Higher Ed News

Officials discuss compromise in Rutgers-Rowan merger: A combined institution with an independent board

May 15, 2012

By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

A tentative compromise is in the works that could save the controversial propsosal to merge Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University, higher education officials said today. The framework for the deal calls for creation of a combined institution in South Jersey that would be controlled by an independent board but retain some form of the Rutgers name, the officials said.
Under the plan, negotiated behind the scenes by a group of state lawmakers and university officials, Rutgers would still oversee how degrees are awarded and other academic issues but would have no authority over day-to-day operations of its Camden campus, those involved in the talks say.
“There is a conceptual plan,” said Peter McDonough, Rutgers’ vice president for public affairs and one of those involved in the talks. “We think we’ve got a loose framework.”
The plan still faces review by Rutgers’ governing boards and Gov. Chris Christie, who has pushed for the merger and so far has given no indication he is willing to compromise on the plan — which has faced strong opposition on the Rutgers-Camden campus and among many in the Legislature.
Several top lawmakers and university officials — including Rutgers President Richard McCormick, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), state Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett and Rutgers Board of Governors members Ralph Izzo and Joseph J. Roberts Jr. — have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors and by telephone to come up with a compromise.
George Norcross, the powerful South Jersey political boss and the brother of Donald Norcross, has also been pushing all parties to salvage parts of Christie’s merger plan and create a unified research university based in Camden.
“I actually am involved in trying to form an agreement here,” George Norcross said during an editorial board meeting today at The Star-Ledger’s offices in Newark. “I am trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
Norcross said he suggested the new Camden school to be named “Rowan-Rutgers University.” But others involved in negotiating the compromise said no name has been chosen.
Those involved said many details about the compromise still needed to be worked out and there is no written proposal yet to present to Christie, the Legislature or the Rowan and Rutgers governing boards.

More>>

Rutgers: Framework in place for university shift

May 14, 2012

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

Rutgers University officials said Monday a new framework is in place for the university to keep its campus in Camden rather than see it folded into another state university under a plan backed by Gov. Chris Christie.

Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett said in a statement Monday that the plan would give his campus more administrative and budgetary autonomy from Rutgers’ main campus in New Brunswick. The school also would “engage in a deep and meaningful partnership with Rowan University,” Pritchett said.

The plan, which was first reported by The Star-Ledger of Newark, is an alternative to one to merge Rutgers’ Camden campus into Rowan as part of a broader reorganization of higher education institutions in the state. Christie, a Republican, has said he wants the changes to take effect by July 1 though it’s certain that implementing the details would take well beyond then, possibly several years.

Rutgers-Camden students, faculty and alumni mostly oppose the merger, as does Rutgers’ Board of Trustees. They object to losing the respected Rutgers identity and say there would be problems in combining a campus of a research university with a state university that’s primarily a teaching university.

Christie has not signed off on the alternative plan, which is being hashed out by a group of lawmakers and higher education officials. Rutgers Vice President of Public Affairs Peter McDonough said that the new concept isn’t in writing.

It’s unclear how likely the proposal is to be implemented.

More>>

Video: George Norcross: I support the merger

May 14, 2012

How Corporations Like Monsanto Have Hijacked Higher Education

May 14, 2012

By Jill Richardson

Academic research is often dictated by corporations that endow professorships, give money to universities, and put their executives on education boards.

Here’s what happens when corporations begin to control education.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock/mostafa fawzy

“When I approached professors to discuss research projects addressing organic agriculture in farmer’s markets, the first one told me that ‘no one cares about people selling food in parking lots on the other side of the train tracks,’” said a PhD student at a large land-grant university who did not wish to be identified. “My academic adviser told me my best bet was to write a grant for Monsanto or the Department of Homeland Security to fund my research on why farmer’s markets were stocked with ‘black market vegetables’ that ‘are a bioterrorism threat waiting to happen.’ It was communicated to me on more than one occasion throughout my education that I should just study something Monsanto would fund rather than ideas to which I was deeply committed. I ended up studying what I wanted, but received no financial support, and paid for my education out of pocket.”

Unfortunately, she’s not alone. Conducting research requires funding, and today’s research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules.

More>>

A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College

May 14, 2012

By ANDREW MARTIN and ANDREW W. LEHREN

Photographs by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times and Ty William Wright for The New York Times Taking on debt has become a central part of the college experience for many students.

ADA, Ohio — Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents. Her mother, who co-signed on the loans, is taking out a life insurance policy on her daughter.

“If anything ever happened, God forbid, that is my debt also,” said Ms. Griffith’s mother, Marlene Griffith.

More>>

RVCC adjuncts eye raises, too

May 14, 2012

Written by Sergio Bichao

BRANCHBURG — They teach the most classes and are probably seen by the most students, but unlike their full-time counterparts, the adjunct professors at Raritan Valley Community College are afraid they won’t get a raise.

The college of Somerset and Hunterdon counties recently settled contracts with its full-time professors, administrators and staff, awarding them a 3 percent raise next year and no raise this year.

