Note: I have been trading emails with Prof. Killingsworth on this issue. While we strongly disagree on the causes of the athletics subsidy, of the nature of the current crises imperiling the school, and on most (but not all) of this resolution, he is a decent, thoughtful man who cares as deeply about the future of Rutgers University as we all do. There are legitimate gripes and concerns, even if the overall analysis is flawed. As all Rutgers alumni and New Jerseyans know, it is very important to maintain a level of collegiality within the confines of reasonable debate and discourse. I may try to interview Prof, Killingsworth in the future if our schedules permit it. He also pointed out that the resolution does not specifically mention football, although most of the resolutions supporters clearly equate football with the entire athletic department.

Below, the faculty resolution is reprinted in full.

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Last summer, Rutgers University athletics faced the ignominy of finishing with the lowest Director's Cup ranking of any BCS conference program that plays football. The only consolation was that Seton Hall fared even worse. In Piscataway, football was down, basketball was down, and even normally strong programs like track & field and women's soccer struggled. Only the bright spots of wrestling and women's basketball (neither basketball nor football is considered an "olympic" sport the way the term is used here) saved the athletic department from a total shutout. For 2011-2012, football is back on its feet (they'll earn points merely by bowling), wrestling comes into the season with plenty of hype, and women's hoops is on its way back after years of attrition.

Tim Pernetti has been making waves in his two and a half years as Rutgers athletic director. Bob Mulcahy kicked off the era of change by hiring Scott Goodale to turn around the wrestling program. Pernetti has subsequently brought in Mike Rice Jr. for men's basketball, Dan Donigan for men's soccer, Brian Brecht for men's lacrosse, and most recently announced plans to hire a new field hockey coach. Those were the high profile hires (with persistent lingering rumors about Fred Hill Sr. as the baseball coach as he advances in age), but Pernetti has also replaced the coaches for women's gymnastics and women's swimming. The latter two, along with field hockey, are really telling. This isn't just about grabbing the spotlight. Tim Pernetti is not content with losing; not in a state that dominates in most sports at the prep level.

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The facts about the Rutgers University athletics budget deficit are difficult and complex enough to deal with on their own. The last thing needed is more hyperbole and misinformation. Unfortunately, that's just what Inside Higher Ed obtained with their write-up. As the recent Bloomberg story stated,

Football revenue at Rutgers totaled $24 million in fiscal 2010, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. The team had an operating loss of $2.9 million, excluding university subsidies and student fees. The deficit was the widest in the 53-school Bloomberg survey. Connecticut reported the only other football red ink. The average football team had an operating gain of $17.2 million, the data show.

Of the nearly $27 million athletics deficit (plugged with a combination of university funds and student activity fees), $2.9 million is attributable to football. Like Bloomberg, the Inside Higher Ed story above takes a blind, single-minded focus on football, even though the majority of the deficit is attributable to non-revenue sports. Unlike the Bloomberg piece, which at least measured an attempt at balance by including pro-athletics quotes, Inside Higher Ed exclusively quotes foes of the Rutgers athletic department. Oh, and they didn't bother to do basic research either.

In the meantime, the university picked up the bulk of the tab for a $100-million football stadium expansion and renovation.

No, it did not. The stadium expansion was paid for by a bond tied to future ticket revenues.

They seemingly turned over no stone by trotting out Lisa Pantel, who's still complaining to the press years after Rutgers dropped fencing. Let's get this straight. Rutgers athletics had to drop six sports because they don't have enough money. Inside Higher Ed thinks Rutgers spends too much on athletics, so they contact a person who implicitly is arguing that Rutgers should spend more on athletics by bringing back fencing. In their zeal to take football down a peg, Inside Higher Ed showed few scruples about keeping their argument consistent.

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Clearly, Rutgers must be New York City's football team, because Curtis Eichelberger from Bloomberg sure does spend a lot of time writing about the RU athletic department's finances.

Eichelberger's latest story has a lot of good information, but is also highly, highly flawed in parts.

Football revenue at Rutgers totaled $24 million in fiscal 2010, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. The team had an operating loss of $2.9 million, excluding university subsidies and student fees.

The deficit was the widest in the 53-school Bloomberg survey. Connecticut reported the only other football red ink. The average football team had an operating gain of $17.2 million, the data show.

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This post might not be received all that well in central New Jersey.

The other day I ordered a sandwich from President Obama's favorite lunch hideout, the Tastee Sub Shop off Rt. 27 in south Edison. I didn't really enjoy it, and the thought then occurred to me that I don't think that I've ever enjoyed a sub all that much from there, and have mainly visited out of habit and convenience. That is not to say that Tastee subs are actively bad; they just seem unmistakably bland and nondescript to my palate, which is a matter of personal preference. Sorry to be so contentious.

