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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last night threw his support behind incoming Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann, who has been besieged by critical news reports in the last few days.
Christie, speaking on his monthly radio show, TownSquare Media’s “Ask the Governor,” said he fully supports Rutgers president Dr. Robert Barchi, who on Monday strongly defender Hermann’s hiring.
“This is my point: My job is not to run Rutgers,” Christie said. “That’s the job of the board of governors and Dr. Barchi and the general counsel John Farmer, all of whom I have respect for. This is their decision.
“They decided to hire Eddie Jordan. They decided to hire Julie Hermann. And now they have to deal with the questions being raised. And as governor, I’m not going to micromanage every hire at Rutgers University.”
Rutgers announced on May 16 it had chosen Hermann, an executive senior associate athletic director at Louisville. Hermann, it was reported this week by the Newark Star-Ledger, verbally abused her women’s volleyball players when she was the head coach at Tennessee 16 years ago.
She also was involved in a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by one of her former assistants, which resulted in a $150,000 settlement. And yesterday another report linked Hermann to a discrimination lawsuit at Louisville that is now before the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Despite these revelations, Barchi and the board of governors have stood firmly behind Hermann. And last night Christie again stood behind Barchi.
“I have absolute confidence in Bob Barchi,” Christie said. “I think he’s the right man for the job, and he has my complete confidence and support. What that means is he has my confidence and support for him to make the decisions he believes are the right decisions.”
Barchi came under fire in April when video surfaced of former men’s basketball coach Mike Rice physically and abusing players in December. Barchi had been aware of the situation since December and opted not to fire Rice.
Then-athletic director Tim Pernetti tried to rehabilitate Rice, who was fired on April 3 after the video went public. Pernetti became Barchi’s fall guy, resigning under pressure on April 5.
Rutgers hired Eddie Jordan , a former Scarlet Knights player, to replace Rice. At his introductory press conference, Rutgers referred to Jordan as a proud graduate. But he never completed his degree, leading to questions about Barchi’s leadership.
Based on Christie’s comments last night, Barchi and Hermann are safe.
The process of how Hermann was chosen, however, has become a lightning rod issue.
Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations Dean Susan Schurman told the Associated Press she was “mystified” and “dumbfounded” the search firm didn’t find red flags in Hermann’s past.
According to one published report, Hermann was involved in a discrimination lawsuit at Louisville, where an assistant track coach said she was fired for complaining about discriminatory treatment.
The case is now before the Kentucky Supreme Court, which will decide whether to uphold a lower court decision that awarded $300,000 for mental and emotional distress to former Louisville assistant men’s and women’s track and field coach Mary Banker.
Banker claims she suffered the distress after being fired in 2008 after bringing allegations of gender and sexual discrimination to Hermann and then the university’s human resources department. Hermann was the executive senior associate athletic director at the time.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com