Much has been made of the recent Rutgers/Rowan merger plan being pushed by Governor Christie and Democrat Party Boss George Norcross.
As I have said before, Save Jersey is on the record officially supporting the Save Rutgers Camden movement. Not only do we feel that the plan would be bad for the students in certain programs and schools at Rutgers Camden, but it would be bad for the region as a whole and the students of the future.
One thing that has not been discussed in this process is the feelings of Rowan University students down in Glassboro. Well, after coming across minutes of their Student Government meeting where many questions were posed and answered on the issue, we now know that many of their concerns are just like those of us in Camden County.
If you take a peek at the document, some things jump out immediately. First, is that this meeting took place back in November of 2011! Now, this plan certainly did not come out of nowhere, the Cooper Medical School and its agreement with Rowan stretches back for years. Even Governor McGreevy had pitched plans to combine higher education in South Jersey before.
But how this remained secret for all these months and just now has made it to Rutgers Camden students is rather impressive…
Next, it seems that Glassboro will be the main campus for the new Rowan University. This may seem obvious, Rowan has always existed there, and to move its main operation to Camden would seem counter intuitive. However, this plan is being pitched as a massive expansion of the current Camden campus. It is supposedly going to cause a “renaissance” in Camden that will shock the city into prosperity. Now we learn that the supposed new “epicenter of intellectual and economic success” is still going to be a sub-campus.
Third, the document claims that the Governor has 60 days to accept or reject the plan after it is put forth. I am going to assume that this was a mistake in the minutes. I will be publishing a detailed, but simple, explanation of how the reorganization process can legally occur next week, but for now, understand that the Governor is likely to put the plan forward and the legislature will have to act only if it wants to stop the merger.
Fourth, the document then turns to a discussion that was held between the students and someone who apparently had answers regarding the merger. This fact amazes me, because the UMDNJ proposal came down with very little information in it, and no one that I talk to seems to have any concrete answers on much of anything. I cannot imagine that the Rutgers Administration is terribly pleased with how in the dark they have remained prior to and throughout this process.
The questions themselves are general in nature and the answers are incredibly vague. Some of the answers even seem to be in the same vein as bromides used by George Norcross in his latest op-ed on the merger. The minutes claim that the value of a Rowan degree would increase after the merger — which would make sense as the school grows. This of course does not account for the potential devaluation of the Rutgers degrees from the Camden campus. The document also claims that this merger will succeed where others have failed because it is “for the right reason, and the right college.” Honestly, I do not even know what that means. I guess you had to be there.
The minutes also seem to suggest that the merger would be more in name than in practice. It states that all current majors would remain at the campuses from which they currently reside. This document explicitly states that the Engineering department’s location will not be changing. I find this particularly interesting, considering the fact that the Norcross article seems to suggest that the Rowan College of Engineering would be a key part of the merger in Camden.
Next, the meeting minutes suggest that no money is involved in this deal. Now, I cannot say for sure that there is money involved, but does anyone doubt it? What would be the point to this if not for money? There is supposedly going to be vast new construction in Camden, someone is going to be paid to design and build those structures. There will need to be lawyers and consultants hired to ease the transition, those people will need to be (over)paid for all of the hours that they bill. The DPRA is also mulling a light rail system between Glassboro and Camden. There is money all over this deal! And it happens to be the best kind: political patronage money!
Finally, the document states that the Rowan faculty has already been preparing for the merger to take place. Remember this meeting took place last November. They are getting ready because, again according to the minutes, this merger will go through “either way” and that the Governor has executive authority to make it happen.
That actually remains to be seen. Be sure to check back next week for Save Jersey’s layman’s guide to the law and legal procedure behind this merger. We want everyone interest to be as informed as possible. I would also suggest that anyone interested should attend the Senate Higher Education Committee hearing on the merger this coming Monday, February 6th, at 10:30AM in Committee Room 4. Save Jersey will be there reporting live.
