Rutgers University has come under fire after a video surfaced of coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing players and now a group of faculty members have come out to ask that president Robert Barchi resign after seeing how he dealt with the situation.
According to ESPN.com, 13 members of the school faculty have demanded for his firing after Rice himself was fired, saying that the president should be blamed for his "inexcusable handling" of the situation. The group said that the video highlights a number of issues, including with the handling of athletes as well as the treatment of gays in the school, which is even more in focus after Tyler Clementi killed himself in 2010.
The video of Rice showed the coach throwing balls at players and pushing and kicking them while also calling them homophobic slurs. The professors highlighted the point that if any of them did anything like that in a classroom that they would likely be fired immediately.
"If the roles were reversed and this was a professor and not a coach and this was a student in the classroom as opposed to a collegiate player, this would be completely different. You wouldn't say, 'This was a first offense,'" said Glenn Articolo, a radiologist who lives in Marlton, N.J., and a 1991 Rutgers graduate. "There's not a single employee at Rutgers University from the president to the janitor who wouldn't be dismissed immediately. It seems there's a double standard when it comes to the basketball coach or the football coach."
Others feel that athletic director Tim Pernetti should also be out, as he dished out the punishment of a three-game suspension and a $50,000 fine for Rice initially. The school has been under fire since the video came out and after Rice was fired even more could go down.
