Failed class that ignited Rutgers mess was supposed to be an 'easy A'

Former Rutgers football player Nadir Barnwell's 'F' in Dance Appreciation led coach Kyle Flood to intercede on his behalf, violating university rules

On website after website assessing the difficulty of courses at Rutgers University, one class comes up repeatedly as a must-take.

Dance Appreciation, students wrote, is a "great GPA booster," an "easy A" and a way to "get that 4.0 you always wanted."

"If your (sic) looking to take a class and basically do nothing and have a bunch of hot girls all day -- sign up for this class," one writer noted.

Today, that "easy A" is at the heart of a scandal that has upended the football program at the state's largest university and led to a three-game suspension for head coach Kyle Flood.

Rutgers University students participate in a Dance Appreciation class in 2010. (File photo) 

It is Dance Appreciation that former Scarlet Knights cornerback Nadir Barnwell flunked in the spring semester, making him academically ineligible to play football this fall, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Flood, concerned about losing an expected starter, violated university policy by repeatedly contacting the adjunct professor on behalf of Barnwell, then a sophomore, to see if the player could make up work to improve his grade, Rutgers announced Wednesday.

Barnwell -- dismissed from the team in recent weeks after an unrelated arrest on assault charges -- was apparently one of many football players enrolled in the class, according to an investigative report commissioned by Rutgers.

"In the fall of 2014, Coach Flood had visited the professor's class to introduce himself, because a number of football players regularly registered for the class," the report said.

The report did not name the class or the professor. NJ Advance Media identified both through university sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The professor, an accomplished ballerina and dance instructor who has taught in both New York and New Jersey, initially refused a request by the student to change his grade.

She later agreed to meet with Flood, who persuaded her to let Barnwell write a paper that might help him pass, though the semester had ended months earlier. Final grades were posted May 18.

"I have decided to allow you to make up some of the work," she wrote to Barnwell in an Aug. 6 email, according to the report. "Looking forward to reading your paper."

Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood addresses the media at the Hale Center about the university-led investigation into a possible violation of university policy that prohibits verbal or written contact with faculty members. (Saed Hindash | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) 

The paper, with minor edits by Flood, was submitted Aug. 16, the report said. Two days earlier, however, university officials emailed the professor to inform her Flood was under investigation. The report noted the instructor expressed relief and did not, ultimately, alter Barnwell's failing status.

It remains an open question whether the professor would have changed the grade had the university not alerted her to the investigation. According to the Rutgers report, she said she felt intimidated by Flood, given his stature on campus.

NJ Advance Media is withholding the woman's name because she could not be reached for comment. A reporter left a message on her cell phone, sent an email to her personal email account and left a note at the front door of her home.

David Hughes, president of the Rutgers American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, the university's faculty union, said the disparity between Flood's salary and that of the adjunct professor likely added to the intimidation, along with the fact that her job is not guaranteed.

Flood earns more than $1 million per year at Rutgers. Adjuncts typically make about $5,000 per class, Hughes said.

"She's vulnerable to what we call non-appointment," he said. "She works on a semester-by-semester contract."

RELATED: Rutgers coach Kyle Flood releases statement on suspension

The instructor, who is married to a corporate executive, appears to be fairly well off. The couple live in a historic house on a large property in central New Jersey.

But Hughes said even a financially secure adjunct professor might worry for her job if she failed to appease a powerful football coach.

"She felt intimidated by the coach," he said. "The details of her life were not as important as the larger issue."

The union president said the entire episode represented a failure of the system because it was a third party -- an academic adviser -- who reported Flood's behavior.

"It was not the instructor, not the student, not the coach who blew the whistle," Hughes said.

Rutgers President Robert Barchi, who wrote a lengthy letter to the university community Wednesday, briefly addressed the suspension again Friday during a meeting of the University Senate.

Former Scarlet Knights cornerback Nadir Barnwell during Rutgers football Media Day at Highpoint Solutions Stadium. (John Munson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) 

Barchi was asked if he would agree that the situation might never have occurred if the professor had more job security.

"No, I don't agree with you at all because she did everything exactly right," Barchi said. "She did not do anything wrong."

He did, however, say there is an imbalance of power between a coach and a part-time lecturer.

"That's why we have a zero-tolerance policy," Barchi said. "It's not maybe you can talk to them. No, never."

In his interview with investigators, Flood said it was the first time he had ever reached out to a faculty member about a student's grade, according to the report.

The Dance Appreciation class Barnwell failed is a popular one on campus, with four sections this semester and a dozen more offered online through the university's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

A 2010 Star-Ledger story about the course's growth said it seeks to dispel misconceptions about dance by showing students examples of it in everyday life.

For example, instructor Randy James began the class by leading students through hand signals used by a football referee during a game. When they finished, James applauded.

"You are doing what dancers do," he said.

"I'm trying to get them to understand that they've been doing dance for years," James said. "Everything is dance."

Dance troupes regularly perform in front of the students. Assignments involve writing papers about the performances. The key factor in a grade is attendance, according to the online postings about the class.

Hughes, the union president, said the course is known on campus to be easy, with a pass rate of nearly 100 percent.

He questioned whether that was a good thing.

"Why would any school put on a class where almost everyone gets an A?" he said.

Staff researcher Vinessa Erminio and staff writers Keith Sargeant and Adam Clark contributed to this report.

Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.