Written by Phil Dunn.
A group of Newark and North Jersey political leaders have drafted their own plan in the ongoing talk of a merger involving Rutgers University.
According to the plan, Rutgers’ satellite campuses in Newark and Camden would be granted greater autonomy from the main campus in New Brunswick.
“Rutgers system-wide control currently resides with the leadership of the New Brunswick campus,” the plan reads. “This obvious structural conflict of interest has led to both operational and capital underinvestment in the satellite campuses, and a wasteful investment in the New Brunswick campus.”
The plan, which is said by sources close to the situation to be backed by Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, calls the current relationship between the colleges “anomalous.”
“Rutgers Newark and Camden have long produced a surplus of resources to the New Brunswick campus,” it states.
According to the plan, Rutgers-Newark keeps approximately 55 cents on the dollar of tuition it earns. The balance is kept by New Brunswick.
But not everyone is quick to take the side of North Jersey political leaders.
“It’s my understanding that next week the Rutgers Board of Governors and Board of Trustees will be meeting to address issues of governance and questions of equity among the three Rutgers campuses,” said Rutgers-Camden Associate Professor of History Andrew Shankman.
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