As more details emerge about Rutgers’ handling of a video showing its head basketball coach verbally and mentally abusing players, state lawmakers are voicing their dismay and regret over the ongoing scandal. Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) said Tim Pernetti’s departure as Head of Rutger’s Athletic Department was necessary but he added it was a sad day for the university. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34) echoed the sentiment. Oliver told Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor that she intends to conduct a legislative hearing to look into Rutger’s decision-making process.
Despite the press conference held by Rutgers University President Robert Barchi today, Oliver said there are still many unanswered questions.
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“We’re learning today that there was a process by which there is a committee of the board of governors and the trustees and I am very concerned that at that level, if that was the structure and process that was established, something clearly fell through the cracks,” she said. “I want to make certain it doesn’t happen again.”
According to Oliver, an investigation into why head coach Mike Rice was not discharged the moment the video surfaced is warranted.
“If in fact Tim Pernetti worked with a subcommittee of the governor’s body of Rutgers University, I am very concerned whose ultimate decision it was that Rice should not be fired at that juncture,” Oliver said. “I’m concerned about the decision making, and what I am more concerned about is that the welfare and the well being of students were not placed above everything else.”
Public speculation is now brewing about whether university president Barchi will follow in Pernetti’s footsteps. But Oliver said she feels empathy for the situation that Barchi walked into when he began his tenure last year.
“Dr. Barchi did not recruit and hire the athletic director, the coach, the legal counsel,” said Oliver. “I think that it is imperative that he move very quickly to assemble a hierarchy management team within his structure that he can trust and have confidence in.”