NEWARK, N.J. — Rutgers University’s president, a neuroscientist, was brought in last year to turn the school into a medical sciences powerhouse, but he has quickly become a target of criticism from some lawmakers who question his ability to lead the university amid a series of embarrassments in the high-profile athletic department.
Still, Robert Barchi has the support of the state’s most important politician, Gov. Chris Christie, who said Tuesday that he has “absolute confidence” in Barchi and won’t meddle in university business, including its decision to hire Julie Hermann as athletic director.
There have been revelations in recent days that volleyball players at the University of Tennessee complained that Hermann abused them verbally and emotionally when she coached there in the 1990s and that she was involved in a sexual discrimination lawsuit while she was an administrator at Louisville. She was hired by Rutgers May 15 and is scheduled to start there June 17.
“I understand that there are some people that feel differently about it. It doesn’t matter,” Christie said during a testy moment in his monthly call-in show on TownSquare Media Tuesday night. “What matters is: What did the administration at Rutgers believe?”
Christie said he had talked with Barchi, the university’s lawyer and the chairman of the Board of Governors and believes they should be allowed to run the university as they see fit.
“These are their decisions,” Christie said. “Now they have to deal with the questions that are being raised.”
