In past two weeks the athletic fraternity in the country has witnessed unbearable scandal in one of its most famous arena of basketball, when Rutgers University committed a series of actions that seem unprofessional and unattractive both to the public, the media and other learning institution.
The university have gone to the depth of firing the head coach of the university’s basketball team, coach Mike rice over claims of his abusive behavior to players, it has also forced the resignation of the athletic director, Tim Pernetti and also gone to the extent of kicking out its general counsel a day before he embarked on the task of carrying out investigations onto the claims of unethical behavior by coach rice.
This scandal has had a pinch to many stakeholders who include the afore mentioned coach, senior counsel, the athletic director Tim Pernetti and the school administration fraternity as their capability to manage the school in a professional manner is under question. Another party that has also been hit is the institutions key financier, moody financiers, who have had a great ambition of partnering with the school in their major financial requirement.
In my opinion this form of actions by Rutgers university are greatly way above the proper way of dealing with cases of unethical behavior .It could have worked quite well if the institution initiated their control action through internal diplomatic means, away from the public eye, this could have avoided the long topic that has gone not only national but also global, instead it decided to treat unethical claims with unethical actions, Nowhere in this life have we ever heard that two wrongs made aright. More so the university made a big mistake that has out its current
and future financial position in great jeopardy as some of its key financiers are reconsidering their investment strategy. In conclusion the university has taken so long to attain its current status and should the ranking body find reasonable grounds of re-ranking it downward, this will greatly hurt not only the name of the institution but also the student in it, as their grants will also be cut downwards, this will be very humiliating to both the students and their families.
After many criticism from the various stakeholder the university have decide to come to the light and try to clean their tarnished name by asserting that the institution has initiated changes following the outrage. The institution governing body will sooner than later form a commission that will be independent and which will be tasked to dig into the matter and come up with an acceptable set of findings as well as recommendations.
The university has also asserted that it is out looking for new and fresh leadership of the athletic department as well as basketball program that will oversee the desired progressive changes in the University of Rutgers.
The university has plans to takeover take over UMDNJ on July 1 but going by the current situation the process have stalled. According star ledger (April, 12 2013), this could have been the largest takeover in higher education history which was seemly complex.
The university has also ascertained that it remains committed to maintain the highest possible standards for governance and management across all its department s and affiliated programs
The university can be said to be sailing in rough waters from a financial perspective since it’s said that its key financiers the moody’s are reconsidering their investment decision in which they were to pump funds in the institutions bonds up to a staggering tune of $263 million and also take another $484 million in debt from the universities medicine and dentistry of New Jersey, should the financier withdraw their assistance it would mean that the development goals of the university will be crippled.
Should the institution continue with its takeover decision this would translate to an increased debt of the institution which is currently standing at approximately $1.2 billion.
References:
Sherman, T and Kelly, H.(April, 12 2013). Rutgers basketball scandal could have negative effect on school's credit rating, agency says. New Jersey: Star Ledger
