Price tag for Rutgers’ 6-month search for a new president: $226K

By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

NEW BRUNSWICK — Once the bills for consultants, meals, meetings and other expenses were added up, the price tag for Rutgers University’s latest presidential search came in at $226,532, campus officials said.

The state university spent more than six months looking for a new leader before selecting former Thomas Jefferson University president Robert Barchi this spring.
Campus officials said the cost of the search was a relative bargain compared with Rutgers’ last presidential search a decade ago, which cost nearly $50,000 more.

But the university still spent lavishly to wine and dine prospective candidates, according to a Star-Ledger review of nearly 300 pages of receipts obtained through the Open Public Records Act. The bills include limo rides, hotel stays and pricey dinners, including a $1,200 meal for one finalist and members of the board of governors at the Peacock Inn in Princeton that included $216 worth of wine and liquor.

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