The fate of incoming Rutgers athletic director Julie Hermann turned into even more of a political hot potato yesterday as New Jersey lawmakers continued to push for answers about how the search was conducted amid troubling revelations from Hermann’s past.
New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney met with Rutgers president Dr. Robert Barchi for about 20 minutes in his Trenton office. Sweeney acknowledged the meeting had to do with the current state of affairs at Rutgers, particularly within the athletic department, but offered no details.
“As has always been my policy, I do not discuss private conversations,” Sweeney said in a statement. “That being said, President Barchi and I engaged in a good conversation and I appreciated his candor.”
Barchi also declined to be interviewed. Rutgers did not respond to requests by The Post to speak to Barchi, Richard Edwards — the university’s executive vice president for academic affairs — and John Farmer, the university’s general counsel.
Sources said those three were privy to the vetting report supplied to Rutgers by Parker Executive Search, the search firm that performed background checks on all the candidates.
Since her appointment on May 15, reports have surfaced Hermann verbally abused her Tennessee women’s volleyball players and was involved in two lawsuits — one at Tennessee and other at Louisville, where she worked most recently.
According to players on her team, Hermann called them “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled.” She was named in the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit won by her former Tennessee assistant coach, Ginger Hineline. A gender harassment at Louisville, which does not name Hermann as a defendant, will be heard by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Late Thursday night, New Jersey state senator Barbara Buono called on the state legislature to take action. She called the situation at Rutgers a crisis and charged Barchi, the university’s board of governors and Gov. Chris Christie with a failure of leadership.
“It is time for the legislature to step in and stop the bleeding and hold legislative hearings,’’ Buono said. “I call on my colleagues to support that call, to support that endeavor and to stop the bleeding.’’