Rutgers University President Robert S. Barchi has an imposing task of pulling the university away from all the negative publicity surrounding it and its employees before thinking about academic improvements as scandals and controversies keep on dogging the univesity's footsteps.

After the ouster of the former head basketball coach, Mike Rice, due to his verbal and abusive behavior with the players and criticisms over the hiring of Julie Hermann as the next athletic director amid accusations of misbehavior at her previous jobs, the university is once again embroiled in fresh allegations.

Four former employees of Rutgers have filed an age discrimination lawsuit in a New Jersey court this January against Gregory S. Jackson, Barchi's chief of staff, for allegedly unlawfully terminating them from the university's career services department.

Richard L. White, Chrystal McArthur, Dorothy Kerr and Mark Kerr sued Jackson, Rutgers and another department official for age discrimination. Barchi was aware of the lawsuit when he promoted Jackson in April.

White said that Jackson had fostered an environment that was toxic, intimidating and bullying. "It was unbelievable that the abuser was moving into an elevated role in what I would call a culture of abuse," said White, who was the director of career services at Rutgers for more than 20 years.

Although he has been appointed as the chief of staff, Jackson still continues his previous roles as associate vice president and interim vice chancellor for undergraduate academic affairs and as an associate English professor.

As soon as he took over the academic office, January 2011, Jackson reportedly informed the staffers about possible changes in the Career Services. At several meetings, he hinted to people that he could force people to leave or retire and told some of them to start looking out for other employment opportunities.

In April 2012, the four employees in question, who worked at Rutgers for more than 20 years, were told that they failed to meet standards during an external review of the department. As a punishment, the four of them were demoted and forced to work in isolated and dilapidated conditions before receiving termination letters, November 2012.

"The University views the plaintiffs' claims in this lawsuit as lacking merit and plans to vigorously defend its business decisions made in restructuring the University's Office of Career Services," said John K. Bennett, the attorney for Rutgers and Jackson said.