Philadelphia Inquirer | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Rutgers-Camden, Rowan may marry, but they should keep their names

January 31, 2012

Kevin Riordan, Inquirer Columnist

Gov. Christie’s proposal to “merge” Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University under the Rowan name looks less like a collegial partnership and more like a hostile takeover. Or perhaps a shotgun wedding.

Whatever you call it, the plan – part of an effort to reorganize, if not revolutionize, higher education statewide – feels like a foregone conclusion.

It arrived last week, floating on promises of more money, more jobs, more . . . more. And like so many decisions with enormous consequences for Camden, it appears to have been made with little input from people who live or work there.

Is it possible Camden and South Jersey would be better served by linking Rutgers and Rowan in a way that retains their identities? Could the schools gain academic and economic clout in a merger that more resembled a collaboration?

A “consortium,” such as that proposed by the Rutgers-Camden faculty, could combine some programs at the universities, leveraging strengths but maintaining separate operations.

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Rutgers-Camden students mobilize to oppose Christie’s merger plan

January 31, 2012

By James Osborne, Inquirer Staff Writer

Rutgers-Camden students mobilize to oppose Christie's merger plan

Amid the throngs of students filling the campus center at Rutgers-Camden on Monday, one weaved in and out, slipping a flier into their hands.

It wasn’t advertising a fraternity party or a lecture; it contained instructions on how to oppose Gov. Christie’s plan to take their school out of the Rutgers system and merge it with Rowan University:

Sign an online petition, e-mail government officials, and so on.

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Inquirer Editorial: Rowan merger with Rutgers-Camden makes sense

January 27, 2012

The third time could be the charm for the long-debated realignment of New Jersey’s major university, with the added bonus that this time South Jersey will get a chance to compete for top academic honors.

Gov. Christie’s ringing endorsement Wednesday of a plan to have Rowan University take over the Camden campus of Rutgers University — while the University of Medicine and Dentistry merges with Rutgers — could jump-start hopes of making better sense of the state’s sprawling higher-education network.

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Christie backs overhaul of New Jersey’s university system

January 27, 2012

By James Osborne, Inquirer Staff Writer

Gov. Christie offered a proposal Wednesday to overhaul the state’s university system, merging schools from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry, and creating a research university in South Jersey.

Rowan University – just 20 years ago a former teachers’ college known as Glassboro State – would take over Rutgers-Camden. The combined campus would include a soon-to-open medical school affiliated with Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

The mergers would represent a historic change to the structure of higher education in New Jersey. Whole institutions would shift between universities, and schools with decades of history and extensive alumni networks would disappear in name.

And staff at the universities, hospitals, and affiliated institutions – which numbers in the thousands – could face layoffs as programs are reconfigured.

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Merger proposed for Rowan, Rutgers-Camden

January 25, 2012

By James Osborne, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Gov. Christie announced plans Wednesday to overhaul the state’s university system, merging schools from Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry and creating a research university in South Jersey.

The plan would shift whole schools between university administrations and potentially mean staff layoffs, a possibility Christie did not rule out at a news conference Wednesday in Trenton.

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States weaken teacher tenure rights

January 25, 2012

Kimberly Hefling, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – America’s public school teachers are seeing their generations-old tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers who aren’t performing. A few states have essentially nullified tenure protections altogether, according to an analysis being released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The changes are occurring as states replace virtually automatic “satisfactory” teacher evaluations with those linked to teacher performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority. Politically powerful teachers’ unions are fighting back, arguing the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process, and unfairly target older teachers.

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Parents: New education bill would hurt public schools

December 01, 2011

By Samantha Henry, Associated Press

JULIO CORTEZ / Associated Press Luz Mayi, a community member in Jersey City, N.J., talks during a rally against the use of taxpayer-funded vouchers for religious and private schools on Wednesday.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Education activists and parents rallied Wednesday against a bill that would allow the use of taxpayer-funded vouchers for religious and private schools, calling it “a backdoor way to privatization” of public schools.

Several said the program would drain resources from poorer districts and undercut initiatives aimed at improving public schools.

Parent Luz Mayi, who said her seven children, ages 14 to 35, attended parochial and public schools in Jersey City, said supporters of the voucher program were disingenuous in trying to sell it as an attempt to give parents school choice. The proposal would not allow children with less-than-stellar grades, special needs, language barriers, or other obstacles to be accepted at any school, she said.

“It would hurt children in public schools,” Mayi said. “To me, that’s a crime, and you’re abusing people who can’t defend themselves, children.”

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Pa. vouchers are not for the kids

November 02, 2011

“This has nothing to do with helping the poor children of Philadelphia,” said State Sen. Daylin Leach. “The organizations that are funding the pro-voucher movement are very open that they want to eliminate public schools.”

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What if Pa. just stopped funding universities?

November 02, 2011

All this was just a prelude to the really big idea that the [PA Governor Corbett] governor volunteered. He told me, “There is a school of thought there that we shouldn’t fund the schools at all. This is going to blow everybody’s mind – we should fund the students.” That’s certainly a different and unique approach.

He fleshed out this idea by saying that we could “do our own Pennsylvania education bill. Take all the money that we would send to all those schools, put it in one package and give it to Pennsylvania students to go to Pennsylvania schools – and they can attend any school. It can be a private school; it could be a state school. It could also be a technical school, because we need more people in the trades, more people in the technical area.”

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Ex-Chairman Archie and State Rep. Evans maneuvered over who would get MLK High contract, a report asserts

September 23, 2011

Martha Woodall and Susan Snyder

Inquirer Staff Writers

State Rep. Dwight Evans and Robert L. Archie Jr., former chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, waged a relentless Godfather-style campaign to ensure that a New Jersey nonprofit would win a contract to manage Martin Luther King High School and, when that failed, pressured the Atlanta company that won the contract to back out.

A stunning report released Thursday by the city’s chief integrity officer, Joan Markman, reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvers by Evans and Archie in a tug-of-war with the School District in March and April over who would run King.

Drawing on e-mails, documents, and interviews with more than 30 people who were either involved or witnessed the power struggle, the report provides a glimpse into backroom politics. According to the report, Archie, in one closed-door meeting, told an official from the Atlanta educational company that “this is Philadelphia and suggested that things are different here.”

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