By Kelly Heyboer and Mike Frassinelli/The Star-Ledger
The grants range from $101,060 for technology upgrades to classrooms at Rowan University, to $86.3 million to transform a New Jersey Institute of Technology building into a hub for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
In all, 176 higher education capital construction projects worth $1.3 billion have been approved, in what Gov.…
Read MoreAssociated Press
TRENTON — A New Jersey lawmaker wants to dock Rutgers $2.1 million for the money it paid to a basketball coach who was fired and two university administrators who resigned during a scandal earlier this month.
Sen. Joe Pennacchio, a Republican from Montville, says it’s not fair to make taxpayers or students pick up the tab for what he calls brazen payouts.…
Read MoreBy Patricia Alex, Staff Writer, The Record.
The projected cost for the state’s massive higher education reorganization has grown to more than $100 million, according to officials from the public universities involved — a burden that many fear will be shifted, despite assurances from school leaders, onto those who pay tuition.
No funding for the merger plan has been included in the state budget, leaving it to the schools — Rutgers University, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rowan University — to absorb the one-time expenses.…
Read MoreBy Alexa Offenhauer, The Record.
Alexa Offenhauer is an adjunct English instructor at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg and a member of the American Federation of Teachers.
AT A RECENT town hall event at Raritan Valley Community College, I was given the opportunity to ask Governor Christie a question.
It was one I’d sworn I would not take.…
Read MoreUnion members’ children received scholarships from labor at the annual event April 28 in New Brunswick.…
Read MoreMontclair adjuncts local meeting and scholarship awards program.…
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The neoliberal sacking of the universities runs much deeper than tuition hikes and budget cuts, notes Barkawi.
By Tarak Barkawi
The New York Times, Slate and Al Jazeera have recently drawn attention to the adjunctification of the professoriate in the US. Only 24 per cent of university and college faculty are now tenured or tenure-track.
Much of the coverage has focused on the sub-poverty wages of adjunct faculty, their lack of job security and the growing legions of unemployed and under-employed PhDs.…
Read MoreBill sponsor — Assemblyman Diegnan — hopes to build consensus before Legislature tackles NJ’s 18-year-old charter law
By John Mooney
The outlines of a new charter school bill are taking shape, with a draft being circulated by Assembly Democrats that would add tighter controls on new charters and expand the number of organizations approving and overseeing the schools.…
Read MoreBy Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
Should Rutgers University President Robert Barchi stay or go? New Jersey voters are divided, according to a new poll.
A Quinnipiac University survey released today asked state residents their opinion on the future of Rutgers’ new leader after the school’s recent basketball coaching scandal made national headlines. The poll found a quarter of those surveyed said Barchi should be fired, while 29 percent said he should keep his job.…
Read MoreDistractions aside — and the Rutgers-New Brunswick athletic department is admittedly one big distraction — the limited Rutgers/Rowan/UMDNJ merger is on target for July 1.
Locally, we’ve been paying more attention to a multi-county, shared-services jail “merger” that seems to have become something less. Recall that the state higher education restructuring was whittled down, too, and started out as a plan where Rowan University in Glassboro would “eat” Rutgers’ Camden campus, including its prestigious law school.…
Read MoreBy Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
In a move that signals a growing fissure between the administration and its elected leaders, the Newark school board has cast an unprecedented, unanimous no-confidence vote against Superintendent Cami Anderson.
But because the state’s largest school district remains under state control, it cannot fire Anderson, who was named superintendent in 2011.
“The vote is intended to send a message to the superintendent that we’re not satisfied with her work,” said Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, the board’s chairwoman.…
By Cami Anderson
School district budget deficits are no fun. They require making tough decisions and confronting difficult questions. Does spending yield great results for kids? Is what we are doing now, at any price, truly working? Where and how should we invest our critical resources to benefit our most precious gifts — our children?
April is a time that causes fiscal angst for many; this is especially true at Newark Public Schools when we submit our budget, largely funded by taxpayers, of nearly $1 billion.…
Read MoreBy John Mooney, NJ Spotlight
[…]The Newark Teachers Union, which stood with Anderson six months ago in sealing a new teacher contract, has joined the fight and has publicly protested the cuts. Its president, Joseph Del Grosso, said last night that his members may consider a “no confidence” vote as well, and he cheered the board’s action.…
Read MoreNEW BRUNSWICK — Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., D-South Plainfield, was honored by the American Federation of Teachers of New Jersey (AFTNJ) on April 20 during its annual Statewide Legislative Conference.
Diegnan received the prestigious Friend of Education Award during the ceremonial luncheon. According to the AFTNJ, the award is given “to those whom have made significant contributions to public service as well as a strong record of commitment to safeguard and improve public education.”…
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