By Melissa Hayes and Patricia Alex, staff writers, The Record
Governor Christie celebrated the construction of a new health science facility at William Paterson University on Tuesday, another event that allowed him to promote his education agenda as a bright spot amid the George Washington Bridge scandal and the increasingly troubled state budget.
But the school itself had already held a groundbreaking ceremony in October for the same building, with many of the same people attending then that were there Tuesday. The reason for the repeat? Christie’s office asked for a ceremony, school officials said.
The governor has made a pattern of holding events to generate headlines and attention that might not always be what they seem. On Monday he was in Camden to announce a partnership between the state and a non-profit, which has already been working with families in the city for years, offering little detail on how the new alliance would be different from existing programs.
The events help to highlight his agenda and detract from the controversy as Christie considers running for president in 2016.
Christie’s office said Tuesday’s event was to highlight the new building and said that the governor was unable to attend the October groundbreaking at William Paterson University. Christie did similar events that month at Rutgers-Newark, Gloucester County College and Ramapo University while campaigning for a second term. He has one scheduled for today at Essex County Community College in Newark.
“This is an important project that illustrates how the higher education bond funds are being put to use in real and meaningful ways for students, now and for future generations,” spokesman Kevin Roberts said. “It’s incredibly worthwhile to shine a spotlight on that and show the progress being made for these projects that had broad public support.”
Christie said too often people are focused on “instant gratification” and that the school construction projects across the state are about building for the future.
“We’re trying to make sure that we cast our eyes off to the horizon and make sure that we’re caring not only about what we get today but what the students of the future will get from the investments that we make or don’t make today,” he said.
The governor’s office, which taped the event, quickly cut a clip of that sound bite, posted it on Youtube and sent it to media with a transcript of his remark.
Susanna Tardi, a sociology professor who heads the faculty union, said “rehashing” the bond issue provided the governor a distraction from the negative publicity he’s been getting recently for, among other things, his attempts to short pension funding for state employees.
“It’s wonderful to invest in buildings but I think they need to invest in people,” Tardi said, noting Christie’s appearance at a groundbreaking at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey last week was met with a silent protest from union leaders.
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