Rodney Jones has resigned as an assistant athletics director at Kansas Athletics Inc., marking the third person to leave the department as a ticket scandal emerged amid an ongoing federal investigation and led to a continuing internal review.
Jones, an assistant athletics director who held the title of director of the Williams Educational Fund, resigned last week, the department said late Wednesday.
Jim Marchiony, another associate athletics director, declined Wednesday to discuss the circumstances behind Jones’ resignation. Jones, a former manager of the KU ticket office, had been on administrative leave since early March.
“He resigned,” Marchiony said. “That’s all we’re going to say.”
Jones’ departure comes after his boss — Ben Kirtland, associate athletics director for fundraising — resigned April 5. Charlette Blubaugh resigned in February as manager of the ticket office, to take a job at the University of Central Oklahoma; both Blubaugh and Marchiony later said her departure had nothing to do with anything that led to Jones being placed on leave.
KU Athletics Director Lew Perkins has acknowledged illegal activities regarding tickets for events that involve KU athletics teams, but has declined to discuss the circumstances in detail. He also has acknowledged a federal investigation, and the hiring of a Wichita law firm to deal with federal investigators.
As part of an internal review, the department has hired a team of forensic auditors to discover what happened and to recommend changes to policies and procedures to see that such problems could never occur again, Perkins said earlier this month, at an appearance at the Dole Institute. The review covers both the Williams Fund and the ticket office.
Gary Sherrer, vice chairman for the Kansas Board of Regents, said last month that federal investigators would be involved anytime an employee was earning income from the sale of tickets without reporting that income to the IRS.
Perkins announced Wednesday that Angie Storey, a compliance coordinator with Kansas Athletics since 2006, would serve as interim associate director for the Williams Fund. The fund has more than 4,200 members and last year generated about $15 million in contributions for Kansas Athletics.