By Patricia Alex, Staff Writer, The Record.
New Jersey needs to spend more money on higher education, make changes to its student loan programs and allow for new ways students can more quickly earn degrees, according to a state panel.
The recommendations are contained in a report set to be released Wednesday by a commission charged with looking at ways to make college more affordable in the state, which has the fourth highest public tuition and fees in the nation, averaging more than $13,000 a year.
The report called those costs a “formidable barrier” to college.
[…]But one faculty member of the commission, Tim Haresign of Stockton University, faulted the report for ignoring administrative bloat and wasteful spending at the schools. And he found flaws with the state’s decentralized system of higher education, which provides very little oversight of the public colleges and universities.
In a dissent, Haresign cited “questionable spending,” including his own university’s botched purchase of a casino building in Atlantic City that it was unable to use.
“Even more troubling is the fact that at some institutions the rate of growth in management positions exceeds the rate of growth in full-time faculty positions,” he wrote. Haresign represents the statewide faculty union.
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