By David Cruz
NJ Today
The regular meeting of the Rutgers University Board of Governors opened with a rare visit from the state’s top lawmaker. Senate President Steve Sweeney made a special trip to personally call on board member Mark Hershhorn to resign.
“He failed in his responsibility to protect this university, and I’m asking this board — and I’ve asked him to resign — and he’s responded that we need to do an investigation. We don’t need to do an investigation. He has already stated he viewed the tape in December,” Sweeney said.
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Hershhorn — who was said to be in the building but did not attend the meeting — said this week that he had indeed seen the Mike Rice video and had recommended that the coach be fired, but published reports say that Hershhorn made no such recommendations at a board committee meeting in December.
“You saw the video. You chose not to tell your colleagues. Your job was to tell your colleagues,” Sweeney said. “It’s time for him to step down so we can move forward.”
The board went into closed session to discuss, among other things, tenure appointments and contracts, but also “a review of recent athletic matters.” Before they returned, several members of the basketball team gathered outside to make statements. They took no questions but expressed a desire to move beyond the controversy under current interim coach David Cox.
“We feel like we’ve been kind of put on the back burner as far as our opinion if the situation and in this trying time it’s a tough time to get through but we feel like the people who supported us throughout this and has remained beside us through this whole thing are the people that we need right now. And Coach Cox has done an extreme job of maintaining team camaraderie and keeping us together through this whole thing,” said Wally Judge of the Rutgers basketball team.
When they returned, board members announced another investigation into the handling of the controversy.
“It is our continuing commitment that all students and all members of the university community are treated with respect and dignity and that no single program is allowed to undermine that university-wide commitment,” said Board of Governors Vice-Chair Gerald Harvey.
The board set no timeline for the inquiry, but insisted they wanted to “get it right.”