Rutgers University is busy limping back to normalcy after scandals relating to the athletic department rocked the college over the last two months.
The university invited its top 20 donors to New Brunswick, Thursday, to participate in a meet-and-greet event with the incoming athletic director, Julie Hermann, and Jim Delany, the commissioner of the Big Ten athletic conference, which the university is joining next year.
Some of the donors present at the event said that they are ready to accept Hermann in her new role despite allegations of misbehaviour with volleyball players surfacing when she was coach at the University of Tennessee in the 1990s.
"I went in there with a negative attitude, but I came out with an open mind," said Don Musso, the president of a financial consulting firm. "I'm going to give her a chance."
The university officials are hopeful that other donors will also carry the same attitude as Musso.
Hermann's official responsibility with a pay check of $450,000-a-year doesn't start until June 17. She succeeds Tim Pernetti, who was forced to resign, April, two days after the head basketball coach, Mike Rice, was fired for verbally and physically abusing his players.
Several other donors, on the other hand, have joined State Senator Raymond Lesniak, Senator Barbara Buono, a Republican gubernatorial candidate and Gov. Richard Codey, saying that they have lost confidence in President Barchi's ability to guide the university out of this mess. They have called for his resignation.
"If Barchi stays, they'll never see another dime from me," said Marc Stopa, an attorney in Foxborough, Mass. "If there are enough small and middle-sized donors who feel like myself, they're going to lose millions and millions of dollars." He earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers in 1977 and previously supported university programs for a dozen years.
Carol P. Herring, the president of the Rutgers Foundation, the university's fundraising arm, said that several graduates have expressed their discontent with the university's current workings and say that they are not willing to donate to the university.
Herring said that bitterness against any individual or university will lessen with the passage of time. "Some people have changed their minds already since five weeks ago," Herring said. "There really is no reason to hurt the institution by not giving."
The university is in the process of reaching its $1 billion goal by December 2014, out of which $81 million will be invested in the athletics department. So far, the university has gathered $769 million.
"It helped clear the air and get us all on the same page," Musso said. For her part, Hermann "did a good job of bridging the gap with all of us.She did a good job of talking to each one of us and directly responding to us, and I was a tough sell."
When the university was facing a slew of dismissals and resignations, leading donors threatened to cut their contributions.
Tom Mendiburu, a co-founder of High Point Solutions, reached a 10-year, $6 million agreement with the University for the naming rights to the university's football stadium in Piscataway.
"We've invested so much into RU and now I'm not even sure who we turn to. Very sad day and I'm sorry Pernetti had to go through this," Mendiburu said.
After Thursday's meeting, Mendiburu said, "Tonight was a nice step forward, spent quite a bit of time with Julie Hermann. Quite frankly, she said all of the right things tonight."
Steven Plofker, a real estate developer in Montclair, said that Hermann's initiative of meeting with the donors is a good step taken forward to clear away the entire negative atmosphere at the university. Polker also said that more such steps should be taken to win over the confidence of the donors and alumni alike.
"We are in a state that appreciates toughness, and she exhibited toughness," Polker said. "I'm anxious, but I'm open to positive developments in the future. I love Rutgers University, and it would be sad for me not to be involved in its future progress."
Musso feels that Hermann will need to approach between 300 and 500 donors in the coming months to start afresh at the university.
"I've made a lot of telephone calls to a lot of people and some are unhappy, but I think the support will continue," Herb C. Klein, a former congressman who serves on the board of overseers that looks after the Rutgers Foundation said.
Klein, who has donated more than $1 million to Rutgers over the last dozen years to fund a variety of academic programs, is confident that most of the donors will be persuaded. He is a partner in a Hackensack law firm and completed his bachelor's degree from Rutgers in 1950.
"I have a warm spot in my heart for Rutgers," Klein said. "There is less and less financial support from the state, so we need private donors. It's a great treasure for New Jersey."
