Rutgers President Barchi Flops at Press Conference

     Though the situation at Rutgers is slowly being talked about less and less, the consequences being felt by the basketball team, athletics department, and university will be long lasting.

     As of Thursday of last week, Coach Mike Rice had been fired by Rutgers Athletics and Assistant Coach Jimmy Martelli had resigned from his position. Both had been seen throwing basketballs and hitting players in a video released by Outside the Lines on April 1^st.

     On Friday morning, Athletic Director Tim Pernetti followed Rice and Martelli out the door. Pernetti resigned after four years of leading Rutgers Athletics including helping them become added to the Big 10 Conference.

     But following Pernetti’s resignation on Friday, Rutgers’ President Robert Barchi had a press conference to discuss the situation.

     It was not a symbiotic relationship for President Barchi though. During the press conference President Barchi was figuratively mauled and rightfully so. Barchi stated “I did not fire him (Rice) for cause, I just fired him.

     But why did Barchi have to “just fire him”? Is throwing basketballs at and kicking students not enough to be fired? Apparently it was not.

     President Barchi watched Wednesday night with Pernetti and admittedly knew Rice had to be fired after just five minutes of observation. While already treading deep waters because of his lack of a reason when asked why he did not watch the video, when asked if Barchi knew about details of the incident in December, Barchi responded “I was aware that basketballs had been thrown.”

     According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, upper level management of a corporation is required to know of and implement appropriate internal controls in order to prevent accounting scandals. Why should this just be held to accounting or corporations? I feel it is reasonable to think that President Barchi and President Emeritus McCormick (whose time at Rutgers overlaps with the time the incidents at the basketball practices were taking place) should have known what was happening at Rutgers University and Rutgers Basketball practices and I believe that both Barchi and McCormick should be penalized.
     In addition, ignorance followed when Rutgers’ Board of Governor’s Chair Ralph Izzo spoke. Izzo stated that the incident obviously showed a failure in the process. The Board of Governors is directly responsible for developing the process (the President is responsible for day-to-day operations). If the process was setup so that coaches can hit and throw things at students and the coach is merely suspended for three games then Izzo is correct, the process is flawed. As a contributing member to the design of the process, Izzo transitively fueled this incident through inaction rather than action. Izzo and the Board of Governors also need to be penalized in order for Rutgers University to maintain a strong positive relationship with the nation.

     My opinion seems to be consistent with the opinion of Jay Bilas and the rest of the College Gameday staff.

               

     In the last post, I wondered what JMU President Alger would have to say about the topic. I did reach out to President Alger and I received a response from Don Egle, JMU’s Senior Director of Communications.

               

     It reads:

Hi Patrick:

     On behalf of James Madison University, President Alger has stated as follows: “Under our policies at James Madison University we believe that all of our students, including student-athletes; should not be subject to discrimination or harassment. We strive to create an atmosphere conducive to learning for all students."

     (Please note that it would not be appropriate for President Alger to comment on current matters at another institution where he previously served as general counsel; he left Rutgers in June 2012 and had no involvement with the incidents being discussed.)

Thanks,

Don

                

     So while this may not be the long conversation I was hoping to have with President Alger about Rutgers, it does at least show us that he is aware of the situation and feels that the actions of Coach Rice and Coach Martelli were wrong (which is better than nothing). I hope that although no longer affiliated with Rutgers University, President Alger learns from the mistakes of Rutgers and takes precautions so that we do not ever experience a situation like this at James Madison University.