schiano

Sitrin, Politico

Faculty union leaders at Rutgers University are railing against the $32 million contract offered to new head football coach Greg Schiano, saying it “sucks resources” from students and the university community and contributes to the “arms race” among other schools in the Big Ten conference.

David Hughes, a professor of anthropology and treasurer of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union, which represents 4,800 full-time faculty and graduate workers, spoke out in opposition to the contract at Tuesday’s board of governors meeting in New Brunswick along with Diomedes Tsitouras, executive director of the AAUP union representing biomedical and health sciences faculty members who have been without a contract since June of last year.

“One person’s employment contract should not take priority over 1,400 of my members,” Tsitouras told POLITICO. “We’re kind of frustrated that they don’t treat our people with the same level of respect as a football coach.”

The board unanimously approved an eight-year deal for Schiano, who led the team to several bowl appearances during his earlier tenure as head coach from 2001 to 2011. The contract includes an annual $4 million salary with multiple opportunities to earn bonuses, an annual car stipend, a country club membership, access to a private jet and a promise to build a new multimillion-dollar football operations center for which Schiano will be required to help raise funds.

“It’s ironic and hypocritical for the administration to be so generous towards this one employee,” Hughes said in an interview with POLITICO.

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