Discrimination Lawsuit Adds to the Spotlight on Rutgers In early April, as the Rutgers president, Robert L. Barchi, was working to defuse a coaching abuse scandal, he named Gregory S. Jackson, a university administrator, to be his chief of staff. Jackson, though, was already facing his own legal problems. About three months earlier, Jackson was sued by four longtime employees in the university's career services office, all in their late 50s and early 60s. They said that he had engaged in a "campaign of discriminatory actions" against them because of their age, ostracizing them and ultimately forcing their retirement. Barchi was aware of the lawsuit when he promoted Jackson, according to Rutgers officials. Knowledge of the lawsuit comes as Barchi is struggling to steer the university out of a public-relations crisis that has already upended the athletic department, drawn the ire of elected officials across New Jersey and threatened to snarl ambitious plans pushed by Gov. Chris Christie to restructure the university. Jackson is the third Rutgers official to face public criticism for discriminatory or abusive behavior in recent months. Mike Rice, the former men's basketball coach, was fired in April for hurling slurs and epithets at his players; Julie Hermann, the new athletic director, has been under fire amid allegations of misconduct at her previous jobs. One of the plaintiffs, Richard L. White, said in an interview that Jackson had created "an environment that was toxic, intimidating, bullying." He said he was "stunned" to learn of Jackson's promotion. "It was unbelievable that the abuser was moving into an elevated role in what I would call a culture of abuse," said White, who was the director of career services at Rutgers for more than 20 years. Lawyers for Jackson and Rutgers, which was also sued, have denied the allegations of the four former employees and asked a New Jersey Superior Court to dismiss the complaint. Rutgers declined to comment on the specifics of the case because it is pending, but said that it did not disqualify Jackson from the job, and that lawsuits were common in such situations. "The University views the plaintiffs" claims in this lawsuit as lacking merit, and plans to vigorously defend its business decisions made in restructuring the University's Office of Career Services," John Bennett, a lawyer for Rutgers, said.Rutgers officials pointed to an investigation last year by the university's Office of Employment Equity. That office "examined complaints of discrimination based on age and or sex in career services and found no evidence of such and no violation of university policy," Rutgers said in a statement. The plaintiff's lawyer, Juan Fernandez, dismissed that investigation as "a sham." Jackson did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, and Rutgers declined to make him available. Barchi announced Jackson's promotion April 10, eight days after video of Rice's abusive behavior was first made public. In a memo, Barchi called Jackson "an ideal person to fill this new position" and praised his "talent, experience, and knowledge of academic affairs." A Rutgers spokeswoman said in a statement Sunday night, "President Barchi believes that Professor Jackson is an effective administrator capable of confronting challenging and complex problems." In 2011, soon after Jackson took the job as associate vice president for undergraduate education that included oversight of career services, he began making changes to the department, which an external review later found to be "dysfunctional," a Rutgers spokesman said Monday. Jackson quickly clashed with leaders there, some of whom were sent to work in a nearby building that the employees referred to as "the island of misfit toys," the lawsuit said. Four career services employees - White, Chrystal McArthur, Dorothy Kerr and Mark Kerr - eventually sued Jackson, Rutgers and another department official for age discrimination.