San Jose State University President Mary Papazian announced Thursday she would resign by the end of the year, the biggest casualty in a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Silicon Valley school.
Papazian took the university’s helm in 2016, seven years after abuse allegations first surfaced and were dismissed against an athletics trainer who continued to work with female athletes. Publicly, Papazian had tried to position herself as the first president to truly act on the athletes’ behalf by opening a new investigation in 2019 into accusations against trainer Scott Shaw.
But her efforts were criticized as too little, too late. Papazian had promoted Athletic Director Marie Tuite, who left the university six weeks ago while facing accusations she retaliated against a swim coach who for years tried to protect the female athletes. Then, in a blistering report two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Justice accused the Papazian administration of launching the 2019 probe only under pressure from outside groups and said that the new investigation was deeply flawed.
The news of Papazian’s resignation quickly circulated Thursday among nearly two dozen of Shaw’s victims, including the first female swimmers who complained about him in 2009.
“I’m happy that she’s gone, but she apparently left by choice,” said Lindsay Warkentin, now 32, who was 19 when she says Shaw groped her breast while ostensibly treating her shoulder injury. “I haven’t seen a formal apology or recognition that she played a part in this. I don’t know that there’s any accountability still.”
Caitlin Macky, another former swimmer who complained about Shaw, said she is frustrated that university leaders “head to the hills” during controversy.
“These leaders in academic institutions are supposed to be protecting students and athletes, but instead of protecting us they’re protecting themselves, their reputations and the predator himself,” she said. “And in the wake of all that, they’re targeting whistleblowers and blaming survivors.”
Macky said she and other victims were left to “create a safety net support system for ourselves.”
In a statement Thursday sent to the campus community, Papazian — who was paid $403,433.04 annually — said she will step aside at the end of the fall semester. It was not immediately clear who would replace her, but she said she would “continue to participate in and support the ongoing … investigations surrounding former SJSU Director of Sports Medicine Scott Shaw.”
The transition, she said, “does not impact our intention and obligation to understand what occurred and how the university responded at the time. I made a promise to our community and to the affected student-athletes and their families, and I plan to honor it. My heart, apologies and prayers continue to be with those students who suffered a breach of trust during their time at the university.”
Papazian has not been available for interviews about the scandal over the past year.
The allegations first surfaced in 2009, when more than a dozen members of the swim team complained to Coach Sage Hopkins that Shaw was massaging them under their bras and underwear to treat injuries on other parts of their bodies. Under then-President Jon Whitmore, an in-house investigation concluded that Shaw’s “pressure point therapy” was a bona fide treatment. Over the swim coach’s objections — and his repeated detailed complaints year after year — Shaw was allowed to continue treating female athletes. Shaw was suspended with pay after a current female athlete said that Shaw — in the midst of Papazian’s new investigation — touched her inappropriately.
In August 2020, Shaw resigned without further discipline. He is the subject of an FBI criminal investigation. He has declined interview requests.
Macky, who is now a nutrition health coach in San Diego, said the true hero during these last turbulent years is Hopkins, the swim coach who was so frustrated with inaction by university leaders that he took his 300-page dossier of concerns about Shaw in 2019 to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“I’ve had to pick up and live my life and I’ve been sitting here for 10 years holding my breath, while they’re calling us liars and exaggerators — and while Sage our coach has been championing us the whole time,” said Macky, 32. “I’ve never had Papazian as my president, but my disappointment is that she didn’t take his words more seriously.”
What bewilders both is that all the campus leaders who played a significant role in allowing Shaw to continue treating female athletes for a decade were woman, including members of the human resources department and Title IX office, which investigates sexual harassment. The university employees who tried to protect them, Hopkins and former deputy athletics director Steve O’Brien, were both men.
“You read about the men in powerful positions and how they’re using their position of power to get what they want, but you don’t hear about women doing that — especially looking at San Jose State and the people in charge,” said Warkentin, who along with others is pursuing a legal claim against the university.
In late September, the university reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to pay a total of $1.6 million to victims. The school is still facing legal claims from Shaw’s victims and lawsuits from Hopkins and O’Brien, who claims he was wrongfully fired for sticking up for the swim coach. As part of the settlement, SJSU must overhaul its Title IX office and reach out to roughly 1,000 former female athletes to determine whether there are more victims. The school must also apologize to Hopkins, in writing.
In a statement, the school said California State University (CSU) Chancellor Joseph Castro would meet with campus stakeholders before naming an interim president and that the CSU board of trustees would begin a national search for the next president. The university has seen significant turnover at the top in the last couple of decades, with Papazian serving longer than many of her predecessors.
“President Papazian’s decision to resign from the presidency reflects her compassionate leadership,” Castro said in a statement. “While professionally and personally difficult, this step demonstrates her commitment to the university moving forward.”
In its statement, SJSU praised Papazian for helping to take advantage of its Silicon Valley location by forging stronger partnerships with technology giants like IBM and LinkedIn, and for establishing the Division of Research and Innovation to help increase entrepreneurship on campus.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo also lauded Papazian as “an invaluable and trusted partner for our City, and an inspiring community leader. I can only hope that the tremendous progress that the University made under her watch — particularly in expanding opportunities for underserved students — will continue under her successor.”
On campus Thursday, however, the reaction was swift.
“It’s a cowardly move if you’re stepping down just as everything’s blowing up,” said senior Alina Rodgers, 24. “It’s annoying no one’s taking responsibility for it.”
Not everyone was critical, however.
“I don’t think she’s had an easy run,” said Sara Wille, a global studies major, adding that a president shouldn’t necessarily be blamed “if you come in with good intentions but the actions you take don’t pan out in a good way.”
Before Papazian became San Jose State’s 30th president and just the third woman to lead the university, she served as president of Southern Connecticut State University and, earlier, as provost at Lehman College of the City University of New York. The Southern California native began her academic career as an English professor in Michigan.
“Her problem was similar to those of so many others — not dealing with the issue fast enough,” said Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at the university. “In today’s transparency climate, these issues must be dealt with immediately and openly.”
Reporters Summer Lin and Linda Zavoral contributed to this report.
