Christie said he will create a second task force to study medical education and take an in-depth look at merging Rutgers and UMDNJ
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Rutgers University sign on the College Ave campus in New Brunswick.TRENTON — A task force charged with rethinking higher education in New Jersey unveiled more than 70 recommendations with Gov. Chris Christie today, including a revival of a plan to merge Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
The group, headed by former Gov. Tom Kean, spent more than seven months looking at New Jersey's complex system of colleges. They released their report at a press conference in Trenton this afternoon.
Christie said he will create a second task force to study medical education and take an in-depth look at merging Rutgers and UMDNJ.
The report included several recommendations for additional changes at Rutgers, New Jersey's largest university.
"Rutgers needs to be turned from good to great," Christie said.
The governor also said he will issue an executive order to create a governor’s council to permanently oversee issues related to higher education in Trenton.
The new higher education report is the latest in a series of attempts to reorganize New Jersey’s college system in Trenton. All have met with various levels of skepticism within the higher education community and were ultimately abandoned.
In 2003, the Vagelos commission — named after pharmaceutical executive P. Roy Vagelos, the group’s chairman — presented Gov. James E. McGreevey with an elaborate report proposing merging Rutgers, NJIT and UMDNJ into a single state university system. After months of lobbying and debate, the Vagelos plan was squashed amid opposition from the governing boards at UMDNJ and Rutgers and Essex County lawmakers.
The idea of a merger was again taken up in 2006 during Gov. Jon Corzine’s administration after a series of scandals and investigations at UMDNJ. A legislative task force was appointed, but the reorganization plan never made it past the talking stages.
Perhaps because the previous attempts at higher education restructuring went nowhere, Christie’s appointment of another higher education task force last spring caused little concern among college officials.
In Christie’s first year in office, the state colleges and universities were hit with steep state funding cuts and a cap on tuition hikes. But several college presidents have said the governor has repeatedly promised them higher education is one of his priorities.
Christie appointed Kean, the former president of Drew University, to head the new task force in May. Other members included George Pruitt, longtime president of Thomas Edison State College and John McGoldrick, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The group met behind closed doors to consider everything from the governance structure of the state’s colleges to tuition assistance, teacher training and financial disclosure rules for college presidents.
The task force presented Christie with its report shortly after Thanksgiving. But the governor waited until Monday to make the proposal public.
By Kelly Heyboer and Ginger Gibson/The Star-Ledger