By Shawn Boburg, Staff Writers. The Record.
Rutgers University President Robert Barchi sent members of his senior staff a memo this month, nearly a year into his tenure, instructing them to keep him out of the university’s business dealings with two corporations that pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars to sit on their advisory boards.
The July 9 memo, released by the university on Friday, was sent to about a dozen top administrators on the same day that Rutgers released documents to The Record showing it had paid the companies millions of dollars since 2008. Its timing suggests that Barchi and other university officials recognized the potential for the appearance of a conflict of interest even before a debate over the arrangement went public, and took steps to get ahead of the controversy.
Several state lawmakers have since said they believe Barchi should step down from the corporate boards, which paid him more than $300,000 in fees and stock awards last year, pushing his annual compensation to more than $1 million. But Barchi has pushed back. And Governor Christie said this week that he sees nothing wrong, as long as Barchi recuses himself from decisions involving VWR International and Covance Inc., which sell lab supplies and drug development services.
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