To The Center

As an undergraduate student at the Honors College of Rutgers-Camden, I am among the overwhelming majority of students on campus who are extremely concerned during a stressful time for our great university.  Along with the students and alumni of our Camden campus we have the full support of the faculty, staff, and Chancellor in our fight against this takeover.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has proposed a plan to merge the Camden-based campus of Rutgers with the Glassboro-based campus of Rowan University in a manner that would see the state subsidized Rutgers becoming absorbed, along with Cooper Hospital and UMDNJ and the subsequent creation of a unified “South Jersey Research University“.

Supporters of the merger may point to the need of better research capabilities and opportunities in order for the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University to have a thriving existence, and point to the long-term possibilities of development for Rowan as reasons to support the merge.  This sounds great for Rowan University at first glance, but how much does it hurt the Camden campus of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey?  Rutgers-Camden has seen over $100 million pumped into its funding in over the last five years alone, has a direct and major role in the revitalization of the urban community around the campus, and has the prestige across the United States and internationally as a world-class institution.  What happens to the small class sizes both schools enjoy if attendance for Rutgers-Camden essentially triples with the influx of new students?

The Rutgers-Camden faculty is already noted as world-class, but what becomes of them if the school is absorbed by Rowan? Assemblywoman Celeste Riley, D-3rd, who represents Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties and chairs the Assembly’s higher education committee has stated that “We cannot look to improve one aspect of New Jersey’s higher education system at the expense of another.  For many, the well-respected name of Rutgers-Camden is important, and this merger plan must be an equal joining of these institutions, not the elimination of one in favor of another.”  There are requirements for tenure at Rutgers-Camden that can determine a professor‘s job status, but if these teachers are no longer teaching  at “Rutgers” their jobs are potentially at stake without legal action.  With the unified school focusing so much on research, graduate students could end up taking the jobs of well respected and well established professors.

I personally have a connection with both Rutgers University and Rowan University, as my older brother and sister are both graduates of the Camden campus, and my sister went on to Rowan University to receiver her Masters Degree.  I chose Rutgers University because of the familial connection that any student or alumni can say they feel the instant they step onto the campus.  I chose it in order to get an upper echelon education and to be a part of a prestigious Honors program while turning down generous scholarship offers from prestigious universities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  I chose this University to graduate with a Rutgers degree, and not a Rowan or “College of South Jersey” degree.

Though the media coverage has picked up with recent protests of the merger, not enough has been made clear about just how much outrage there truly is.  It was and in some cases still is being brushed aside as though it were “just a few” students.  Some students have been more vocal than others, while some even named teams for Quizzo day for some sort of variation of “Stop the Merger”.  During a public forum in which students had the ability to speak their minds on the issue, there was a mass protest essentially involving every student that was at the school for the day, with the number easily topping the number of 700 that was reported by several news outlets.  Aside from this protest, there are planned peaceful protests in opposition of the merger set up in the coming days and weeks, including an “Occupy Rutgers“ protest, protests planned in Trenton during the Senate Higher Education Committee meeting, and of course, spontaneously throughout the campus itself.  Students have kept in contact with school administrators to make sure that the protests will be done in civilized manners, and have posted highly specific rules on social media sites for anyone wishing to join in.  Students have reached out to local newspapers, television outlets, and national media to draw attention for their cause.  When I signed the unified petition started by student Hyun Kyu Seo just a day before starting to write this, the petition had 2,000 signatures.  As I type this very sentence there are over 7,000 signatures on the petition with a goal of 10,000.  There are links on the official page that can be found here to groups on Facebook and Twitter, and there are already various groups such as “Rutgers-Camden Merger Information” where one can go for more detailed information on the merger itself.

Though I am arguing this position through the eyes of an undergraduate student and presenting an opinionated argument there are financial issues in unlikely places with the merger.  There has been a lot of discussion as to what happens with the sports teams of Rowan and Rutgers-Camden, who are currently in the Division-III of the NCAA.  The New Brunswick-based campus of Rutgers University has just lost Greg Schiano to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Though at first this doesn’t seem relevant, it has to be known that under Schiano, the Division-I Rutgers football team had a terrific turnaround and despite this turnaround, the proper amount of funds could not be raised strictly through donations for new stadium renovations.  After falling well short of a private fundraising effort for a new stadium renovation plan, a plan was approved in which all 102$ million needed to fund the project was borrowed.  How will this proposed new State University cover the funding necessary for a place suitable enough for even the Championship Subdivision sports, which could easily cost the school millions.  And if the naming rights deal for Rutgers New Brunswick’s High Point Solutions Stadium was just for 10 years, and $6.5 million in comparison to the University of Central Florida’s 15-year $15 million contract ($650,000 per year as opposed to $1 million for a stadium whose highest recorded capacity is thousands less than Rutgers‘), how will the University make up for lost funds without a tuition hike?  And if the tuition does manage to stay lower with this takeover, how will the taxes we pay stay the same when the state is strapped for cash and cannot pump more funding into the educational system as Christie keeps promising?  Isn’t this government over-reach the exact thing that Governor Christie has made his reputation on being against?

Without Rutger’s presence in the Camden community and a re-shifting of focus for the school, what becomes of the amazing charity work and strong role of community revitalization throughout the city?  Students volunteer tirelessly throughout the community, from things such as the on-campus NJ PIRG’s efforts in their hunger and homelessness campaign, to countless food and clothing drives by different academic departments.  With the focus of the school being shifted towards a broader area, Rutgers-Camden takes on the risk of losing the intense focus it is able to give to the Camden community.

When the commission was put together and the idea of this merger came about, the focus was on changing medical education without the proper analysis and attention to detail necessary for the reconfiguration of the higher education system.  Though this merger has support from those who say that it will benefit New Jersey by creating a terrific research school, it is taking away a research school with a sterling international reputation, in the hopes that a new school will develop the same reputation over time.  Why take away the CHOICE that prospective students have of attending two great universities, and take the major risk of losing more residents of South Jersey to out-of-state colleges when you already have an on-the-rise university in Rowan and a university with a stellar international reputation in Rutgers-Camden.

If you wish to aid the united student body, faculty, and alumni of this great institution, here are a few ways you can do so.

1.) Write a letter to Ralph Izzo, Chair of the Board of Governors, Rutgers University, explaining why the merger will be bad for Rutgers University as a whole”
c/o PSEG Headquarters
80 Park Plaza
P.O. Box 570
Newark, New Jersey 07101

2. Call or email Governor Christie to state your position: 609-292-6000; or write to him via his website: http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/

3. Write or call the following state representatives who are involved in or holding hearings on the merger:

Celeste Riley @ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?Leg=312

Donald Norcross @ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?leg=324

Steve Sweeny @ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?leg=216

Sandra Cunningham @ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?Leg=290

Lastly, I urge you all to sign the official unified petition if you have not done so already, which can again be found at www.r2rmerge.com.  We R Rutgers University, and we will not go quietly without a fight.

[credit for the list of ways to help goes to the members of the Facebook group “Rutgers-Camden Merger Information” and credit for the petition information goes to Hyun Kyu Seo and the others who made it possible.]