Rutgers Won't Fire Athletic Director Accused of Emotional Abuse

By Katie J.M. Baker  |  May 28, 2013 | 7:20pm
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We all got excited when Rutgers hired Julie Hermann as its Athletic Director; she was only the third female AD ever at a BCS school. Awesome! Then allegations surfaced that Hermann humiliated and emotionally abused players while coaching Tennessee’s women’s volleyball team 16 years ago. Not so awesome.

The university is standing by her decision not to resign.

“I never considered withdrawing because I feel very qualified to lead Rutgers into the future and into the transition into the Big Ten,” Hermann said Monday during a conference call in response to the report in the Star-Ledger, according to the Register Citizen. “And I do feel the support of the Rutgers community.”

Rutgers President Robert Barchi said in a statement that the university looks forward to her running the athletic department and that Hermann was the best of the 63 candidates interviewed for the job.

“Rutgers was deliberative at every stage of this process,” Barchi said. “Over the course of the search, Julie’s record established her as a proven leader in athletics administration with a strong commitment to academic success as well as athletic excellence, and a strong commitment to the well-being of student athletes.”

Hermann told reporters on a conference call that she didn’t previously know about the allegations or the letter written by the 15 Tennessee players on the volleyball team but that she was an intense coach and may have made some mistakes. Mmk.

Moral of the story: be nice to underlings — never call them “whores, alcoholics and learning disabled,” for example — if you want to advance in your career/not be a horrible person.

[Register Citizen]

Image via AP.

 
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