Rutgers has fired head gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley, a person with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday, putting an end to a months-long saga.
She will be replaced by her longtime assistant Anastasia Candia, who earns a promotion after leading the Scarlet Knights to their most successful season in a decade this spring as the acting head coach in Salim-Beasley’s absence.
The decision to move on from Salim-Beasley comes three months after an external investigation found she “lost control” of her program and at times “presided over a divided and dysfunctional organization,” all while having an undisclosed relationship with former athletic director Pat Hobbs that violated University policy.
Salim-Beasley had been on paid administrative leave since the findings of the investigation were released.
It is unclear what the financial fallout of the decision will be.
If fired for cause — which the school will likely argue given the findings of the external investigation — payment and benefits to Salim-Beasley “shall cease as of the date of termination.”
If fired without cause, her contract stipulates that she will be paid the remainder of her contract — she is owed $562,500 for the final three years on her contract, along with what remains of her $172,500 salary for 2024-25 — so long as she signs a separation agreement and full release.
A school spokesperson declined comment on the matter to NJ Advance Media, saying the University does not comment on personnel matters.
The final report on the investigation, which NJ Advance Media obtained, found that several gymnasts alleged Salim-Beasley intimidated athletes into performing while physically injured, swept aside concerns for their mental well-being and played favorites with the starting lineup despite claiming to have an “equitable system based exclusively and mathematically on practice performance” — all while often being distracted and on her phone during practices.
When asked about complaints by gymnasts — first reported in an NJ Advance Media investigation last summer — Salim-Beasley denied nearly all of the allegations, the report indicates. While the investigation “revealed widespread discord and conflict throughout the season,” the report states that there was “striking disagreement ... regarding Salim-Beasley’s role in and culpability for that environment.”
In a message to the school’s Board of Governors and Trustees in which he shared a report with the findings of the investigation, University President Jonathan Holloway — who commissioned the external investigation — says he was “troubled to hear of the frustration and pain that a number of gymnastics team members experienced” and noted it is “especially concerning that student-athletes reported that they ‘never heard back after making a complaint, which contributed to the feeling that they were not being heard.’”
In the law firm’s report, an attorney for Salim-Beasley dismissed the allegations of the athletes as “largely petty, invalid, and bias-driven responses to a female coach.”
“Gender bias easily gets infused into every claim, every complaint, every statement, every question, and every interpretation of the feelings of female athletes and has grave bearing on our decision regarding whether to hold a female coach responsible for those feelings, regardless of whether those feelings are justified by identifiably inappropriate conduct,” the attorney wrote.
Salim-Beasley was interviewed for more than five hours, “engaging extensively ... on myriad issues,” but when it came to discussing her relationship with Hobbs, “she refused to answer these particular questions, following the advice of her counsel,” the report states. Salim-Beasley is required by her contract to cooperate fully with an investigation.
Hobbs declined to be interviewed by investigators, but he denied the existence of any relationship with Salim-Beasley to a high-ranking athletics employee who confronted him about it, according to the report. He also denied having an inappropriate relationship with her to gymnasts, the athletes said.
Stonewalled by Hobbs and Salim-Beasley about their relationship, investigators — led by former state comptroller Matthew Boxer — “took additional investigative steps and gathered relevant evidence, extending the length of this investigation.” Investigators concluded “based on the aggregate, available evidence that there was a relationship between Hobbs and Salim-Beasley” that required Hobbs to recuse himself from her supervision.
In her seven seasons as the head coach of the gymnastics program, Salim-Beasley oversaw one of the least successful programs in the athletic department.
The Scarlet Knights set a handful of team records during Salim-Beasley’s tenure, but they struggled consistently in conference play. With a 2-43 conference team record between 2020 and 2024, the program has lowest winning percentage in Big Ten competition of any Rutgers team sport in the past five years. Rutgers finished last in the regular season standings four times in the past five years and finished ninth or worse in the 10-team Big Ten Tournament field in five of the last six seasons.
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Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.