Month: March 2012

Column by JOHN SCHOONEJONGEN

You can say what you want about U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, but the man knows how to deliver a punch. And, even at age 88, he’s lost none of his zest for political street brawls.

Lautenberg, a Democrat who first won election to the Senate in 1982, will be 90 if he chooses to run in 2014, and he’s giving the impression that he’s not in any mood to ride off into the sunset.…

Written by JIM WALSH. Courier-Post Staff

GLASSBORO — Rowan University’s top official on Friday said a financial-aid imbalance exists between his school and Rutgers-Camden, but asserted that would be addressed after a planned merger between the two institutions.

Ali Houshmand, Rowan’s interim president, raised the issue in a letter to U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, who has requested a federal review of the proposed merger.…

By Bob Ingle

TRENTON — The people opposed to the merger of Rowan University and Rutgers-Camden are questioning whether Gov. Christie can do that on his own. There also are questions about whether Jon Corzine had authority to create Cooper Medical School at Rowan, which fits into all this.

The Office of Legislative Services, an arm of the Legislature, said that Christie can’t use a 1969 law that empowers the governor to reorganize state departments with modest legislative input.…

Letters to the Editor/Gloucester County Times

Editor’s note: This was written in response to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s call on Monday for the U.S. secretary of education to look into the plan to merge Rutgers University-Camden into Rowan University. Lautenberg’s letter, in part, stated that “suspicions have been raised that this decision has been crafted to benefit powerful political interests without regard for the impact of students, the academic institutions themselves, and the community … ”
In addition to Sweeney, D-3, of West Deptford, the open letter below carried the signatures of about two dozen South Jersey elected officials, mainly Democrats in the state Legislature.…

By Max Pizarro
[…] Yet Lautenberg forces, on the strength of the comptroller report, remained determined to show how Norcross’ money has damaged the moral credibility of the party, creating an opportunity for Christie and the GOP. They see the issues of Rowan/Rutgers and the DRPA as relted, citing a troubling link between the port authority and empowering another Norcross-run institution.…

By Beth Defalco, Associated Press

MANCHESTER, N.J. (WTW) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suggested Thursday that U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg should retire, saying the 88-year-old statesman should be ashamed of himself for opposing a plan to merge two South Jersey universities.

Earlier this week, Lautenberg, a Democrat, wrote a letter to the U.S. education secretary requesting a federal review of a plan to merge Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University, suggesting it was meant as nothing more than a power grab by South Jersey political power broker George Norcross in order boost the credit rating of Rowan, which has reached a borrowing limit in its commitment to build the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.…

Sweeney dismisses Lautenberg statement as ‘uninformed and vengeful,’ while Christie likens north Jersey Democrats to ‘pigs at a trough’ — and that’s for starters
By Colleen O’Dea

Credit: Amanda Brown
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester)
The proposed takeover of Rutgers’ Camden campus by Rowan University has sparked off something of a Civil War in New Jersey — and kicked off the 2014 campaign for one of the state’s seats in the U.S.…

By Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist

Gov. Chris Christie and Camden County Democratic political boss George Norcross, neither known for expertise in higher education, are pushing through a plan to transform a former state teachers college, Rowan University, into “major public research university.”

It will cost a lot of money.

What do we know about how this plan will work?…

Union’s white paper examines how universities will split outstanding debt

By Colleen O’Dea

A union representing healthcare workers is raising more concerns over the proposed restructuring of higher education in New Jersey, including questions about the apportionment of debt between Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

A white paper titled “The Reorganization of UMDNJ: Getting it Right” by the Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), representing 4,000 nurses, medical researchers, and other health professionals at UMDNJ, poses 65 questions it contends need answering before the university should be carved up, with pieces given to Rutgers.…

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday said he will ask the state attorney general and the governor’s counsel whether he has the power to revamp the state’s higher education system without approval from the state Legislature.
The governor will make the request after a report by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services concluded he will need will need legislation for the reorganization, citing a recent appeals court decision that prohibited his office from unilaterally dismantling the Council on Affordable Housing.…

By Max Pizarro

With a U.S. Senate account already open, state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) stood squarely in U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) wheel house this morning in a fierce intra-party flareup over the proposed Rowan takeover of Rutgers-Camden.

More…