Resolution on Proposed Budget Cuts

Background

The Rutgers University Senate has passed a Report and Resolution in Opposition to Proposed and Continued Budget Cuts, and in Support of Excellence in Higher Education in New Jersey. The New Brunswick Faculty Council joins with our Senate colleagues and endorses their resolution. We also offer the following.

 New Jersey's public research university, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, requires the support of New Jersey citizens in order to maintain excellence in its educational and research programs and in its service to the State. Yet, the proposed New Jersey budget would underfund Rutgers and further undermine its traditional pattern of support. In 2000, the State budget share dedicated for support of Rutgers was 1.4% (down from approximately 2% of the state budget share over the period 1991-2000).  The proposed budget is a 21.8% smaller share of the budget then in 2000.  These cuts in funding would be instituted even as Rutgers returns over $2 billion annually to the State’s economy. The proposed cuts in funding will jeopardize not only Rutgers programs but also New Jersey’s future economic health, which depends in large part on its higher education community.

Simultaneous with the decrease in funding for Rutgers University is an increase in the college-age population in the State. Although funding proposed for Rutgers University is being decreased, the college-age population in the state is increasing. Within the next five years New Jersey will need to accommodate at least 22,000 additional qualified students. Rutgers, as the largest public university, anticipates a 20% increase in the number of qualified applicants. The combination of decreased funding at Rutgers with the need to increase enrollment will curtail the ability of many students to obtain a college education as tuition will need to increase in order partially  to counter the shortfall in state funding. In addition, forcing students to assume more debt deters economic growth as graduates spend their future paying off loans and postponing business investments and purchasing homes.

 The current budget proposal jeopardizes the ability of Rutgers to provide adequate classroom space, to hire and retain excellent full-time faculty, and to offer the programs required by a growing and vibrant study body. New Jersey lacks a higher education capital facilities funding mechanism, such as those in place in other areas of the country. For example, North Carolina allows for the creation and maintenance of facilities through bond referendums that are consistently supported by its citizens. The triple pressures of increasing enrollment, an aging infrastructure at the University, and decreasing state support for higher education places undue strains on Rutgers’ operating budget, and will erode the ability of the state to ensure its citizens an affordable education at an outstanding public research university. Likewise, current fiscal policy limits Rutgers’ ability to attract and retain the best students in the state who should comprise its future leaders.
 

Resolution

Be it resolved that New Jersey address capacity issues by offering its citizens a higher education capital facilities bond referendum for building and improving college and university buildings; and

Be it further resolved that New Jersey insure that financial aid for students be available at levels appropriate to need and that such aid be appropriately increased as tuition and fees increase; and

Be it finally resolved that New Jersey restore funding to Rutgers at appropriate levels to provide students with access to an outstanding public research university in which all our citizens can take pride.