Rutgers Investigates Dean for Selling Services to University

Rutgers University is investigating a potential ethics violation by Rutgers-Newark School of Arts and Sciences Dean Jacqueline Mattis after her professional development business did hundreds of thousands of dollars in business with the university, WHYY reported. 

Rutgers has paid Easton’s Nook, which Mattis co-owns with her sister, $145,295 for writing workshops and retreats since Mattis became dean in July 2020. More than $62,000 of the total was used to pay for services to the New Brunswick campus, and $33,625 paid for services to Mattis’s own school. Before she became dean, the university solicited $11,450 in services from Easton’s Nook.

A spokesperson told WHYY that the university has suspended all services from Easton’s Nook while it investigates the complaint. 

“The university takes all complaints of alleged violations of university policy seriously and handles such complaints in accordance with the applicable university policies,” the spokesperson said. 

Rutgers’s ethics policies cite the New Jersey Conflicts of Interest statute and say that “companies partially owned by Rutgers (or State) employees cannot sell goods or services to the university.”