete, I feel frustrated that athletics didn’t have the right priorities and with this, I mean, the well-being of the student-athletes of SJSU,” Petoe said in a text message. “In any case, I am a strong believer that athletics is going to learn from this mistake and realize that athletes deserve to feel safe and protected.”
She said while Tuite shouldn’t be part of the university’s athletic department, she’s relieved Tuite won’t have a large impact on leadership anymore.
While Charlie Faas, chief financial officer and vice president for administration and finance, assumed the role of interim athletic director on May 22, Papazian announced in a campuswide email Saturday the university has named a new athletic director.
Jeff Konya, former athletic director of Northeastern University in Boston, was selected by the university’s search committee, which was chaired by Lisa Millora, vice president for strategy and chief of staff.
“Jeff brings over two decades of leadership and award-winning collegiate athletics administrator experience,” Papazian said in a Saturday SJSU news release.
Papazian will introduce Konya at a virtual press conference Monday at 10 a.m.
