San Jose State cited:

Audit finds university’s athletic department did not always honor donors’ intentions.

San Jose State did not honor donors’ intentions on more than $83,000 in donations to the school’s athletic department, according to an investigative audit requested by SJSU and completed by California State University officials.

The Spartan Daily was first to report the audit’s findings, in a story posted Friday on the campus newspaper’s website.

The CSU audit, sent to San Jose State last month, concluded the athletic department “did not always honor donor intent.” Auditors “found that (SJSU) Athletics did not designate the correct amount for 29 donations totaling $83,341.”

In addition, the audit found that former athletic director Gene Bleymaier “instituted a policy inconsistent with donor intent.” The policy required coaches to raise money for their sport and transfer at least a portion of the money to the general Spartan Athletics Fund, according to the audit.

Auditors could not determine intent on another 46 donations totaling $288,577, because San Jose State’s athletic department did not obtain proper documentation.

“Based on the audit report, the (total of ) $83,341 — when added with the instances when intent could not be identified — was a stark contrast (to) the more than $6.3 million alleged,” SJSU President Mary A. Papazian said in a statement emailed to The Chronicle. “I am already taking steps to fulfill my promise to use other resources to honor donor intent or return the gift.”

The findings validated the premise of a Spartan Daily story in May 2019, though the amount of money involved was significantly less.

The original Spartan Daily report said less than $275,000 of the $6.3 million was distributed to student athletes between 2013 and 2016.

School officials responded to the allegations last year with a statement that read, “Every donation designated by the donor for athletic scholarships was used for that purpose.” That was not true, according to the audit’s findings.