Ryan Dunleavy

Staff writer

Best known as a Rutgers two-time interim athletics director and former dean of Rutgers College for 13 years, Carl Kirschner is no longer the chair of the Academic Oversight Committee for Intercollegiate Athletics, according to multiple sources.

Kirschner, a professor of Spanish at Rutgers since 1976 and a longtime supporter of Rutgers athletics, held the committee chair position since 1997. The committee reviews the applications of prospective student-athletes and monitors their academic progress.

The move appears to be more fallout from an abnormal year at the intersection of academics and athletics. It is believed that Kirschner will remain with the university in some capacities, but Rutgers officials did not respond to a request for comment.

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Then football coach Kyle Flood was suspended three games and fined $50,000 in September after a school investigation determined that he initiated improper contact with a faculty member regarding the grade of a player he was told would be academically ineligible.

Kirschner served as interim athletics director for three months in 2009 during the transition from Bob Mulcahy to Tim Pernetti. He resumed those duties after Pernetti was fired in April 2012 and before Julie Hermann was hired in May of that year.

During his second stint, Kirschner, who also serves as special counsel for academic programs in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, hired alum Eddie Jordan as men’s basketball coach on the heels of the abuse scandal involving predecessor Mike Rice.

Interestingly, when Rutgers fired Hermann at the end of November, president Robert Barchi went outside the school to search for an interim athletics director. He choose Pat Hobbs, ombudsman for Gov. Chris Christie, and quickly decided to give Hobbs the full-time position.

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“I was not considering an internal appointment from an internal candidate at all this time,” Barchi said at the time. “I evaluate all candidates internally and decide whether or not I think they would be qualified to do the job. My decision was that we didn’t have anybody internally qualified to do it.”

On Aug. 12, Kirschner was made aware by the academic advisers, who are his charges, of Flood’s potential violation of the no-contact policy, according to a university report. A firm was retained the next day to help with the official investigation.

Flood was determined to have circumvented the responsibilities of academic support by the investigation but was allowed to return. He was fired after a 4-8 season because of on-field performance and “some off-the-field activities that have caused us some issues,” Barchi said.

Barchi said he planned to redirect the funds from Flood's fine toward academic support for athletics.

Attempts to reach Kirschner were not successful Friday, though a message requesting comment was left with a woman who answered his office phone.

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleavy@gannettnj.com