Just over a month after cutting seven varsity sports and facing a faculty no-confidence vote later in the day Tuesday, The College of William & Mary athletic director Samantha Huge resigned, having served in that position on the campus in Williamsburg, Va., for three and a half years.
“Athletics Director Samantha Huge was asked to lead difficult change at William & Mary –— change required to address long-standing imbalances and put the Athletics Department on sound financial and operational footing for years to come,” W&M president Katherine Rowe said in a release, as reported by The Virginian Pilot in Norfolk. "She took on that challenge recognizing that it was in the best interest of the university and she continues to make decisions using that standard as her guide.
“Now it is clear to me that a new approach is necessary,” Rowe said. “Accordingly, Director Huge and I have mutually agreed that it is best to part ways so the university can focus on the critical questions facing W&M Athletics. I accept this step with a heavy heart and with great respect for Samantha Huge and her leadership.”
The announcement of Huge’s departure came at 3 p.m., one half-hour before the school’s Arts & Sciences Faculty was poised to vote on a motion of “no-confidence” in her leadership.
As reported by CBS affiliate WTKR, the school's official announcement of the sports cuts was controversial in itself, not with how it impacts the lives of current and former student-athletes, but the manner in which the news was conveyed. Huge faced allegations that W&M's release plagiarized a release Stanford University used weeks earlier to announce the elimination of 11 sports programs.
