NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Volume 160 No. 15 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Tuite lands new job despite scandals Tuite resigned in 2021 after multiple scandals errupted in Athletics Department By Alessio Cavalca MANAGING EDITOR
Marie Tuite, the former San Jose State athletics director who resigned in light of the Scott Shaw sexual abuse scandal in August 2021, will be the new deputy athletics director for external relations at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, starting in the position on Wednesday. SUU Athletics Director Doug Knuth said the SUU athletics department is thrilled to bring Tuite to the university, in a Monday SUU Athletics news release. “Marie has incredible knowledge, skills, and abilities in athletic administration and leadership,” said Knuth in the release. “She is well respected throughout Division [1] athletics and has earned great support from coaches, athletes, and university administrators who have worked directly with her over the years.” However, during her tenure at SJSU, Tuite was named in three wrongful termination and retaliation lawsuits as a consequence of the sexual abuse scandal involving SJSU athletics, according to a Monday article
ERNIE GONZALEZ | THE SPEAR ARCHIVES
Then-Athletics Director Marie Tuite watches the San Jose State football team ahead of its game against the Utah State Aggies on Sept. 23, 2017, at CEFCU Stadium. Tuite’s employment at Southern Utah University was announced on Monday.
by the East Bay Times. In one of those cases, she was accused of bullying the SJSU women’s swimming and diving head coach Sage Hopkins, who reported sexual misconduct from Scott Shaw, former SJSU director of sports medicine, according to the East Bay Times article. The FBI formally charged
Shaw with sexually assaulting student-athletes, according to a March 15, 2022 Spartan Daily article. Hopkins, who sent a 300page dossier to the Mountain West Conference and NCAA officials in 2019 reporting Shaw’s sexual misconduct claims, also detailed claims of retaliation by Tuite against him
according to an April 17, 2020 article by USA Today. The reports led the way to an external investigation requested by former SJSU President Mary Papazian in December 2019, according to an April 15, 2021 campuswide email. Then Interim President Steve Perez released a campuswide email on Dec. 1, 2022,
informing students and faculty about the Department of Justice investigation regarding the sexual misconduct within the SJSU athletics department. “SJSU failed to properly respond to an SJSU Athletic D e p ar t ment e mploye e’s subsequent reports between TUITE | Page 5
Car fire smokes out West Garage By Carolyn Brown PRODUCTION EDITOR
A red Ford Mustang caught fire on the fourth floor of the San Jose State West Parking Garage, around 9:20 a.m. The fire was extinguished by 9:50 a.m., according to an AlertSJSU message sent out to students. No one was injured in the fire, according to the same message. Three cars were damaged and the owners were contacted, according to University Police Department Capt. Frank Belcastro in an email interview. According to Belcastro, the fire appeared to have been electrical in nature, not arson. Belcastro said students asleep in a nearby car were alerted and assisted to evacuate. Psychology junior Michelle Murillo Cortez and a friend were asleep in her car on the fourth floor in the West Garage when the fire started. “I took action [by] waking up my friend,” she said during an email interview. “So we [could] evacuate the building as soon as possible.” Cortez said two police officers helped her and her friend evacuate the garage. “To be completely honest, I’m glad they were there,” she said. “It was difficult to see and breathe due to the smoke.” Not everyone had as dramatic of an evacuation. “Cops showed up first, blocked everyone in, asked everyone to walk out on foot,” said child and development junior Zain Farkouh. “Before I left the glass exploded. That’s why they were yelling at everyone to leave.” Farkouh said her car was parked about four cars away from the Mustang. “There was no one in the car,” she said. “It just started smoking, and then – it’s like a convertible car – so it caught on fire pretty quickly.” By 10:30 a.m., cars were allowed to exit the garage and floors one through three were reopened to the public. Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily Alina Ta contributed to this article.
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
Smoke from a car fire billows out of the West Garage on Tuesday morning. No injuries were reported.