Kevin Riordan: Idea of combining Rowan and Rutgers-Camden needs a thorough vetting
By Kevin Riordan, Inquirer Columnist
Combining Rutgers-Camden and Rowan into a single university would be contingent on academic, political, and economic decisions that haven’t been made.
Unless they have, and it’s all a done deal. Which strikes me as a stretch, even for New Jersey.
But the state is already trying to figure out the future of another of its institutions of higher education: the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Also, the brand-new Cooper Medical School of Rowan University is rising over Broadway in downtown Camden. And the long-proposed light rail line between Camden and Glassboro, home of Rowan’s main campus, recently got a boost from the Delaware River Port Authority.
So the time is right to consider the notion of blending South Jersey’s two well-regarded but very different universities into a bigger, better powerhouse of academic research and spinoff economic development.
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