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. The 15-page report also includes more details about the schools involved than the 57-page document by the UMDNJ Advisory Committee, which suggested the changes.
“HPAE put the backgrounder together to raise the questions that we thought were either overlooked or minimized by the advisory committee,” said Jeanne Otersen, the group’s policy director. “What the report called details, we call substance. We would support a report that lived up to the goals of collaborating among universities, medical schools, and University Hospital to advance medical education, research, and healthcare services — but we think the report didn’t achieve that.”
One major area of concern is the financial aspects of the proposal, on which the committee was silent.
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