Janelle Martin, who most recently held the positions of Kansas University associate athletic director for compliance and senior women’s administrator, took administrative leave Sunday and tendered her resignation effective Sept. 30, KU officials announced Tuesday.
Martin has served within KU and the Kansas University Athletics Corporation (KUAC) for more than 15 years.
She indicated that the arrival of a new athletics director presented her with the opportunity to explore a new direction with her career.
“I decided I’d been doing this for 15 years and mulling over other options out there and decided to make a move. If I do that, I wanted to do it now before another academic year started,” Martin said.
“This is an incredibly busy time in compliance. From mid-August on, everybody is coming back to campus, and there’s a lot of paperwork. I decided if I needed to make a move, I’d give the department time to get somebody in place and start the year off.”
Martin said she had no problem with new AD Lew Perkins and was making the move as a career “change of pace.”
“You get into compliance, and it is like coaching. You’ve got 70- to 80-hour work weeks and are on call 24-7,” said Martin, a 1984 KU graduate. “You are never far away from a land-line phone and always have the cell phone. I have enjoyed the work. I want to express my admiration for the coaching staffs and student-athletes with whom I have worked during the last 15 years at KU for their efforts in competition and in the classroom. I wish them much success.”
Martin is unsure of her next career move.
“There’s nothing better than college sports,” she said. “I have some things I’m looking into, and we’ll see what happens down the line.”
Perkins does not comment on personnel issues.
