By David Cruz
NJ Today
The first time he was in the board room in Winant Hall on the Rutgers Campus, University President Robert Barchi was greeted with a standing ovation. This afternoon, the reception was quite different.
For the first time since the Mike Rice controversy exploded on Tuesday, Barchi answered questions about what he knew and when he knew about what was going on at Rutgers’ basketball practices.
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“I regret that I did not ask to see the video when Tim [Pernetti] first told me of its existence because I am certain that this situation would have had a very different outcome had I done so,” Barchi said.
Joined by board president Ralph Izzo, Barchi tried to explain why it took four months to come to the conclusion that Rice needed to go. Barchi said he relied on the advice of outside counsel and then Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, who he said relayed to him what was on the tape in December. He found it hard to explain, however, why he didn’t ask to actually see the tape.
“In retrospect it’s easy to say that I could have and should have. What I heard was that my chief counsel was there looking at it and giving his expert opinion, as was an outside counsel, as was my A.D.,” Barchi said. “This is a very, very large organization and those of you who run large organizations understand that in any given day, situations come up where you do look to your direct reports for their expert advice.”
In a week that has seen the firing of the head coach and the resignation of first his top assistant, then the university’s chief counsel and today, Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, the question on the minds of many was — should Barchi now resign or be fired?
“That’s an easy one. The answer to both those questions is no,” Rutgers University Board of Governors Chairman Ralph Izzo said. “Being on the job two months, hearing from the general counsel, an outside labor expert, an investigative labor counsel and an athletic director that there’s a problem and it needs to be dealt with promptly and strongly. I think he did the right thing by acquiescing to that advice at the time.”
This is an extremely challenging time for the state’s largest public university. It’s in the middle of a controversial merger with the University of Medicine and Dentistry and is set to join the Big Ten conference — both moves intended to raise the university’s profile nationally. Barchi, who said jokingly that he thinks about resigning every day, said stress levels are high across the university’s campuses but that he was confident the university would be able to move forward.