Governor Christie did a great job with UMDNJ as US Attorney. He did not suggest Rowan-rutgers merger. It was suggested by a distinguished group of independent reviewers. I believe it is a great idea. We need to revamp Rutgers Camden so that South jersey and Camden students get a great education not just a mediocre one that they are getting now. For example a recent Chemistry grad told me that many chemistry courses are taught by postdocs from UPENN as professors are too old to teach. These postdocs are novice teachers with other priorities and do poor job. The new PhD program in Computational Biology has been terribly damaged by the old by network of faculty and administrators. There is too much politics and too little scholarship that needs to change now. Status quo is not acceptable.
Thanks for reading. I do not deny that there would be some benefits to a merger like this. Most plans do have pros and cons, and this one is no different, but I must respectfully differ with you on which side has more weight in this instance.
I am also not suggesting that Governor Christie created the plan, but he is pushing it.
This is not so much about improving education as it is about politics, influence, and money. As the process continues on I believe that fact will become more clear. In fact, I'm going to make sure that Save Jersey helps to make that happen.
Sam, aka Chromatin1, again, you do not have your facts and clearly have some personal agenda regarding this proposed merger. This is a backroom deal to give money and control to George Norcross, someone none of us in South Jersey elected. This will not improve education in South Jersey, it will simply line George's pockets and when the dust settles, it will do as much for Camden as his "Imma buy me a hockey team" plan did for Pennsauken. It will leave the city stripped of it's established fixtures and all the worse off for it. Just wait until they start talking money. Rutgers alumni will pull their donations and the best students and faculty will leave, so they will need new sources of money to fund this merger, enter the tax payers. I do not think ANYONE is going to be happy about how much it will cost South Jersey to fund this merger that will do nothing for education, and will simply create jobs that Norcross can give to cronies as political favors.
Telling quote from Brian here:
"This is not so much about improving education as it is about politics, influence, and money"
What a telling introductory clause! Question: What if this merger IS about improving education?
Brian, you might be caught up with the name on that law degree (are you the law grad? I forget) that you can't see other things more clearly.
Another questions: What if somehow the Rutgers name was retained somehow; that, when the dust settled, Rutgers-Camden was now Rutgers-Rowan-South Jersey or something stupid like that, severed from New Brunswick, which up to this point held the purse strings and approval for every aspect of R-Camden, and was now on its own, allied with Rowan and a medical school. Would that be cool?
I mean, I think Christie is a doofus in every other regard, but it is what it is. It took a Clinton to get entitlement reform done, as opposed to a Republication; perhaps Christie has accumulated enough power to get tasks previous governors couldn't. This plan really has been around for at least a decade, complete with studies and even price tags. (And it wouldn't be cheap, this merger, something people seem to gloss over.) So the idea that Rutgers-Camden has been kept in the dark is a little spurious or intentionally naive, or maybe it's a case of sticking heads in sands. I went to Rutgers-Camden in the 80s and there was talk even then of severing ties and breaking off on our own.
Another question: If Rutgers-Camden wasn't to remain part of the Newark/New Brunsick axis, with a severe lack of sciences, well-rounded facilities, and no campus life to speak of; if they want to sacrifice self-determination for a name/prestige; if they want to watch Camden get taken over by a Rowan medical school; if they want to turn into a diploma mill, overwhelmingly white (which it is) and suburban from the surrounding counties, then fine.
Me, I think I'm blind by the excitement to change, any change, to the current state of affairs. I'd be sad to see the Rutgers name go. But that campus has potential as well as a glass ceiling, severe limitations, and it might be high time to think about a new course.
I'll stop drinking coffee now.
With all due respect, Sam, your gripes sound more personal than anything that justifies kicking Rutgers out of South Jersey. And postdocs teaching classes won't be something that's ameliorated by the merger–it'll just make it worse, since that's a fact of life at research campuses.
I hear things like this sometimes from other RUC alums (I'm one too) and I get that part of this, that it's even gotten this far, is a result of Rutgers not investing enough in the Camden campus. But they really have been putting more and more money into it over the past twenty years (which is after the time you would have left) and moved it into a doctorate level campus. I mean, for me the best outcome out of all this will it serving as a wakeup call to the RU higherups that they can't keep underserving South Jersey like they always have (and when it was a more rural area that made more sense.) But if that glass ceiling is unbreakable, well then, maybe you're right. It's hard to justify going it alone when going it alone means leaving an institution as well-respected as Rutgers, though.
