Rutgers University president to depart next year

Seven years after his appointment, Robert L. Barchi, the president of Rutgers University, is expected to announce Tuesday that he is leaving the university when his contract expires in 2020, according to multiple news reports.

Barchi, who is paid $705,305 annually, will disclose his plans during a Board of Governors meeting in New Brunswick, N.J., the reports said.

Asked whether Barchi was leaving after his contract is up, Dory Devlin, university spokesperson, declined to say but reiterated that Barchi last year accepted an offer to lead Rutgers at least through 2020, and that “there is absolutely no reason to believe that he won’t fulfill that obligation.”

His expected departure was first reported by Politico.

Barchi previously worked as president of Thomas Jefferson University and provost at the University of Pennsylvania.

With more than 67,000 students spread across three campuses, Rutgers is New Jersey’s largest university. On his watch, it broke fund-raising records, expanded its health sciences program, and joined the Big Ten Athletic Conference. Barchi’s tenure was also marked by controversies, including a contentious negotiation period with the faculty union that resulted in a four-year contract this spring.

Soon after Barchi arrived at Rutgers, the university was rocked by scandal when basketball coach Mike Rice was fired after it came to light that he physically and verbally abused players and used antigay slurs. Some criticized Barchi’s response to the incident as too slow.

Overall, “President Barchi’s tenure in office is very much a mixed bag,” said Mark Killingsworth, an economics professor and former leader of the university’s Faculty Council.

On the plus side, Killingsworth said, Barchi ably oversaw the absorption of the New Jersey Medical School into Rutgers after the breakup of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Barchi also got points for fighting an attempt by some New Jersey politicians to reshape the university’s governing structure, and for defending professors’ right to academic freedom.

Barchi drew fire from some who said he prioritized athletics at the expense of academics.

“President Barchi sat by with folded hands as the athletic program took hundreds of millions of dollars to fund deficits for the athletic programs,” Killingsworth said. “The academic program is going to be paying for that for years to come.”

Undergraduate tuition costs rose every year of Barchi’s tenure, noted Todd Wolfson, president of the Rutgers faculty union, but Barchi did respond to union pressure and commit to expanding racial diversity in university hiring, and to declaring Rutgers a “sanctuary university.”

A search committee will likely form to find Barchi’s successor, and Wolfson said the faculty wishes are clear.

“We want somebody,” Wolfson said, “who prioritizes research in education, and values students, faculty, and staff.”