By Heather Haddon
An infrastructure wish list compiled by New Jersey universities details hundreds of upgrades the colleges hope to fund through a higher-education bond under discussion in Trenton.
But the list has a hole, Democrats say: It doesn’t specify improvements needed for the proposed merger between Rowan University in Glassboro and Rutgers University in Camden.
One of the key questions facing the merger is how it would be funded. The Christie administration has backed the merger but the proposed 2012-2013 state budget doesn’t include money for it.
A higher education bond would be one route to fund infrastructure upgrades for the merged campuses, which could also include further university consolidations in New Brunswick and Newark. But a document compiled by university presidents for state lawmakers on their infrastructure requests doesn’t list any merger-related projects.
“We’re dealing with a picture frame with nothing in it,” said state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, referring to the merger funding equation. “This funding should be put together as part of the whole higher education bond plan.”
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