Rutgers University president Robert Barchi collects hundreds of thousand of dollars sitting on two advisory boards that contribute directly to his school; the school approved both moves, the North Jersey Record reported.

Barchi serves on the board of advisors for Covance Inc. and VWR International. Both companies do millions of dollars in business every year with Rutgers for scientific research. Both companies add hundreds of thousands of dollars to his $650 annual base pay at Rutgers.

Altogether, he earns more than $1 million annually.

VWR, a laboratory supplies distributor, and Covance, a pharmaceutical research firm, both could be looking to get an upper hand in the school's expanded biomedical research efforts. Jay W. Lorsch, a Harvard Business School professor, said the practice is troubling.

"It smells to high hell quite frankly," he said Jay W. Lorsch. "It just puts him in a very difficult position."

Experts said the practice is not irregular, as many university presidents dabble in the corporate universe, but what is troubling is that both companies Barchi advises have a relationship with his school.

Rutgers has paid VWR $15 million from 2008-2012, the duration of their contract, and is set to renew that contract. Covance received $100,000 from Rutgers since 2008. The two companies combined to pay Barchi $317,000 in fees and stock awards last year.

Barchi, however, never hid his relationship to the companies and was approved by the school's governing bodies to work for VWR and Covance.

"I disclosed my membership on the board fully during the search process, both on my résumé and in discussions with Rutgers board of governors members," Barchi said in a statement through a spokesman. "Rutgers University recognizes the value of having its chief executives serve on corporate boards."

Barchi also included in his statement that he has signed a conflict-of-interest statement with VWR recusing himself from discussions involving Rutgers. He also said he does not participate in either company's decisions regarding his school.

"There may be lawyers who can justify it, but I just think it's wrong," Lorsch said. "If I were a trustee at Rutgers, I'd be saying, 'I'd rather you did not do that.'"

Rutgers' governing board found no such issue.

"It was fully disclosed," said Gordon MacInnes, a member of the governing board. "I don't see any inherent conflict."