Rutgers University’s influential faculty council is calling for the school to dismiss athletics director Patrick Hobbs and make other significant changes within the athletics department in response to what it called a series of “missteps, blunders, and errors in judgment,” NJ Advance Media has learned.

The rebuke — detailed in a resolution passed this week by the New Brunswick Faculty Council, a group that advises New Brunswick chancellor Christopher Molloy — blasted Hobbs and the athletics department for the football program’s prolonged lack of competitiveness, a multi-million-dollar payout due recently fired football coach Chris Ash and the school’s alleged weak response to accusations of widespread emotional and physical abuse within the university’s softball program this fall.

“Unfortunately, in recent years, the Rutgers athletics program has done little to enhance the image of Rutgers, but a great deal to sully it,” according to the resolution, obtained by NJ Advance Media.

News of the resolution comes hours after Hobbs, Rutgers President Robert Barchi and other top school officials were taking victory laps after the Board of Governors approved Tuesday the hiring of new football coach Greg Schiano — an addition hailed as a major coup for the university.

In the resolution, 58% of faculty members voted to have Barchi fire Hobbs and appoint an interim athletics director, and 34% voted for the university’s Board of Governors, Barchi and Molloy to “make whatever changes are necessary in the administration of the athletics program, starting at the top, to ensure that the quality of our athletics program is consistent with the quality of the university.”

Only three of the 41 voting members (7%) voted in favor of taking no action.

“The list of missteps, blunders, and errors in judgment is a long one and they seem to have increased in frequency in recent years,” the resolution stated. “In addition to these blunders, there have also been ethical and moral lapses.”

The faculty group also called on Rutgers to tap outside consultants to “conduct a complete review of the program's past failures and formulate a detailed action plan to reform its management and finances.”

Dory Devlin, the university’s senior director of news and media relations, said Tuesday in a statement the school is standing behind Hobbs and described the council as a nonbinding advisory body to the New Brunswick chancellor.

“Pat Hobbs has the full support of the President and the Board of Governors,” Devlin said. “He has brought about important and meaningful improvements to Athletics and we fully believe that he will continue to do so.”

The New Brunswick Faculty Council is an advisory group that reports to Molloy and provides input on academic regulations, admissions standards, budgetary priorities, graduation requirements, academic integrity policies, academic personnel policies, student affairs and research.

The group’s resolution comes the same day university officials are celebrating the hiring of Schiano, the wildly popular choice of fans and alumni to help return the football program to glory.

“Greg Schiano is the perfect coach for this important job,” Barchi said in a statement Tuesday. “I commend Pat Hobbs and Coach Schiano for reaching an agreement following very complex negotiations to bring on this new, exciting chapter for Rutgers athletics.”

Schiano’s contract is an eight-year deal worth $32 million that includes incentives tied to team- and academic-performance. Rutgers also owes Ash approximately $8.47 million and offensive coordinator John McNulty about $900,000 even though they were fired in late September.

Over the last decade, Rutgers has agreed to pay more than $22.14 million to fired coaches, athletic directors, academic administrators and other top officials, according to an NJ Advance Media review of state university documents and news reports.

The resolution also cited allegations of widespread abuse in the Rutgers softball program, which were first reported by NJ Advance Media in October.

The report, detailed by seven former Rutgers players and five parents, included allegations head coach Kristen Butler regularly punished the team with conditioning that left players crying, vomiting or collapsing, while her volunteer assistant coach husband Marcus Smith made several inappropriate comments, including boarding the team bus and telling the women it “smelled like period blood.”

The allegations marked the third time since 2013 one of the university’s coaches was accused of inappropriate conduct.

Butler categorically denied all the allegations.

Before publishing the report, NJ Advance Media sent a list of questions regarding the allegations to Rutgers officials. A few hours later, Hobbs called one of the NJ Advance Media reporters working on the story and shouted profanities before hanging up.

Barchi condemned Hobbs’ comments in a press release, and also ordered the university to open an independent investigation into the softball allegations.

Also following the NJ Advance Media report, Senator Joseph P. Cryan (D-Union) and Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D-Essex) called for Hobbs to resign.

Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.