Everyone who raves about Tastee will typically cite the sandwiches' meat as an overriding factor. "They just lay it on there, you get so much."

That sentence boils down exactly why there is such a stark difference of opinion here. Let's momentarily delve into culinary folk psychology. Some sub aficionados see a sandwich's meat as the main attraction, with every condiment, topping, and such mainly window addressing that can at best augment and compliment the meat. Under the strongest version of this view, even the sub's bread is merely be a delivery device or container for the meat. Call this contrasting school of thought the "holistic view," because that sounds sufficiently sophisticated and pretentious. Under this theory, each ingredient's importance to a sandwich's quality is directly proportional to the sandwich's actual makeup; they are a series of interlocking, essential parts. If bread is responsible for (hypothetically) 50% of the calories, it is also responsible for 50% of the taste (or lack thereof.)

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That's the story in the Ledger today, although interestingly enough the collective wisdom of the internet called this weeks ago. In retrospect, Phil Furmanski stepping down might have been an early hint of what was to come. Most university presidents only stay on for roughly a decade, so this move was likely an inevitability at some point or another. In many ways, the position is a thankless job. If you have to tell people "no," then feelings will be hurt and egos bruised somewhere along the way. As RUNYYFan said on Rivals, even Edward Bloustein faced faculty no-confidence votes, and he was a terrific president.

McCormick's tenure as Rutgers president was decisively mixed, and cannot be divorced from a difficult economic climate. Rutgers faced drastically decreasing state support over the past decade, and the resulting increases in tuition and enrollment have clearly had a large negative impact on Rutgers-New Brunswick. That context would have beguiled most administrators, and McCormick can only be judged fairly when evaluated relative to his tenure and the challenges he faced. He deserves a lot of credit for successfully merging the multiple colleges in New Brunswick, with should pay significant dividends in terms of efficiency and simplification over time. A shining accomplishment was the ongoing push to revitalize the Livingston campus in Piscataway, along with continued capital work on Busch.

Another vital push was to restore UMDNJ's campus in New Brunswick into its rightful status as Rutgers Medical School. A complicated merger between Rutgers, UMDNJ, and NJIT imploded spectacularly earlier in the decade, in part due to mixed feelings from New Brunswick. McCormick had recently taken initiative under a new Governor in Chris Christie to attempt a scaled-down merger that would be an unambiguous win if successful. That plan still has a great deal of pratfalls ahead, but McCormick certainly knows as a professional historian that his legacy as Rutgers president will be remembered more fondly if the UMDNJ merger goes through. Any prospective replacements will have to place a high emphasis on seeing this ambitious project through to completion.

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Multiple mistakes have been made in operating the Rutgers Visitor Center over the past few days, the most recent of which being the decision to post five pictures on a brand new album on Facebook, posting a link to the album on Twitter in the process.

In the likely event that the online album gets taken down, here are the pictures.

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The following message was sent out en masse via the Rutgers listserv today.

Members of the Rutgers Community:

With regret for the loss of a longstanding Rutgers tradition, and with admiration for the students who worked hard to plan and run the concert this year, I have decided that the university can no longer continue to hold Rutgersfest.

As you may know, the concert this past Friday, April 15, drew tens of thousands of people to the Busch campus in Piscataway. These included not only Rutgers students but also many individuals and groups not affiliated with Rutgers, who learned about Rutgersfest through various social media channels beyond the university’s control. A large crowd descended on New Brunswick’s 5th and 6th wards after the concert for a night of partying. Anticipating this, the University had worked with the City of New Brunswick in advance to plan for the possibility of disruptive behavior. Among other steps, we provided for several dozen additional New Brunswick and Rutgers police officers.

However, even this additional police presence did not contain the disorder that occurred Friday night and early Saturday morning. Many streets were congested with people and there were multiple reports of disruptive conduct. Near the College Avenue campus there were many rowdy student house parties, incidents of public intoxication, littering, and vandalism, and several altercations among students and other individuals. Most disturbing to report, four non-Rutgers people were shot in three incidents during the course of the evening. The fact that none of these shootings resulted in life-threatening injuries does not diminish their violence, and I am gravely concerned about the danger to our students and our neighbors.

I understand that the decision to end Rutgersfest will disappoint many, and I want to thank the students and administrators who organized the concert, working hard to promote responsible behavior and to make it a safe and enjoyable experience. But the safety of our university community, and that of our neighbors, is paramount, and we cannot risk further danger or the possible loss of life. The problems that occur following Rutgersfest have grown beyond our capacity to manage them, and the only responsible course of action is to cancel the event.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

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