TRENTON — In a shaky compromise that threatens to further divide the state along geographic lines, the Senate president introduced a bill today allowing Rutgers University to take over the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark and merge Rowan University with Rutgers-Camden.

From the time Gov. Chris Christie unveiled his plan in January to revamp the state’s colleges and medical facilities, a heated debate raged from one end of the state to the other and engulfed the state’s most powerful political players — from the powerboker George Norcross and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Senate President Stephen Sweeney.

But the dispute is far from over. While the South Jersey schools would be granted sweeping autonomy, control over Newark’s institutions would be handed over to Rutgers’ governing boards in New Brunswick.

“I think we are headed for a political civil war,” state Sen. Ron Rice (D-Essex) said. “We are not going to take this laying down. We are armed and ready for a fight if that’s what George Norcross and Sweeney want to do.”

The compromise emerged two days before the Rutgers Board of Trustees — on record as overwhelmingly against the original plan — and the more influential Board of Governors were both expected to weigh in on whether to cede control of the two satellite campuses.

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