Rutgers has placed its embattled gymnastics coach on leave after the findings of an internal investigation were released.
Rutgers women’s gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley was placed on paid administrative leave after findings of an external investigation into her program were released. an undisclosed relationship with former athletic director Pat Hobbs that violated University policy“Head coach Umme Salim-Beasley has been placed on paid administrative leave while we continue to review and consider the findings of the investigation and appropriate next steps that are in the best interest of our student-athletes, the gymnastics program, and the University moving forward,” the statement read.
, found that several gymnasts alleged Salim-Beasley intimidated athletes into performing while physically injured, swept aside concerns for their mental well-being and played favorites with the starting lineup despite claiming to have an “equitable system based exclusively and mathematically on practice performance” — all while often being distracted and on her phone during practices.last summer — Salim-Beasley denied nearly all of the allegations, the report indicates. While the investigation “revealed widespread discord and conflict throughout the season,” the report states that there was “striking disagreement ... regarding Salim-Beasley’s role in and culpability for that environment.” In a message to the school’s Board of Governors and Trustees in which he shared a report with the findings of the investigation, University President Jonathan Holloway says he was “troubled to hear of the frustration and pain that a number of gymnastics team members experienced” and noted it is “especially concerning that student-athletes reported that they ‘never heard back after making a complaint, which contributed to the feeling that they were not being heard.’” Holloway, however, wasn’t hearing this for the first time via the law firm’s report. NJ Advance Media had reported nearly every gymnasts’ grievance in several reports in In the law firm’s report, an attorney for Salim-Beasley dismissed the allegations of the athletes as “largely petty, invalid, and bias-driven responses to a female coach.” “Gender bias easily gets infused into every claim, every complaint, every statement, every question, and every interpretation of the feelings of female athletes and has grave bearing on our decision regarding whether to hold a female coach responsible for those feelings, regardless of whether those feelings are justified by identifiably inappropriate conduct,” the attorney wrote. Salim-Beasley was interviewed for more than five hours, “engaging extensively ... on myriad issues,” but when it came to discussing her relationship with Hobbs, “she refused to answer these particular questions, following the advice of her counsel,” the report states. Salim-Beasley is required by her contract to cooperate fully with an investigation. Hobbs declined to be interviewed by investigators, but he denied the existence of any relationship with Salim-Beasley to a high-ranking athletics employee who confronted him about it, according to the report. He also denied having an inappropriate relationship with her to gymnasts, the athletes said. Stonewalled by Hobbs and Salim-Beasley about their relationship, investigators — led by former state comptroller Matthew Boxer — “took additional investigative steps and gathered relevant evidence, extending the length of this investigation.” Investigators concluded “based on the aggregate, available evidence that there was a relationship between Hobbs and Salim-Beasley” that required Hobbs to recuse himself from her supervision. In her seventh season as the head coach of the gymnastics program, Salim-Beasley has overseen one of the least successful programs in the athletic department, which began the 2025 season with a 5-1 record.during Salim-Beasley’s tenure, but they have struggled consistently in conference play. With a 2-43 conference team record between 2020 and 2024, the program has lowest winning percentage in Big Ten competition of any Rutgers team sport in the past five years. Rutgers finished last in the regular season standings four times in the past five years and finished ninth or worse in the 10-team Big Ten Tournament field in five of the last six seasons. This despite spending more on the gymnastics program than every Big Ten school other than powerhouse Michigan, according to fiscal year 2023 NCAA reports obtained by NJ Advance Media. The poor record did not affect Salim-Beasley’s salary, which has doubled since the start of her tenure in May 2018, when she earned $95,000 annually. For the 2023-24 season, she earned $190,000 between her base salary of $165,000 and a $25,000 retention bonus. According to contracts obtained by NJ Advance Media, Salim-Beasley is tied for the third-highest base salary in the Big Ten, and she earned $20,000 more than Michigan State head coach Mike Rowe, who led the Spartans to a conference title last season. In the meantime, the program earned just $257,330 in revenue during the 2022-23 academic year, the third-lowest total in the Big Ten. It spent $209,493 in game-day expenses alone. There has been a dramatic drop in contributions during Salim-Beasley’s tenure, according to fiscal year reports obtained by NJ Advance Media. After receiving $286,346 in contributions in FY2019, her first season with the program, the program received just $7,447 in FY2023, the third-lowest amount in the league. The program received a total of $37,505 in contributions from July 2019 to July 2023, according to the last four available fiscal year reports made to the NCAA. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription. If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
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