Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson, whose job status was the focus of a flurry of reports Saturday, is taking a six-month "professional development sabbatical" while remaining on the job, according to a memo he sent to the university's coaches Monday.
In the memo, Anderson wrote that he will be working on "various projects focusing on leadership development, including work with a broad coalition of groups focused on issues of equity, student athlete activism and inclusion in college athletics."
Anderson said that he will continue working with the NACDA/John McLendon Minority Scholarship Foundation and other NCAA committees. Anderson said that while he is away, "the regular duties of running the department will be performed by an administrator to be selected by President [Wallace] Loh."
On Saturday, several media outlets reported that Anderson, the school's athletic director since 2010, had been fired. The university then sent out a tweet saying that Anderson was still the athletic director. A university spokesman would not comment on whether Anderson, whose salary was $587,000 last year, was on paid administrative leave.
Sources within the department said Saturday that Anderson has not been seen in his office since the end of September, and had not attended any of the team's football games, including Maryland's home game that day against Northwestern.
Damon Evans, the executive director of the Maryland athletic department who previously held the athletic director's job at Georgia, will assume Anderson's day-to-day duties, according to a department spokesman.
Evans was fired at Georgia after being charged with DUI in 2010. After being out of athletic administration, Evans was brought to Maryland by Anderson in 2014. Neither Evans nor Anderson responded to numerous telephone messages from The Baltimore Sun seeking comment.
Former Maryland congressman Tom McMillen, who starred in basketball for the Terps during the 1970s and until last served on the school's Board of Regents, has seen a large turnover among Division I athletic directors since taking over two years ago as president of the Lead One Association
