The University System of Maryland's board of regents will announce on Sept. 21 the findings of an investigation into whether members of the Maryland football staff followed proper protocol at a May 29 workout in which offensive lineman Jordan McNair suffered heatstroke that eventually led to his death on June 13.
The USM board of regents will hold its first regularly scheduled meeting of the school year at 9 a.m. on Sept. 21 at Towson University, and it will be held in closed session, but the results of the Walters Inc. investigation will be made public later that afternoon, according to a release on Wednesday.
Following McNair's death, the University of Maryland hired Walters Inc. to investigate the events surrounding the May 29 workout. On Aug. 14, university president Wallace D. Loh said he had looked at "preliminary observations" from the report and "some of our policies and protocols do not conform to best practices.
"Some of the actions of our athletic training staff, not the coaching staff, the athletic training staff, they basically misdiagnosed the situation," Loh said. "No vital signs were taken, other safeguard actions that should have been taken were not."
Maryland athletic director Damon Evans also shared some of the report's preliminary findings on Aug. 14, saying then that "Walters found that the emergency response plan was not appropriately followed. Second, the care we provided was not consistent with best practices. And third, that heat illness was not properly identified or treated. Our athletic training staff did not take Jordan's temperature and did not apply cold water immersion treatment."
The USM board of regents took over that investigation three days later. The board also assumed control of a separate eight-person commission appointed to look into the culture of the football program, but a timetable for its conclusion hasn't been released. "The Board of Regents is committed to uncovering all the discoverable facts about Jordan McNair's tragic death, and separately, the culture of the football program at the University of Maryland, College Park," USM board of regents chair James Brady said in a prepared statement. "Once the board has the facts, we are committed to sharing what we find with the people of Maryland, and to making whatever decisions might be necessary and appropriate to best support our students."