Rutgers University is investigating former athletic director Pat Hobbs for an inappropriate, consensual relationship.
On August 16, Rutgers Athletic Director Pat Hobbs made the shocking decision to step down. The decision was especially shocking since Rutgers was on the verge of one of their most promising athletic years in recent memory. During his initial resignation announcement, Hobbs cited health concerns relating to news he received from his cardiology team.
When the news of Hobbs’s retirement was breaking, he received a lot of praise for the job he had done to improve the Rutgers athletic department.
“I want to thank Pat for his remarkable nine-year tenure at Rutgers, during which we have seen our men’s and women’s teams become leaders and successfully compete in the Big Ten, both on and off the field,” Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said in an email to the university.
Then came the breaking news from NJ. com that Rutgers had launched an internal investigation into Hobbs for an alleged inappropriate but consensual relationship.
The Investigation into Pat Hobbs
Last Friday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy spoke publicly on the investigation.
“I know there is an investigation underway, so I don’t want to preempt that,” Murphy said. “I have no insights into that. But that was really ugly and very disturbing. I’ve reached out to Rutgers at the highest levels. I know they have an internal investigation going on, but that was a pretty disgusting set of facts in the paper. We shall see.”
There is suspicion that this inappropriate relationship was between Hobbs and gymnastics head coach Umme Salim-Beasley. An investigation performed by NJ Advanced Media found that the gymnastics program had recently been riddled with complaints. Some gymnasts complained to the university but Hobbs rejected their complaints. They believed it was because Hobbs and Salim-Beasley had an unusual relationship with an athletic director and a coach of a small sports program.
Hobbs frequently appeared at the gymnastics team’s practices. He also attended most of their home meets and even went on a trip with the team to Nashville. During this trip, he took part in a yoga session with the whole team, Salim-Beasley, and sports administrator Mike Szul.
Rutgers University itself seems to be promoting the notion that Hobbs resigned due to health issues and refused to make a comment on two separate occasions to NJ Advanced Media on whether or not Hobbs had an inappropriate relationship with one of his subordinates.
“Employees in romantic, dating, intimate, and/or sexual relationships must recuse themselves from decisions that may have a direct or indirect impact on the employee with whom they are in a relationship. Those who fail to do so and/or abuse their power in such circumstances may be found to have violated this Policy.”
“Any individual who engages in a romantic, dating, intimate and/or sexual relationship with someone over whom he or she has supervisory responsibility must inform his or her immediate supervisor of the relationship so that the University can take action to make changes that eliminate the conflict of interest. If the University determines it is unable to eliminate the conflict of interest in a relationship between employees, the employees will be provided with the opportunity to decide which of the two will resign their employment.”
These two quotes are pulled right from the university website and are listed as official Rutgers policy.
In a statement last Tuesday, Hobbs reiterated that his resignation was “due to health issues, a decision made in consultation with my medical team.”
