Rutgers president to be asked about scandal severances

By Angela Delli Santi, Associated Press.

TRENTON — Rutgers President Robert Barchi is scheduled to appear Thursday before an Assembly budget panel, where he’ll be asked about six- and seven-figure payouts given to three university officials ousted during a basketball coaching scandal.

Basketball coach Mike Rice, athletic director Tim Pernetti and university lawyer John Wolf received severances worth $420,000 to $1.2 million. Rice was fired after a video of him throwing balls at players and hurling gay slurs aired on ESPN. The athletic director and lawyer resigned.

“It’s going to come up,” Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “When we give state dollars to a university, we want to make sure they are doing things properly.”

Barchi is being called before the panel to answer questions about $487 million in state aid to Rutgers in Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The panel is planning a separate hearing on the Rutgers scandal.

Assemblyman Al Coutinho of Newark said Barchi will be asked to explain why the university’s Newark and Camden campuses have not gotten their own budgets despite a law signed last year requiring fiscal autonomy. The higher education restructuring act, which gives Rutgers a coveted medical school and links Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University in South Jersey, won over critics in Newark particularly with the promise that the campus would get its own appropriation and the freedom to develop a budget separate from the flagship New Brunswick campus.

More>>