Michigan St. AD quits amid Nassar scandal
Michigan State was pushed further into disarray Friday when athletic director Mark Hollis announced his resignation, just two days after the university president resigned amid outrage over Lawrence G. Nassar, who has been accused of serially abusing more than 150 young women while he was a doctor at Michigan State and for the national women’s gymnastics team.
‘‘This was not an easy decision for my family, and you should not jump to any conclusions,” Hollis said in a statement in which he also declared, ‘‘I am not running away from anything.”
His resignation appeared also to be prompted by an ESPN investigation that described a pattern in which sexual assault complaints involving prominent athletes, including more than a dozen on the football team and a few in the men’s basketball program, were handled by the athletic department rather than regular university channels.
Michigan State insufficiently complied with federal officials monitoring the university under Title IX, the gender-equity law, the report found.
In addition, The Athletic reported that NCAA president Mark Emmert was alerted to concerns about Michigan State in 2010. Kathy Redmond, founder of National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, met with Emmert and wrote him that there had been 37 reports of sexual assault by athletes in the previous two years yet no disciplinary action was taken.
Emmert could not be reached for comment Friday.
Football coach Mark Dantonio met with media and said any incident he knew about was documented by either police or Michigan State’s Title IX office. He also said he would not resign.
“Any accusations of my handling of any complaints of sexual assault individually are completely false,” Dantonio said. “I have always worked with the proper authorities when dealing with cases of sexual assault.”
After a game Friday night against Wisconsin, men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo refused to answer questions related to the scandal beyond that he has no intention of leaving.
“I’m not going anywhere, in my mind,” Izzo said. “I’m definitely not retiring.”
Hollis had been Michigan State’s athletic director since 2008. Michigan State’s president, Lou Anna K. Simon, resigned earlier this week amid escalating scrutiny and criticism. Several women have said Nassar molested them while they were athletes at Michigan State, where he was the physician for two women’s teams.
‘‘Our campus, and beyond, has been attacked by evil, an individual who broke trust and so much more,’’ Hollis said in his statement. ‘‘As a campus community, we must do everything we can to ensure this never happens again; to make sure any sexual assault never occurs. But to do so, we must listen and learn lessons. Only then can we truly begin the process of healing.’’
Since Hollis became athletic director in 2008, the Spartans have won or shared three Big Ten football championships and, in men’s basketball, reached three Final Fours. He served on the men’s basketball selection committee and was its chairman last year.