Video Shows Rutgers Staffer Chasing, Grabbing Student Before Board Meeting
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A confrontation between a student and a staff member got physical before a Rutgers University Board of Governors meeting recently.
As CBS2's Jessica Layton reported, video taken Wednesday, July 20 has been making the rounds online and on campus. It shows a staff member at Rutgers following a student and then grabbing him.
"That's a little excessive," one student said.
"He shouldn't be able to do that," another said.
The student is seen flipping through pages of a binder. In what appears to be an attempt to get the binder back, the unidentified staff member starts running to catch the student, grabs him and puts his arm around his head as the binder goes flying.
"Honestly, the first time I saw it, I was very taken aback by it," said student body vice president Evan Covello.
Members of the student government said it happened during a closed session of the Board of Governors, which voted to raise tuition 1.7 percent that day.
Covello said the student shouldn't have taken confidential information that didn't belong to him. But he is concerned by how things escalated.
"Staff members should not be laying their hands on students at any given point," he said.
Covello, along with senior Anish Patel, wrote an open Letter to the Rutgers community, saying in part,
"The incident is an unfortunate consequence of building tension between the students and the administration."
They said tension hit a breaking point because students don't get a vote on the Board of Governors, and have no real input on issues such as tuition hikes.
They are asking students to sign this online petition urging the New Jersey legislature to give the students a vote.
"That's all we're asking for is a seat at the table," Patel said.
They feel if they had a vote, the chase around the table in the video may have been avoided.
Rutgers University refused to answer my specific questions about the incident, including whether the staff member will face any kind of punishment. The only thing the media relations office said was that the incident is under review by university police.
The university told CBS2 that Gov. Chris Christie has the authority to make anyone a voting member of the board that he sees fit.