By Star-Ledger Editorial Board.
The state Senate plans to vote tomorrow on its schizophrenic reconstruction of Rutgers University. It’s a wobbly train moving way too fast. It’s time, finally, to slam on the brakes.
The core of this plan makes great sense. Allowing Rutgers to absorb the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey strengthens the state university. And, given UMDNJ’s troubled past, handing management to Rutgers is a rational move. Those changes could be a major win for the state, provided that concerns about cost can be answered authoritatively.
But the South Jersey part — the shotgun wedding of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University — is a poison pill. The Frankenstein aspect of this — amputating Rutgers’ Camden campus and reattaching it to Rowan — threatens serious damage.
Another concern is University Hospital in Newark. It would be left an orphan under this plan, severed from UMDNJ. Rock-hard assurances must be in place that this hospital will not wither, that it will continue to carry its heroic load of care for patients without insurance.
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