Rutgers president formalizes recusal instructions

Rutgers University President Robert Barchi has sent his senior staff a memo instructing them to keep him out of the university’s business dealings with two corporations that pay him to sit on their advisory boards.

The Record reports the July 9 memo was sent to about a dozen top administrators. It was released by the university Friday.

Barchi serves on the corporate boards of VWR International and Covance Inc., which both have contracts with Rutgers and paid Barchi more than $300,000 in fees and stocks last year.

VWR is a lab supply and distribution company and Covance is a drug researcher. Rutgers’ business relationships with both firms predate Barchi’s arrival.

Although it wasn’t put in writing at the time, Barchi told staffers he should be kept out of decisions involving the companies after he became president last year.