NEW BRUNSWICK — For weeks, the name of the next president of Rutgers University has been a closely guarded secret.

A special meeting of the university’s board of governors was called for Wednesday to finalize the decision, and members of the board were sworn to absolute secrecy.

But today, the university accidentally let the cat out of the bag all by itself — prematurely posting a photo of the incoming president on its media website before quickly yanking it down when called on it.

Rutgers is expected to confirm Robert L. Barchi, 65, the outgoing president of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, as its new president, The Star-Ledger has learned. The selection ends a nine-month search for a candidate who will preside over what could be one of the most tumultuous periods in the university's history, with proposals that will allow it to acquire a medical school but force the divestiture of its Camden campus.

The new president will succeed Richard McCormick, who announced last year he would step down as leader of the 58,000-student research institution.

Barchi, a physician and Ph.D. — who has headed the Philadelphia medical university for eight years — also announced last year that he was stepping down as president of his own institution. Barchi had said he planned to take a yearlong sabbatical before returning as a full-time member of the Thomas Jefferson faculty.

Prior to becoming president of Thomas Jefferson, Barchi served as provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Rutgers presidential appointee was chosen from a slate of three to six finalists that included at least one woman, said Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown, the Rutgers alum who headed the 24-member search committee.

The committee was formed in August and began with a list of 250 nominations. The committee interviewed seven of those individuals and presented a smaller "short list" to the university’s governing board.

Since then, no names have been released and it was not until this morning that Rutgers announced a decision had been reached. An official meeting notice was sent out, announcing only that the university’s board of governors was meeting at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. There was only one item of interest on the agenda — a proposed resolution on the appointment of Rutgers’ 20th president.

University officials would not release the name and declined to answer questions. But after a story about the special meeting ran on nj.com, a reader noted Barchi’s photo had apparently been accidentally uploaded onto the Rutgers media relations website.

The page carried the link name "Dr. Robert L. Barchi approved."

When university officials were asked about the photo, the image and the page itself were quickly taken down.

Rutgers officials would not comment on the appointment or the photo. Told of the uploaded photo, however, two sources with knowledge of the selection process, along with two major donors to the school, gave confirmation that Barchi was the name to be put before the board Wednesday.

Rutgers spokesman Greg Trevor would only say the university’s board of governors has set a special meeting for 10:30 a.m. in New Brunswick. Barchi did not return calls to his office at Thomas Jefferson or his home in Philadelphia.

A native of Philadelphia, Barchi is a 1968 graduate of Georgetown University. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and an M.D. from the university’s school of medicine the next year, according to a 1998 profile in the University of Pennsylvania almanac.

Barchi trained as a clinical neurologist and researcher in neuroscience. Co-editor of "Molecular and Genetic Basis of Neurological Disease," he has contributed to more than 150 articles in professional journals and books.

A profile of Barchi in the Thomas Jefferson alumni magazine describes him as an avid sports enthusiast. He played lacrosse and football at Georgetown, and started rowing at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, an activity he continued into adulthood. He also collects antique watches and clocks and designed his own clocks in his basement machine shop.

He was named president of Thomas Jefferson University in 2004.

In 2006, Barchi sparked some controversy when the university agreed to sell a famed Thomas Eakins painting, "The Gross Clinic," to a museum being built in Arkansas by Wal-Mart Stores heiress Alice Walton. The 1875 painting depicts an operation in progress by surgeon Dr. Samuel Gross, at what then was called Jefferson Medical College.

"We are not a museum," Barchi had said in explaining the decision to sell the painting.

A fund drive was launched to raise money to keep the painting in Philadelphia. It is now owned jointly by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Barchi comes to Rutgers as it faces major and controversial changes under proposals by Gov. Chris Christie to merge Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University, while adding the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey to the Rutgers portfolio.

The merger surfaced after the search committee began its work, but Brown, the head of the committee, said it did not negatively affect the process.

"I think there was an expectation that as the rhetoric heated up, it might deter some candidates from moving forward," he said. "It didn’t."

McCormick, who has led Rutgers since 2002, will step down July 1, but remain on campus as a member of the history faculty.

By Ted Sherman and Peggy McGlone/ The Star-Ledger

Related coverage:

• Rutgers University will name a new president tomorrow, officials say

• Rutgers' new president could be chosen by month's end after search narrows

• Rutgers president calls Rowan report on merger 'truly offensive and enraging'

• Special Board of Governors meeting to be held regarding Rutgers president search

