Rutgers University, which anticipates a $200 million shortfall in revenue through June 30 and additional significant losses the rest of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic, announced that its athletics director and three highest-paid coaches are taking pay cuts over the next four months.
Football coach Greg Schiano, men’s basketball coach Steve Pikiell and women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer will take 10-percent cuts over the next four months. Athletics director Pat Hobbs will take a 5-percent reduction in pay.
The salary reductions are part of sweeping cost-saving measures at New Jersey’s state university.
“We are located in the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, creating challenges around both the length or our expected recovery and our ability to attract new students,” Rutgers president Robert Barchi wrote in a letter to faculty on Friday, which was obtained by NJ Advance Media. “Perhaps no other state government has been hit as hard financially as New Jersey, which has necessitated the freezing of many appropriations, including a significant portion of funding for Rutgers.”
Barchi called the pandemic “the greatest academic and operational challenge” in Rutgers’ history.
Schiano was lured back to Rutgers in December with an eight-year, $32 million contract. Pikiell signed a six-year, $21 million extension in February, and Stringer is scheduled to make $925,000 in the final year of her current contract.
Barchi also announced that all new capital construction projects are being put on hold and projects already underway will be reviewed, which could delay plans for a new football facility and renovations to the Rutgers Athletics Center. The university previously said the football facility wouldn’t be built until half of its anticipated $75 million cost was raised through private donors.