The Pot and the Kettle

I just read the letter sent to the staff  by Rutgers President Richard Barchi regarding the RU football coach's (Kyle Flood) fine and suspension over an NCAA infraction. Here are some excerpts from that letter with the words that stood out underlined.
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"Over the past three years, we have taken significant steps in establishing a strong compliance and oversight culture and organization on campus, including the creation of the Office of Enterprise Risk Management, Ethics and Compliance in 2013 that reports directly to me and to the Audit Committee of the Board of Governors."

"we have an obligation to provide outstanding educational opportunities, to ensure high quality and productive research, to serve the local, national and world communities, and to do so with integrity"

"to strengthen our programs in Ethics and Privacy.  Earlier this summer, that office recruited new expert leadership in each of these areas as well as a new Director of Ethics who brings to the University in-depth experience with the New Jersey State Ethics Commission"
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Seeing the words "ethics" and "integrity" coming from Mr. Barchi in any context reminds me of something I wrote back in July of 2013. It also reminded me of the "the pot calling the kettle black" cliché.

Now, I certainly don't think Flood was right in doing what he did and he should be punished but then again should someone with Barchi's baggage be writing "Holier than thou" proclamations  about it? 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

I Have a "Conflict in Understanding" !

When I was elected to the BOE, I was required to give up a little part time job videoing the high school football games (which I had done for twenty years prior) because it was considered a "conflict of interest" and an "ethics violation"?
The "conflict of interest" was not $317,000. It amounted to about $800 per year !

A Smell Arises From the Trough at RU

The total cost of this "bullying" incident.

Skadden,Arps,Slate, Meagher & Flom   $   481,685
Connell Foley                                             $     64,000
Rice Settlement (Former coac                        $   475,000
Pernetti (former AD)                                   $1,200,000
New Basketball Coach*                              $5,000,000
Athletic Dir. Search                                     $     70,000
Crisis Management (?)**                              $   150,000
                                                                        ________
Total                                                                $7,440,685

*The five year contract for the new coach who has roughly a .330 win average.
** I am not for "bullying" anyone but a coach throwing a ball and yelling at a twenty something person who stands over six feet tall and weighs near two hundred pounds;I don't know if I would call this "bullying"? Does this really rise to the level of "crisis"??
Is this person being "bullied" or simply being subjected to a coach's mature tantrum. If the "bullied" person was so offended, couldn't he just have said "I quit" and leave the team? 
Does RU really have to spend this exorbitant amount of money (BTW it is our money, the taxpayers of NJ) to cure the problem.
Why do we have to shovel all this money to high priced lawyers and companies to correct this "bullying" incident?
Is it possible that a word or two to the coach and the athletic director could have sufficed?
Well, I guess not, probably because then all the aforementioned would not be in line to receive the outlandish payouts that were awarded!
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And while I'm at it, how about some other RU payouts and financial irregularities occurring over the recent past.

The former president of RU (McCormick) retires and as part of his "contract" comes back to teach 15 credit hours per semester at a salary of $315,000 per year!
The football stadium is renovated at a cost of $108,000,000 and has never been sold out since (not even close). Some of the cost has been obtained from donors but not that much. The rest was financed via bonds and of course RU (us) must pay the interest.
The present president (Barchi) receives a salary of over $600,000 per year and I don't really consider that a problem, it's a big job.
But - he also sits on Boards of Directors that do business with RU and is paid over $300,000 by them. 
Our Governor does not sees a conflict of interest here! 
He must have a serious vision problem or an inordinate amount of faith in the integrity of both Barchi and the companies !!!
I don't know about you, but for me, much of this has a very bad smell !
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And meanwhile, tuition and fees* continue to rise. 
* A back door way of extracting even more money from students without calling it a tuition increase. 
Orwellian Newspeak at its best!

For What It's Worth??

I have many questions:
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Should RU continue its quest to become an athletic powerhouse?

And can this even be achieved ?

What is the true motivation behind  this attempt to bring "big time" sports to RU?

If accomplished will it really help the universities' prestige?
And if so, how ?

Is providing unpaid farm teams for the NFL and NBA a worthwhile goal for our State university?

Should the highest paid public employee in the State be the RU football or basketball coach?

What was the problem with RU remaining in the Patriot League in the first place?

Did RU  think it had to pump up its athletic image to attract more applications? 

How does high caliber athletics help to attract high caliber students?

How is a universities' "pride"  based on  its athletic program?

(BTW - what do they mean by a universities' "pride" anyway?)
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As the song goes "Gimme some truth, all I want is the truth!"