There was some dissent among members of the commission over some of the recommendations. In a minority report included in the appendix, Dr. Tim Haresign, an associate professor at Stockton University and president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals, said that one area not addressed was “cost efficiency and administrative bloat.” He added the avoidance of the subject was not surprising, given that public four-year institutions in New Jersey often operate as “essentially independent fiefdoms with very little outside oversight,” making transparency and accountability difficult.
He offered as a recent example Kean University’s no-bid purchase of a $250,000 conference table from China, a decision that was widely panned by lawmakers and university officials last year. “It may be possible to spend our limited resources more efficiently, devoting a greater percentage of resources into direct educational expenses,” Haresign said. “The state may want to consider creating greater oversight of the public institutions and using independent outside firms to examine the system and suggest areas where efficiency can be improved without reducing the quality of education.”
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