The San Jose State athletics department is under investigation by Santa Clara County health officials in response to a complaint from employees allegedly required to work in the office, despite risks of spreading the coronavirus, according to a Thursday report from the Mercury News.
Santa Clara County executive Jeffrey Smith confirmed the investigation was launched against SJSU athletics in the same article.
An SJSU spokesman failed to specify the number of department employees asked to return to the office, according to the article. However, a Jan. 9 email from athletics director Marie Tuite stated “all staff” needed to return by Feb. 1.
Max Coyle, a business management senior and former SJSU Athletics intern, said he agrees staff is needed on campus while SJSU sports continue.
“It’s hard to say how many people are required nowadays with the changing nature of sports right now,” Coyle said over text. “But for the most part, if sports are going on, people need to be there [to] help.”
Lawrence Fan, athletics director for football communications and special projects, provided a list of required in-person responsibilities for the Athletics staff in an email to the Spartan Daily.
The responsibilities include: conducting team practices; being present at games; strength and conditioning workouts; athletic training activities such as dealing with prevention of injuries and rehabilitation; equipment services – laundry, uniform and apparel management; game management; and game experience duties for home games and media relations connected with home athletics contests.
“Administratively, I could see a possibility of [there] being some work available from home but I wouldn’t really know what,” Coyle said.
In response to the Mercury News article, SJSU issued a statement on Feb. 2 saying the school is in compliance with Santa Clara County and California public health guidelines.
“Within the guidelines of the SJSU Adapt Plan, the university is responsible for determining when staff must report to campus to fulfill their responsibilities,” the statement read. “All athletics teams have returned to San Jose to prepare for their upcoming seasons, and to fulfill our university mission to support our students, staff are needed on campus.”
According to the SJSU website, the SJSU Adapt Plan is a four-phase approach for the school to continue campus operations amid the coronavirus pandemic.
All phases have been approved by the California State University Office of the Chancellor and comply with Santa Clara County Public Health Department and state public health guidelines.
SJSU is currently in “Phase 2: Modified Campus,” which states only essential staff should report to campus while education is primarily online.
With the ongoing investigation, this marks the third time Santa Clara County has taken issue with how the athletics department has handled COVID-19 regulations.
In October, when the county did not allow contact sports, the SJSU football team traveled to Humboldt State for nearly two weeks to prepare for the upcoming season.
The football program fell under scrutiny from Santa Clara County again in December, when the team traveled to Tucson to play in the Arizona Bowl after returning to San Jose from Las Vegas.
During this time, county officials issued a 10-day quarantine for individuals who traveled outside of the county. The trip resulted in 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases being reported within the team.
Some SJSU students expressed concern and disappointment with the news of the athletics department investigation.
“I feel as if students are left in the dark,” said forensics biology freshman Eddie Perez. “As a first year, I haven’t witnessed much first hand but I have seen the lack of transparency about news from the school.”
Digital media art junior Hana Garcia said Athletics’ efforts last semester seem to be in vain if the investigation confirms the allegations.
“Personally I think it’s really disappointing to see this coming from athletics,” Garcia said. “Seeing they are under investigation for forcing employees back to being in offices when they don’t feel safe kind of taints that effort they put in [Fall 2020].”
This is an ongoing Spartan Daily investigation.
