Statement on Proposed Restructuring of the NJ Public Research Universities

Background

The New Brunswick Faculty Council, representing the faculty of all units of Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Piscataway, applauds the current efforts of the joint Legislative Task Force on Higher Education, chaired by Senator Lesniak and Assemblyman Caraballo, and of the Higher Education Task Force, chaired by Dr. Richard Leone, to recommend a plan to restructure the State’s public research universities. As we noted in our response to the 2002 report of the Commission on Health Science, Education, and Training, chaired by Dr. Roy Vagelos, we believe that a merger of Rutgers, UMDNJ and NJIT has the potential to be of great help in the quest to move New Jersey public research universities into the top tier of state university systems. To gain our support, however, a restructuring plan must include a firm commitment to enhance all aspects of teaching, research and service, not just those related to health science, education and training, and must identify and commit the necessary financial resources to accomplish this goal.

The New Brunswick Faculty Council discussed the various restructuring proposals at its meetings of December 8, 2006 and February 23, 2007 and this report summarizes the consensus that emerged from those discussions. We are not in a position to make a detailed proposal for how the research universities should be restructured; instead, we would like to discuss the fundamental principles that must be followed and the critical concerns that must be addressed in order for any restructuring of higher education in New Jersey to be successful.

I. General Principles

First of all, we believe that a successful restructuring of the research universities must be guided by the following key principles, all of which were enunciated by Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick in his testimony before the Legislative Task Force on November 9, 2006.

I.1. Restructuring must increase excellence in teaching, research, and service to the State and nation.

Restructuring must protect and build upon current centers of excellence at Rutgers, UMDNJ, and NJIT, in all areas of research, education, and service, as well as enhancing the ability of the research university system to undertake new initiatives that will bring it to the next level of excellence and bring increased benefits to the citizens of New Jersey. This requires that increased resources for health science and education not come at the expense of the physical sciences, the social sciences, or the arts and humanities; that increased funding for graduate and professional programs not diminish funding for undergraduate education; and that funding for upgrading infrastructure in Newark and Camden not be obtained at the expense of facilities and academic programs in New Brunswick, a number of which have already achieved national and international prominence.

I.2. Restructuring must be accompanied by sufficient one-time funding and stable continuing funding to ensure the quality of the restructured university system and its programs.

In order for restructuring to be successful, funding levels need to ensure

• adequate support for any new organizational infrastructure needed while maintaining and improving critical shared resources such as libraries and networking infrastructure.
• protection of financial assets, including endowment and property holdings.
• adequate support for any additional efforts that will be required to move New Jersey public research universities into the top tier of state academic institutions.

We are particularly concerned about funding, given the State’s current fiscal problems and long history of underfunding higher education. As the Commission on Health Science, Education, and Training noted in its 2002 report, "state support for Rutgers is at the low end of state universities, lags behind the Higher Education Price Index, and is a decreasing share of the state budget." Since then, State support for higher education in general, and Rutgers in particular, has decreased further, including the unprecedentedly large cuts to our budget this current year.

I.3. Restructuring must result in institutional governance structures that promote excellence, protect academic integrity, and insulate the university system from partisan political pressure, while holding the system fully accountable to the citizens of New Jersey.

We believe that the current governing structure of Rutgers, led by a Board of Governors, appointed partly by the State and partly by the historic Rutgers Board of Trustees, has served both the University and the State well. It has protected the academic mission of the University, led to Rutgers entrance into the Association of American Universities, and insulated the University from the sort of direct political pressure and intervention that contributed to some of the recent problems at UMDNJ. At the same time, the Board has put into place internal controls that avoid abuses, provide transparency, and promote public trust. We believe that a similarly autonomous governing structure is essential if a restructured university system is to achieve its promise.

II. More Specific Recommendations

In addition to the general principles outlined above, the NBFC would like to offer several more specific recommendations concerning the possible merger of all or parts of Rutgers, UMDNJ, and NJIT.

II.1 The merger of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School with Rutgers should be carried out as part of the first phase of restructuring.

