Student Coalition for SJSU Accountability (SCSA) demands Transparency and Accountability for Scott Shaw’s purported Title IX sexual abuses against our student athletes and for the alleged involvement of Mary Papazian, Marie Tuite, Eileen Daly, Joanne Wright, Julie Paisant, Kathleen Wong(Lau), Wendi Liss and San Jose State University’s Police Department in the coverup of these abuses and/or retaliation of whistleblowers.  

Decision makers: CA Governor Gavin Newsom, CA Attorney General Rob Bonta, CSU Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester, SJSU president Cynthia Teniente-Matson, CSU Board of Trustees, SJSU Academic Senate, CA State Auditor, and Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

SCSA is a coalition of student and faculty groups who are appalled by the sexual abuses against our students and the hostile climate against whistleblowers at San Jose State University (SJSU). We feel it is important to publicly name those we think are responsible for the coverup of the sexual abuse of our student athletes by Scott Shaw, SJSU’s Director of Sports Medicine, who will stand trial later this year for his alleged assaults committed under the guise of his job duties for over a decade.  Major players who seemed to have allowed this abuse to continue on our campus have so far escaped any transparency or accountability for what we see as their degraded and harmful actions/inactions. 

First, regarding those that remain at SJSU, we believe these five major players should have stopped these sexual abuses: 1) Eileen Daley, Senior Associate Athletics Director, 2) Joanne Wright, Senior Associate Vice President of University Personnel, 3) Julie Paisant, Senior Director, Retention, Employee Relations & Equal Opportunity, 4) Wendi Liss, the then Title IX officer on campus and 5) SJSU PD.  We believe that Daley protected Shaw, Wright and Paisant retaliated against whistleblowers, and Liss was the Title IX officer at the time who was recently re-hired by the campus Title IX office for baffling reasons.  These people should have been the solution to Shaw’s purported crimes against our students but instead were likely part of the problem, coverup, and/or retaliation which enabled him to continue his criminal behavior unimpeded. In addition, one minor survivor reported her assault to the campus police only for nothing to come of it.  Our understanding is that this crime was reported three times to SJSU PD (once by the minor, and twice by her coach).  We demand transparency and accountability with these individuals and SJSU PD to make our campus safer and more just now!

Second, for the three individuals that have since left SJSU, we demand that 1) former President Mary Papazian never be hired by institutions of higher education since she did not admit any wrongdoing or accept accountability in her resignation letter fall 2021. We are particularly concerned about her “fall back to faculty” rights to teach in the English Department at SJSU. 2) Marie Tuite, the former Athletics Director, also took no accountability in her resignation letter spring 2021. We recently learned that Tuite was hired as Deputy Athletic Director for External Relations/COO at Southern Utah University. We genuinely fear for the health and safety of the student athletes at Southern Utah University under her leadership. And 3) Kathleen Wong(Lau) was the Chief Diversity Officer where the dossier of evidence submitted to her office by a whistleblower seemingly disappeared.  She now works at the University Diversity Office at CSU East Bay.  We are alarmed that she was rehired by the CSU system. 

Bottom line: We do not feel safe on this campus knowing that these alleged crimes occurred against many of our student athletes with NOT ONE ADMINISTRATOR NAMED AS ACCOUNTABLE or taking accountability for these numerous assaults. This means that THIS CAMPUS IS NOT SAFE for any of us: students, faculty, staff and even visitors. For those currently employed at SJSU that we name in this petition, we demand they be removed from the campus.  For those now employed at other higher ed institutions, we encourage that campus to demand their removal as well.  WE DEMAND JUSTICE AND SAFETY NOW for our campus and for all university campuses against sexual assaults and violence against women! 

Visit the SCSA’s FB page for updates on our demand for a safe and just campus: https://www.facebook.com/studentcoalitionforsjsuaccountability