The negotiations come as students face a $450 tuition hike next year.

The counties slashed their tax-funded support of the school by 5 percent this year, contributing to a $3 million budget shortfall for the school.

RVCC’s $49 million budget calls for the elimination of 12 full-time administrative and staff positions, which have not been identified, spokeswoman Donna Stolzer said Friday.

School officials declined to comment on ongoing negotiations, but union officials this week said the administration was pushing for new raises for the adjunct faculty, which teach nearly 55 percent of the classes at RVCC and who outnumber the full-time professors 441 to 122, according to the school.

More>>

Higher ed protest deserved balanced coverage

May 11, 2012

On April 25 my colleagues and I participated in a statewide coordinated “Day of Action” to protest draconian proposals from the Governor’s Office of Employment Relations, which would significantly weaken teaching and learning conditions in New Jersey’s institutions of higher education. The governor’s office has taken the unprecedented action of withholding cost of living increases and suspending traditional academic programs such as sabbatical leave and career development undermining the research missions at the nine state colleges and universities and further challenging a system of higher education already seriously impacted by years of underfunding and neglect from the state.

Much to my dismay the NJTV coverage of that event in a segment titled, “Professors protest at New Jersey’s universities” the next day offered no voices from the thousands of, faculty, professional staff, librarians and students who participated in the demonstrations across the state. It should be noted here that it was not simply a faculty protest as presented, but one where faculty, professional staff and librarians who have been working without a contract since July 1 stood side by side with students and spoke with one voice standing up for higher education funding and against the rising tuition and mounting student debt. However, instead of a balanced and factual report on NJTV, there was a five-minute interview with the President of William Paterson University who briefly presented only one side of the issue.

I urge your readers to instead listen to the voices of labor on our web site at http://www.aftlocal1904.org and at the Council of New Jersey State College Local’s website http://www.cnjscl.org and see that the students, faculty, librarians, and professional staff at the nine state colleges and universities have legitimate concerns about how the state is treating our latest round of contract negotiations. The future quality of higher education in New Jersey rests in the balance.

NJTV replaced the public NJN news last year, profiting from taxpayer Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding in a deal that was fraught with political overtones. The parent company, WNET, leases space at Montclair State University for their broadcasts. Even though it may be beholden to the Office of the Governor for the sweetheart deal that created it, NJTV has an obligation to cover New Jersey fairly and should tell both sides of the story.

Richard Wolfson
President
AFT Local 1904

from http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012305100007&nclick_check=1

Bergen professor accused of grade fixing

May 11, 2012

By Patricia Alex, Staff Writer, The Record

The longtime, outspoken president of the faculty union at Bergen Community College was suspended without pay Thursday over allegations that he enlisted others to tamper with his granddaughter’s grades.

FILE PHOTO Bergen Community College in Paramus.

Trustees at the school also voted unanimously to bring tenure charges against the instructor, Peter Helff, that could lead to his dismissal after 42 years at the school.

Helff’s attorney, Robert Fagella, said his client had been “targeted,” and warned that the trustees “are going to be in for a real fight.”

The sanctions were levied after a five-month investigation by former Superior Court Judge Ross Anzaldi in which 27 people were interviewed, said John Schepisi, the attorney for the board. The trustees took action based on a report prepared by Anzaldi.

“It’s apparent that there was a flagrant violation by Peter Helff of policies and procedures for his benefit and the benefit of his granddaughter,” said Malcolm Curtis, head of the board’s personnel committee.

Fagella said Schepisi denied him a copy of the report, which has not yet been made public.

“You’ve placed us in a situation in which it’s impossible to defend ourselves,” Fagella told the board. Schepisi said the report would be available within a few days, although the board took public action on it Thursday.

At the meeting, the normally voluble Helff gave only a brief statement: “I’ve been here 42 years and I’ve been a target for most of them.”

More>>

Magnifying the clout of part-timers

May 09, 2012

Bergen faculty vote for 10th adjunct union in New Jersey

ADJUNCT FACULTY at Bergen Community College in New Jersey have voted to join the AFT. Their new local chapter is the 10th adjunct union the state, sending a clear message that all faculty, including those who work part time deserve collective bargaining rights and a fair say in determining pay rates, benefits and working conditions.

More>>

Trustees look the other way on presidential fraud

May 09, 2012

Students and faculty ask why academic integrity rules don’t apply at the top

WHEN TALKING ABOUT FRAUD in New Jersey, the trail of cynicism goes all the way to the top.

For example, in a trailer for the recently released documentary “The Soprano State,” the governor himself acknowledges, “When people talk about New Jersey, they bring up one of two things: Political corruption or ‘The Sopranos.’”

Still, on the campus of Kean University, allegations that the university president, Dawood Farahi, has violated the academic integrity rules of the university are upsetting everyone-students and faculty-execept those who would be held accountable, i.e., the administration and the board of trustees. Farahi is alleged to have lied repeatedly on his resumes, going as far back as 1983.

More>>