Did you see the editorial Margaret Marsh wrote in the Star-Ledger? To me, a more autonomous Rutgers in South Jersey is much preferable to a South Jersey without any Rutgers presence (honestly, I'm a big believer in keeping Rutgers the only institution I can think of that represents all of us in this goofy, fractured state, and taking Rutgers out of South Jersey turns into Rutgers, The State University of North Jersey…which I know is the way it has acted like in the past.) (Whoa, long parenthetical. But do check out Marsh's piece.)
http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2012/01/dont_me…
Or just to put this another way: I get that a lot of this is the result of the admins in NB treating Camden like a colony for so long. Camden does need more resources, and South Jersey is underserved in terms of numbers of spots available (though I don't see how taking the number of university choices from two to one helps that)–Norcross is probably right about that. And Pritchett is on the Cooper board, so it's not like they don't talk to each other. I just hope Rutgers values South Jersey and their role as the statewide university system enough to keep them down here, even if it means partnering with Norcross, and doesn't just do the crass "South Jersey for the New Brunswick med school" political transaction. THAT part is definitely about politics and not education, my good Shamalamadinginton.
Thanks for taking my rant seriously. All things being equal, totally keep the Rutgers name. It would be great if it was a wakeup call for sure to get more things done at Camden. I've come back a couple times in the past 20 years, and yes, it's all great what they're doing. And it could be so much more as well. What's holding us/them back, I suspect, is Camden-weariness, sick of hearing all the mismanagement there, regarding it as not a (formerly and perhaps again) solid mid-sized city with lots of infrastructure in place to really blossom.
That Marsh article is spot-on in so many ways. I can't tell how indepedant-minded R-Camdenites are–whether they'd be willing to go it along as a Rutgers institution. My opinion is New Brunswick is all take-take-take, but that's from the 80s, when it was like getting blood from a stone to even get one dorm or new graduate programs.
Have you checked out this article?
http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2012/01/rutgers…
This guy from Newark talks about the Brunswick-centric planning and money.
Our posts crossed, but the thing that would–and there's no other way of putting it–blow is New Brunswick said, in effect, see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya. Which they totally could with all the governance and purse-string powers in place. If New Brunswick fought to keep us, then I think we'd be able to stay Rutgers. It's as simple as that.
If this was only presented as Rutgers, The State University of South Jersey, with Rowan as a school inside of it, a la Douglass and Busch under that umbrella. The Rowan School of Engineering and maybe Rowan School of Ed. I think we'd be talking about a much different reception of this whole thing.
"If New Brunswick fought to keep us, then I think we’d be able to stay Rutgers. It’s as simple as that."
I agree, and even if it's futile I'm still going to keep putting the pressure on them, and trying to get other alumni involved.
"If this was only presented as Rutgers, The State University of South Jersey, with Rowan as a school inside of it, a la Douglass and Busch under that umbrella. The Rowan School of Engineering and maybe Rowan School of Ed. I think we’d be talking about a much different reception of this whole thing."
Yep. Or Rowan, South Jersey's Rutgers campus or something. It would also be way more sensible and cheaper. And I keep thinking maybe that's what Norcross wants too–his use of the phrase "Rowan Rutgers University" in his oped. Did he just make that up, or did he run it by Pritchett and McCormick? And he has to understand it'll be easier to generate funds with SOME sort of formal Rutgers connection than trying to start from scratch.
But the Barer report seems written almost purposely to generate outrage, as it has no idea of what merging a portion of an AAU university under the name of a regional state campus even means or implies. I don't either, but I don't think it magically creates a public research university, especially if all the Rutgers faculty leaves. Plus Christie clearly doesn't really care about this at all–he's just doing a favor–and he's sort of a buffoon, so he's using the lazy "our schools are good but not great NEXT QUESTION" line to dismiss complaints.
I am certainly concerned about the name on my law degree, but my opposition to this plan goes deeper than that. I hope you will continue to come back, read, and comment regularly as this whole thing plays out. The more I learn about the merger the more my views (but continued opposition) evolve. What I think is very unfortunate is the fact that this change did not come from within the schools, but from third parties with rather interesting, self interested goals in mind.
