Star Ledger | American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

Growing resentment evident in overwhelming vote to cut Rutgers athletic budget, faculty say

February 02, 2012

By Jarrett Renshaw/Statehouse Bureau

Mike Roy/The Star-LedgerRutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti appears in this January file photo.

NEW BRUNSWICK — Battered by budget and salary cuts as spending on sports increases each year, faculty at Rutgers University’s school of the Arts and Sciences Wednesday called for cutting university subsidies to the athletic department and giving students a voice in how their money is spent.

Faculty members who packed Voorhees Hall said the 174-3 vote shows their growing resentment over pumping millions into an athletic department that is among the biggest money-losers in the nation.

“There is deep and broad dissatisfaction among the faculty with the decisions the board of governors have made, the direction the administration has pursued and the catastrophic failure and waste of the athletic program,” Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry, told the crowd of professors.

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Rutgers University faculty calls for cuts to athletic department subsidies

February 01, 2012

By Jarrett Renshaw/Statehouse Bureau

Tom Wright-Piersanti/The Star-Ledger. Old Queens on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick.

NEW BRUNSWICK — Battered by budget and salary cuts, the faculty at Rutgers University’s school of the Arts and Sciences overwhelmingly supported a resolution today that called for cutting university subsidies to the athletic department and giving students a voice in how their money is spent.

The resolution, which passed by a vote of 174-3, symbolizes the faculty’s growing resentment over the athletic department’s increased consumption of university dollars that could otherwise be used for academics. Budget cuts forced faculty to forgo raises and even office phones.

“This is an unmistakably clear expression of how the faculty feels,” said Mark Killingsworth, a economics professor who has pushed for the resolution since the fall. “Parents got to know that the value of a Rutgers degree is under threat.”

The school of arts and sciences, which includes departments like history and economics, has a faculty of 910 professors, which account for about half of all professors at the New Brunswick campus.

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Christie plan for university reshuffling means another chapter for Rowan

January 30, 2012

GLASSBORO — Twenty years ago, Rowan University’s reputation was synonymous with its teachers college, which prepared hundreds of elementary and special education instructors for South Jersey classrooms each year.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerThe Cooper Medical School of Rowan University is currently under construction in Camden. The building will house the first new medical school on the state in 30 years.

Back then, the school in Glassboro was known as Glassboro State College, and students looking for a bustling college town with a robust nightlife or a research institution with endless courses of study had to look elsewhere.

The run-down Gloucester County college town, once buoyed by a glass-manufacturing industry, was surrounded by peach orchards and featured two pizza joints, one bar and a lot of empty storefronts. The closest movie theater was 15 minutes away in Deptford.

Today, Rowan is a school transformed.

A $100 million gift in the early 1990s by engineer and businessman Henry Rowan kick-started a revival of both college and town, and a plan Gov. Chris Christie unveiled last week to dramatically change the state’s university system means another restructuring is on the way.

Christie’s plan calls for Rowan to take over the nearby Camden campus of Rutgers University, including its law and business schools. The plan also allows Rowan to maintain control of its new medical school, which is set to open in September.
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Not everyone is convinced about the benefits of the restructuring plan. Rutgers-Camden’s faculty union released a statement condemning the plan to strip the campus of its Rutgers title.

The union instead called on legislators to endorse a “consortium model” that would allow Rutgers Camden and Rowan to share some services while maintaining their distinction.

“The loss of the Rutgers brand name for South Jersey, and the unnecessary costs of merger, would do more harm than good,” said Patrick Nowlan, executive director of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT.

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Obama to colleges: Stop increasing tuition prices

January 29, 2012

By The Associated Press

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to students at the University of Michigan January 27, 2012 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Obama spoke about college affordability to the crowd of more than 3,000 students, saying that he is pressuring Congress for new initiatives.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — President Barack Obama fired a warning at the nation’s colleges and universities Friday, threatening to strip their federal aid if they “jack up tuition” every year and to give the money instead to schools showing restraint and value.

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Star Ledger Editorial: Investigation of Kean president the best way to settle dispute

January 27, 2012

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger. Dawood Farahi, Kean University president

The last thing New Jersey needs is another public official lying about his past. We’ve had our fill of people who should know better than to shade the truth to their advantage, followed by the tepid non-apology when they get caught. It usually begins “Mistakes were made … ”

That’s why it’s disheartening to hear the faculty union charges against Kean University president Dawood Farahi.

Union president James Castiglione says Farahi misrepresented his academic credentials, listing articles he claimed he wrote as a paid consultant that were never published in academic journals, among other things. “He lied on his résumé, and these are egregious violations of academic integrity,” Castiglione said.

The Kean board of trustees has launched an investigation.

These charges don’t come out of thin air. A large segment of the faculty has been highly critical of Farahi and gave him a vote of no confidence in 2010.

Farahi has made some unpopular changes since he took office in 2003.

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Dramatic restructuring of N.J.’s university system would create 3 research campuses

January 26, 2012

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie unveiled a dramatic restructuring of New Jersey’s university system Wednesday that would break up the state’s medical university while creating a major new public research campus at Rowan University in South Jersey.

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Presidential search committee named at New Jersey City University

January 18, 2012

By The Jersey Journal

Jersey Journal file photoPresident Carlos Hernandez, Ph.D., speaks during the NJCU Commencement at the Izod Center on Wednesday, May 12, 2010. The college has announced the formation of a search committee to find a replacement for Hernandez, who is retiring on July 1.

A presidential search committee has been appointed at New Jersey City University to find a replacement for President Carlos Hernandez, who is retiring at the end of the school year, the school announced this afternoon.

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N.J. officials tell 200 school board members to step down after failing to complete background check

January 12, 2012

By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger

Patti Sapone/The Star-LedgerNearly 200 school board members must "immediately vacate their position" after failing to complete a background check mandated under a new state law.

TRENTON — Nearly 200 school board members must “immediately vacate their position” after failing to complete a background check mandated under a new state law, a state Department of Education spokesman said today.

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Chris Christie repeats misleading statistic on Newark’s high school graduation rate

January 06, 2012

Pants on Fire

Gov. Chris Christie pushes his plans to reform New Jersey public schools using student performance in urban school districts as one of his statistical battering rams, but consistently misrepresents the high school graduation rate of the state’s largest district.

Christie claims fewer than 25 percent of freshmen in Newark high schools graduate in four years. PolitiFact New Jersey debunked similar statements twice — first in June, then again in November. But the governor hasn’t learned his lesson and keeps repeating the statistic.

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Rutgers president list down to several dozen candidates

December 31, 2011

By Nic Corbett/The Star-Ledger

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg. Greg Brown, chief executive officer of Motorola Solutions and chairman of the search committee for the next president of Rutgers, said the committee has narrowed a list of 250 nominations down to dozens of interested candidates.

NEW BRUNSWICK — The search for the next president of Rutgers University is expected to heat up significantly in the next two to three months.

The 24-member search committee has collected more than 250 nominations for the next president of the 58,000-student university and narrowed down the list to several dozen interested candidates, said chairman Greg Brown, chief executive officer of Motorola Solutions.

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