One week into her tenure as Rutgers AD last June, Julie Hermann "vowed to take a 'deep dive to understand all things Scarlet Knights' and then create a strategic plan for transitioning to the Big Ten Conference," according to Keith Sargeant of the ASBURY PARK PRESS. As her first year "came to a close," Hermann said that she has "accomplished both tasks with the Scarlet Knights two weeks away from officially entering the Big Ten." Hermann, when asked to cite her top accomplishment in Year 1, said, "I think there were several systems that needed to be upgraded, expanded in order to protect the organization better, to provide for student-athletes better and knowing that we would ask our fan base to step up financially you can’t ask them to step up financially and not also do everything within your power to make sure they have a good experience." She added, "We developed a master (plan) based on our coaches and what’s most urgent to them. ... What’s important to the department is that we work very methodically in terms of all the things on that list -- ‘Which of them has the highest impact across the (board)?’ We’ll attack it that way. If we do that, it attacks five teams, not just one." Sargeant notes fundraising is "among her chief responsibilities for an athletics department heavily subsidized by the university’s operations fund, and Hermann’s initial results are incomplete." Rutgers last year "reported its lowest contribution total in six years," a $6.1M sum which university officials attributed to "the obstacles its fundraisers faced in the wake of the men’s basketball scandal." Rutgers President Robert Barchi said, "(Fundraising) is actually going very well indeed. I know that a number of people have opined that fundraising for athletics is way down. That is not in fact the case" (ASBURY PARK PRESS, 6/17).
