(Bloomberg) -- The union representing professors at Rutgers University in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the school seeking an explanation of the transfer of $100 million to the athletics program.
The American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers claims that the school has failed to honor public records requests to disclose details about the funds. The suit was filed July 17 in New Jersey Superior Court, according to the union, which provided it to Bloomberg.
The labor group says that since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the university has laid off 20% of its adjunct faculty, asked other unions to accept furloughs and declared a fiscal emergency while money is used to subsidize the athletic department.
“Rutgers Athletics has been a financial black hole for a long time, but in the past year, the university transferred more than $100 million in all to the athletic program, and they don't want to say why or where the money came from,” Todd Wolfson, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said in a statement. The union represents 5,000 full-time faculty and graduate workers at the public university.
A spokesperson for New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Rutgers declined to comment.
The school brought back former head football coach Greg Schiano in December in an eight year, $32 million dollar deal. That's a bigger pay package than he received coaching the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to the union's statement.
“We've known for years about the subsidy to athletics that comes out of student fees and general appropriations from the university,” Andrew Goldstone, an associate professor of English and chair of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT university budget and priorities committee, said in the statement. “That makes less and less sense in the era of COVID, when the athletics program will have an even harder time getting to the break-even point.”
Read more: Rutgers Freezes Hiring, Cuts Pay to Weather Budget Woes
The case is Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters v. Rutgers, the State University, Jewell Battle and Danielle Myrics.
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