Mike Rice is the head coach — and Head Bully — of the Rutgers University basketball team. By the time you read this, Rice may be long gone, but his bloody head will not be the only one rolling down College Avenue. Athletic Director Tim Pernetti most certainly should lose his head as well — as should Pernetti’s school bosses, like the President Robert Barchi, who, it appears, refused, along with Pernetti, to fire Mike Rice in November 2012 even after watching video evidence of the coach physically and verbally abusing his undergraduate basketball team during practice. The Rutgers Board of Trustees must act now and clean the Rutgers house and fire Mike Rice, Tim Pernetti and President Robert Barchi — because they were all in collusion to not protect the welfare of the student athletes entrusted to their care.
ESPN broke the news today, with this story, and direct evidence of Rice’s ongoing absolute abuse of power over his team since 2010. Rice is an angry coward and a bully and now he, too, shall get his due:
How could Pernetti not fire Mike Rice after viewing the video evidence and watching that sort of behavior during practice? It doesn’t matter if Pernetti’s bosses did not want to fire Rice. Pernetti should have had the moral duty to stand up and say, “If he stays, I go.” He did not. Pernetti took the easy path, the circuitous route, the coward’s slide — and merely suspended Rice for a few games in December to his ultimate, future, peril.
Rutgers has an unfortunate history of bullying — as in the death of Tyler Clementi — and now they have an even more blood on their hands with this humiliating bully behavior of their head coach. You may not call names. You may not throw basketballs at a player’s head. You may not kick a student. You may not grab a student. You pay not push a student. You may not scream at a student like a lunatic.
This whole, awful, Rutgers episode is not new, and it appears, has been going on since at least 2010. There are no secrets on a university campus, so important, powerful, people at Rutgers knew precisely what was going on with Mike Rice during basketball practice — and everyone who protected the bully now must be fired in order to restore the natural moral order.
I abhor bullying of any kind. I seem to remember that you were at Rutgers for a time – was bullying prevalent then ?
I wasn’t teaching on the main Rutgers campus. I mainly taught on the Newark campus. I wasn’t aware of any bullying issues, but these things tend to begin and fester institutionally for a long time. Are you able to watch the embedded video in this article from Portugal, or is it blocked?
I wasnt aware it was a split campus ………………. large institutions can often be very complicit in bullying as they ignore , or even fire people who report it.
I was able to see the video just fine – no problems at all.
Oh, that’s good you could watch the video. Anyone who watches the guy abusing his players wonders how in the world he was able to keep his job. He has a history of being an angry and mean coach before he was even hired, and for the Rutgers administration to protect him — when he isn’t a great coach! — is unfathomable.
Rutgers has three big campuses. It’s a massive school:
http://rumaps.rutgers.edu/
As a proud graduate I am sad to know this happened at my alma mater. I hope he is swiftly sacked.
It will be interesting to see how far the sackings go up the line. Gov. Christie today offered little to no support for the administration — but we know he isn’t wild about Rutgers anyway.
UPDATE:
It’s unfortunate how Rutgers is still trying to spin this as a “first offense” and how “no student players lined up to complain” — clearly not comprehending how bullying works and how abusers use the power dyad to get their way. The bully lives in silence and thrives in the darkness of no complaints!
For Pernetti to repeatedly say Rice’s behavior was “unacceptable” — and still keep him, is just strange.
UPDATE:
Rice is terminated.
http://goo.gl/Iobfc
I can’t believe it took so long!
Too late to stop the bleeding and the leaving, though:
http://goo.gl/VgJd3
Now I wonder what other heads will roll?
walking with feet and money is the best way to treat an institution that has endemic bullying .
Right! Today, the President of Rutgers said he “just saw” the video yesterday and not back in November — even though his own AD Pernetti said he approved the sanctions after viewing the same video evidence last year!
UPDATE:
Pernetti is out:
http://goo.gl/1KynV
One left to go…
Of course, Pernetti blames those above him:
http://goo.gl/JHOvd
Still one left to go…
I hate reading about scandals at colleges because they always seem to have been swept under the rug for a while. You would think human decency would trump collusion among higher-ups.
That’s right, Emily. By the time these things come to light — it’s too late to take it all back. You’d think Rutgers would’ve learned from the thrashing Penn State took in the court of public opinion.
UPDATE:
http://goo.gl/PFbuR
So, it looks like Barchi will stay after all by blaming it all on Pernetti. Barchi’s supporters don’t want basketball to take down the $75 reorganization of UMDNJ into Rutgers that Barchi was specifically hired to head.
This morning’s NYTimes makes everything even deeper, and more despicable at Rugers:
http://goo.gl/NvsZ5