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A U.-TURN IN CAMDEN: Rutgers fights to stay Rutgers

February 03, 2012

BY JASON NARK, Philadelphia Daily News

AN ENORMOUS book sits on a shelf near my Rutgers-Camden diploma, just a few steps from the closet where my old black-and-red Rutgers wrestling singlet lies stuffed inside a duffel bag.

One of my semesters there was spent studying Milton’s Paradise Lost, lugging that book around like a slab of granite. I never really gave Milton a chance and never won a wrestling match there, but eventually I forged a love for words and language in those Camden classrooms.

Yesterday hundreds of students, faculty and alums gathered inside the Walter K. Gordon Theater, most dressed in Rutgers scarlet, all concerned that their small campus, their paradise near the Ben Franklin Bridge, was being threatened by Gov. Christie and by South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III.

Last week, Christie put his stamp of approval on an advisory committee’s proposal to merge the Camden campus of New Brunswick-based Rutgers University into Glassboro-based Rowan University. Rutgers would become Rowan, the committee said, to create an “expanded research university in Southern New Jersey.” There was little detail and plenty of controversy.

Norcross is board chairman of Cooper University Hospital, in Camden, home to Rowan’s new medical school. Many observers think that he’s trying to get the research-university status from Rutgers and increased funding for the medical school. Christie denied that Norcross was “behind the curtain” in the plan. Norcross didn’t call me back, but in a recent gushing op-ed about the “merger” in the Courier-Post, Norcross came across like a modern-day Harold Hill from “The Music Man,” promising renaissances, new eras and rivers of money flowing down from Trenton.

Rutgers scarlet would become Rowan brown and gold – and the Rutgers name would be gone, which baffles me along with at least a couple of hundred other people. Norcross is a Rutgers-Camden dropout, but one would think that he’s savvy enough to know the cachet that the Rutgers name has across the country.

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Rutgers-Camden chancellor denounces merger plan

February 03, 2012

By James Osborne, Inquirer Staff Writer

SARAH J. GLOVER / Staff PhotographerRutgers-Camden chancellor Wendell E. Pritchett: "I am opposed."

Rutgers-Camden chancellor Wendell E. Pritchett: “I am opposed.”

Rutgers-Camden chancellor Wendell E. Pritchett spoke out forcefully Thursday against Gov. Christie’s plan to merge the school into Rowan University, adding his weight to a movement within the state’s flagship university to try to block the proposal.

Later in the day, Richard McCormick, president of the Rutgers system, issued a statement saying he had spoken with Pritchett and “shared many of his concerns.”

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Proposed Realigning of New Jersey Campuses Spurs Protests and Charges of Cronyism

February 03, 2012

By Eric Kelderman

New Jersey is joining the list of states considering merging and consolidating public universities—with a distinctly Garden State twist.

An advisory committee, formed originally to consider what to do with the troubled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has recommended shifting control of several campuses around the state.

The panel’s final report, which Gov. Christopher J. Christie endorsed last month, includes a recommendation to give control of Rutgers University’s Camden campus, including its law and business schools, to Rowan University, a midsize public regional institution located nearly 20 miles away in Glassboro.

Controversy erupted almost immediately over the recommendations, with charges that the Republican governor is trying to reward a powerful political ally at the expense of the state’s top-tier public research university.

The panel explained its recommendation as a way to enhance higher-education offerings in southern New Jersey and spur economic development. But students, faculty, and administrators at the Camden branch of Rutgers are all protesting a merger with Rowan, arguing that the move would diminish the reputation of the Rutgers campus solely to improve the future prospects of Rowan’s medical school, set to open later this year.

And even some legislators are criticizing the recommendations as short-sighted. Lawmakers have already scheduled hearings on the matter.

“I don’t think the task force did a half-ass job,” said the State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, who opposes many of the proposed changes. “They did three-quarters-ass job.”

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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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Lawsuits threatened over planned merger between Rowan and Rutgers-Camden

January 30, 2012

EILEEN STILWELL, Courier-Post Staff

A plan to roll Rutgers-Camden and Rowan into a single university under the Rowan banner could produce a barrage of lawsuits from Rutgers faculty, according to a union leader at the Camden campus.

“We are very much outraged by this proposal for many reasons. We think it’s fraudulent for one nonprofit, as in Rutgers, to dispose of its assets to another nonprofit, i.e. Rowan,” said Janet Golden, a professor of history at Rutgers-Camden.

“We also believe it’s illegal because everyone here with tenure is protected. Lots of lawsuits will follow because professors are granted tenure exclusively to Rutgers,” said Golden, a member of the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers.

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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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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RU to become RU? Rowan may absorb Rutgers-Camden

January 27, 2012

CAMDEN — Gov. Chris Christie unveiled a plan Wednesday to merge Rutgers-Camden into Rowan University, but the proposal didn’t get high marks from everyone involved.

Rutgers-Camden could become part of Rowan. / JOSE F. MORENO/Courier-Post

While Rowan officials praised the governor’s announcement, the top administrator at Rutgers University issued a tepid response. And students at both schools criticized the plan.

“The governor has taken the liberty of messing with South Jersey. Why is he destroying and devaluing the one thing Camden has?” asked Jeremy Abay, a student at Rutgers School of Law. The law school and Rutgers School of Business would become part of Rowan under the plan.

The combined institution, to be called Rowan University, would be based in Glassboro and Camden.

The proposed merger was among multiple changes recommended to Christie by a committee that considered ways to improve higher education in New Jersey, particularly for medicine.

The committee, which was formed in May of last year, initially considered changes that would involve the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. At Christie’s request, the panel broadened its focus in September to include the South Jersey colleges.

Christie backed all of the committee’s recommendations, including a call to give more independence to UMDNJ’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. UMDNJ officials said they “respectfully disagree” with that idea.

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Hearings sought on higher ed

January 27, 2012

Reorganization plan faces review
Jim Walsh, Staff Writer
TRENTON — The head of the state Senate’s Higher Education Committee on Thursday said she wants to hold hearings on a proposed reorganization of higher-education institutions across the state.

01.24.12 Glassboro; New Campus buildings at Rowan University, including the new Barnes and Noble Book Store. / Al Schell/Courier-Post

Sen. Sandra Bolden Cunningham, D-Hudson, said hearings are needed for “a complete understanding of the statewide benefits and implications” of the plan, which was unveiled by Gov. Chris Christie one day earlier.

Among other changes, Christie’s plan calls for Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University to be “fully integrated” in South Jersey. The resulting school would take Rowan’s name, according to Christie’s plan.

State Sen. Donald Norcross, D-Camden, said any combination of the South Jersey schools should be “an equal joining of these institutions, not a folding of one into the other.”

Norcross also said the name of the surviving school “must be respectful of both distinguished universities” and its governing body “should reflect the interests and diversity of both communities.”

His brother, Cooper University Hospital George E. Norcross III, on Wednesday praised the proposed development of a research university in South Jersey, saying that would “transform education” and “ignite the economy.” The combined school would include the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, now under way in Camden.

Camden Mayor Dana Redd on Thursday said she is still reviewing the proposal, but that, “upon first look,” it could promote growth in the city’s university district and other areas, and that it could bolster the city’s position as a center for graduate studies in law, business and medicine.

In her statement, Cunningham focused on the plan’s potential impact on University Hospital in Newark. “It is imperative that we approach these changes with caution,” she said, expressing concern over the long-term impact on patients and medical students at the Newark institution.

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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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