With regard to the law school keeping the rutgers name. I am sure that would appease a lot of people, but to be honest its not the total issue. Rutgers Camden for many people of limited means in South Jersey is the only way they can attend a nationally recognized, big name school with affordable in-state tuition. Taking that option away is a disservice to so many students down here, current and future alike. As much as I take the potential change personally for what it would do to the value of my own degree, I honestly do not believe that this change would be good for the students of the region either. There must be other ways to get more resources to higher education in south jersey than consolidating power and removing choices.
I'll always take a coffee-fueled rant seriously!
Camden-weariness is a problem…and Camden is kind of a hard to solve problem. Walking around there, it still looks like a city, with a downtown and buildings and stuff, but then you remember that anyone with any money left long ago and the mismanagement–well, who knows if it's really mismanaged? Even Cory Booker couldn't do much with the remaining Camden taxbase.
And I did see that article too! Notice that a Newark dean and a Camden dean have pretty similar complaints. That article also points out the strange structure of Rutgers, three institutions with one administration. If Rutgers wants to keep being statewide (and I hope they do), they have to start letting the colonies do more stuff on their own (remember, Norcross went to Rutgers after UMDNJ turned him down, and Camden was for it but McCormick couldn't do it allegedly because people in NB wanted that campus to have a med school first.) Or else the colonies will rebel. And–again–due to the Pritchett-Norcross ties, I think this is, if not a rebellion, than a ploy to get NB to make a decision about how it wants to proceed in South Jersey.
Totally agree with your points, Brian, especially the "it's just not about the name" thing–it's about knowing you were taught by Rutgers faculty, held to Rutgers standards of scholarship. I was a nontraditional student myself and I really appreciate the opportunity RU-Camden gave me and I want South Jerseyans who, you know, maybe don't have the parents to send them off to New Brunswick for four years to keep having that opportunity. Not to speak for him, but I think Shamalamadinginton's point was more how we got to this point where a local political boss COULD think the Camden campus was a low-lying fruit he could pick off, and some of that has to do with underinvestment from the central admin. We're lucky that that admin HAS been bringing the bucks in recent years, so McCormick could note that "$100 million in the past five years" figure or whatever it was.
I attend Rutgers-Camden and I can proudly say that my education is not mediocre. I am sure I could find one or two students from Rowan who would be willing to bash the institution as the Chem grad did against Camden, but that would not make up my mind about a giant merger proposal. We may be a small campus, but we have great programs and means to a well deserved education. Rutgers has brought a lot to the Camden community. As separate universities, Rowan and Rutgers have both developed well over the years despite a dwindling economy. The merger may sound like a good idea in theory, but for it to actually happen smoothly is another case. Instead, a consortium plan should be thought of instead. This way, the medical aspect that Rowan needs would be accomplished while South Jersey allows two universities to develop further while keeping their own identities. If Christie wanted to help South Jersey's research he would not take away a world-renowned university name and have it replaced.
The petition against the merger has already received close to 7,000 and can be found at http://www.r2rmerge.com/
I can not speak for the chemestry department, but the English department has a MacArthur genius award recipient. This is not a mediocre education these students are receiving. As well, based on your horrible grammar, I'd say your school is downright aweful in the English department, so please do your research before posting.
If you're going to trash someone's "english," then make sure your spelling is correct. Apparently yours is "aweful."
It's actually the History Department that has the Mac Genius. And not anymore — he's off to a job in Cali.
I am a member of the Cherry Hill Area Tea Party's steering committee and am very interested in this issue. Does anyone know of a speaker that can speak to our tea party on this issue?
I will look into it and get back to you, if you could send me an email with your contact info that would be great.
LOL yes, and Chirstie's exchange would have goettn him the same contempt order. Chirsite is more of a horses ass than even I figured him to be. It doesn't matter what Brown did or didn't do. Christie is SUPPOSED to conduct himself with a little more decorum (yeah, right) than anyone since he is the elected Governor Brown is a citizen of NJ, but he certainly doesn't. I can't wait to vote him out of office next year.
Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one!
It's on a totally different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Superb choice of colors!
Hello there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew
where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding one?
Thanks a lot!
Save Rutgers: Some Rowan Perspective (Merger Meeting Minutes from November 2011) | Save Jersey
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