There are a number of very strong centers of excellence in the health sciences at both RWJMS and Rutgers in New Brunswick and Piscataway, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts due to structural barriers and administrative disparities. We very strongly support the merger of RWJMS with RU-NB/P in order to remove those barriers and allow the combined institution to obtain the federal funding and external recognition that the quality of its faculty and research should merit, as well as greatly facilitate its rise to the next level of excellence. The merger should incur little risk, since much of the groundwork has already been laid: RU-NB/P and RWJMS now run 9 joint graduate programs and 3 joint research institutes; an increasing number of faculty have joint appointments at the two institutions, and there are a very large number of ongoing research collaborations involving faculty at RWJMS and faculty in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and the social sciences at Rutgers.

II.2. Merging UMDNJ with Rutgers should be done via a phased approach, in which the less complex and less risky parts of the merger are undertaken first, and the experience and knowledge gained then applied to more complex and difficult parts of the merger.

Given the complexities involved in merging large institutions, as well as the State’s current fiscal difficulties, an all-at-once merger of all of Rutgers, UMDNJ, and NJIT appears very unlikely to succeed. Mergers – whether of corporations or educational institutions – are inherently risky endeavors, which often fail if not undertaken with sufficient care and planning.

While we believe that the groundwork for a successful merger is already in place in New Brunswick/Piscataway, we doubt that this is the case in Newark at the present time. As part of a phased approach, we believe UMDNJ in Newark should remain a stand-alone state medical school in the short term, but with accelerated efforts to increase cooperation and collaboration between UMDNJ and Rutgers-Newark and NJIT, to strengthen existing joint programs and initiate new ones, and to eliminate harmful competition between some programs at Rutgers and UMDNJ, with the goal of eventual merger of the three institutions.

II.3. Any research university system formed by a merger of Rutgers with UMDNJ/NJIT should continue to bear the Rutgers name.

Rutgers has a long and proud tradition dating back to colonial times and the Rutgers name is widely recognized in the state and nationally as a mark of excellence. Moreover, our colleagues in Newark and Camden have told us of their strong desire to retain the Rutgers name and Rutgers standard, no matter what the final structure of the research university system may be.

II.4. Restructuring should leave the Newark and Camden Campuses a part of Rutgers, although possibly with increased campus autonomy.

A complete separation of the Newark/Camden Campuses from the New Brunswick Campus would result either in enormous one-time and very substantial continuing costs to provide in Newark/Camden the essential services now provided centrally from New Brunswick, including library and computing resources, or else leave faculty and students in Newark/Camden with greatly diminished resources to support teaching, research, and service. In addition, a number of schools operate on more than one Rutgers Campus, including the Rutgers Business School, Newark and New Brunswick, the School of Nursing, and the School of Social Work, and there are extensive collaborations and several joint degree programs between Rutgers-New Brunswick and the Law Schools in Newark and Camden. These important programs and collaborations would be seriously weakened by a complete break-up of Rutgers.

II.5. Any merger must be carried out so that the current legal and financial problems at UMDNJ do not have a serious negative impact on the future of the New Jersey public research university system.

The restructured university system must be protected from present and future financial and legal liability arising from past problems at UMDNJ. In particular, a solution needs to be found for the crisis at University Hospital in Newark that will provide needed medical care to the citizens of Newark without endangering the financial stability of all or part of the public research university system.

II.6. Any restructuring plan should be implemented only after an informed, careful, and thorough consultative process involving all of the major stakeholders in higher education in the State.

Restructuring the State’s research universities is an extremely complex process that can achieve its goals only with wide and informed discussion and very careful planning. Getting it right is critically important to the future economic well-being of the State and the welfare of its citizens. We need, therefore, to get the input and utilize the expertise and of all the major stakeholders in higher education from the academic, governmental, and corporate communities, as well as from the general public. In particular, we believe that faculty members at the research universities, as major stakeholders and principal providers of higher education, must play a major role on the bodies constituted to review any recommended restructuring plan and to implement whatever plan is ultimately endorsed.

In conclusion, the New Brunswick Faculty Council is strongly committed to the goal of moving New Jersey public research universities into the top tier of such institutions nationwide and believe that a well-planned and well-supported restructuring that would unite the health sciences with the arts and sciences and other professions in a single research university system would be a major step toward achieving that goal. We are eager to join with all the other major stakeholders in public higher education in New Jersey to plan for the best way to achieve our common vision.