Is there no one home at Rutgers?
When its men’s basketball coach was caught on tape this year throwing basketballs and directing gay slurs at his players, he was forced out along with the athletic director. Now the university has a new athletic director — and a new scandal.
Within days of Julie Hermann’s hiring, The Star-Ledger discovered a 1997 letter, signed by all members of Tennessee’s volleyball team, accusing then-coach Hermann of regularly belittling players as “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled.” In addition, a jury forced Hermann to pay $150,000 to an assistant coach who says she was fired because she got pregnant.
Others challenge the accusations against Hermann, and at many schools her subsequent record, which seems to be without incident, might override the earlier embarrassments. But it was probably not the right fit for a university trying to move past an athletic scandal over similar behavior.
Yet for all the attention on Hermann, the responsibility for this mess rests with those who hired her. There are conflicting reports about whether Hermann was fully vetted and the search committee informed about all that has now turned up.
It’s not the first time the question’s been asked on the Rutgers campus. Only last month, university President Robert Barchi introduced new basketball coach Eddie Jordan. Days after that hire, it emerged Jordan didn’t have a degree, as his Rutgers bio stated.
Surely New Jersey taxpayers deserve better from a public university that pays its president, its athletic director and its men’s basketball coach more than the president of the United States.