Ramapo president claims school didn’t get its fair share of college bond cash

By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

MAHWAH — Ramapo College President Peter Mercer expects to meet with the state’s secretary of higher education this week to discuss whether his school was shortchanged in the recent awarding of taxpayer-funded college construction bond money.

The list of $1.3 billion in proposed grants released last month by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration included $18.6 million for building projects on Ramapo’s Mahwah campus. That was the least among the state’s traditional four-year public colleges and less than some county colleges.

“The amount we received was proportionally significantly less than our peers,” Mercer said. “I, as president of Ramapo College, simply can’t accept that.”

Ramapo’s complaints are the latest objection to the controversial list of 176 building projects at 46 colleges and universities. Last week, state lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union questioned whether two religious training schools should be on the list.

The state is scheduled to award $10.6 million for construction projects at Beth Medrash Govoha, an all-male Jewish rabbinical school in Lakewood, and $645,313 for technology upgrades at Princeton Theological Seminary, a school to train Christian ministers.

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