James T. Brady stepped down after widespread criticism over the board’s recommendation that Maryland’s football coach keep his job.
The chairman of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents announced his resignation Thursday, a stunning turnabout barely 48 hours after the board recommended that the University of Maryland’s head football coach D. J. Durkin be retained — a decision that the university’s president overturned a day later.
The board came under heavy and widespread criticism after the chairman, James T. Brady, and the university’s president, Wallace D. Loh, announced on Tuesday that Mr. Durkin would stay on despite the death of one of his players, who experienced heatstroke during a practice in the spring, and a report detailing cultural problems in the football program.
In a statement, Mr. Brady said that he had become an untenable distraction. “I have become the public face of both the board and its decisions related to these matters,” he said.
In a separate statement, the board acknowledged that Mr. Loh had ultimately rejected its recommendation to retain Mr. Durkin when he fired him on Wednesday. At the news conference on Tuesday announcing that the coach would stay, Mr. Loh said he accepted the board’s recommendation, but he was visibly unenthusiastic about the decision. Mr. Loh also announced that he would retire at the end of the academic year.
A day later, Mr. Loh reversed course and fired Mr. Durkin.
“Last night, President Loh informed the chancellor of his plan to terminate Mr. Durkin’s contract,” the board’s statement on Thursday said. “The board acknowledges and accepts his decision and his authority to make it.”
Mr. Brady’s resignation deepened the fallout from the death of Jordan McNair, 19, in June and the board’s recommendation that Mr. Durkin be retained. A report commissioned by the university, published this week, partially blamed Mr. Durkin for a dysfunctional culture at the Maryland football program, but it found “no direct link between the administrative dysfunction and Mr. McNair’s death.”
The initial decision to retain Mr. Durkin drew condemnation from politicians, students and others across the country and in College Park, Md., where many saw the decision as an example of the prioritizing of big-time athletics over students’ safety. Among those urging the board to reconsider were Maryland’s governor and his opponent in next week’s election; the former Maryland university system chancellor and the former Board of Regents chairman; and the current undergraduate student government president.
Campus academic leaders signed a letter Thursday expressing their “dismay and deep concern” for what they characterized as the board’s inappropriate interference in campus affairs.
In his statement, Mr. Brady acknowledged how the initial decision to retain Mr. Durkin had been received.
“I respect the many people — including elected leaders, members of the public and members of the board — who disagreed with the recommendations a majority of this board ultimately made,” he said.
He added: “I understand that reasonable people could come to other conclusions. And even among our board, some did.”
