and Kristin Gustafson
During Thursday’s closed-door Board of Regents meeting, members had their last chance to weigh in on University President Mark Yudof’s course of action in the men’s athletics investigations.
Regents did not vote on the issue, and final University decisions will be made by Yudof, said board chairwoman Patricia Spence following the 90-minute meeting in Morrill Hall.
“Of course, it is the president’s sole decision, but he’s a president who consults with the Board of Regents, and he seeks consensus, and so whatever he decides will have the full support of the board,” Spence told a crowd of reporters.
Spence refused to comment on the mood of the meeting and whether or not the board reached consensus, citing attorney-client privilege.
“You’ll receive the full report in the morning,” she said.
The president’s action plan will be announced at 2 p.m. today in the Basic Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Building. Yudof, Spence and Tonya Moten Brown, Yudof’s chief of staff, will speak at the meeting.
Speculation about the future of McKinley Boston, vice president for student development and athletics, and Mark Dienhart, men’s athletics director, might be answered at this meeting. But Spence said the board has not communicated with either administrator and said she did not know if they would attend today’s press conference.
Thursday’s meeting was the regent’s third closed-door meeting in eight days.
A half-hour after the meeting started, two University representatives moved reporters and photographers toward Yudof’s office and closed off the area with a locked glass door, citing concerns that regent discussions could be overheard.
A University Police officer, Matt Quast, was on guard outside the oak doors that closed off the meeting from more than 20 media representatives.
“I can’t even hear anything,” Quast said.
The 12-member governing body comprised of state Legislature-elected members first reviewed the investigative report last Thursday and met again Friday.
“It has been very exhausting, very difficult,” Spence said. “The decisions are painful. And you know that the investigation has taken a very long time, and there have been numerous interviews, and so that’s been exhausting to wait for the report just in and of itself.”
Megan Boldt and Kristin Gustafson welcome comments at [email protected] and [email protected].