NEWARK — Like an octopus, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is one body with eight arms. The Newark-based university is made up of eight schools — three medical schools, a dental school, a nursing school and several public health and professional schools — that radiate across the state. Together, they make up a $1.7 billion...
Gov. Chris Christie commissioned a task force, which has recommended the merging of Rutgers University and UMDNJ. NEWARK — Like an octopus, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is one body with eight arms.
The Newark-based university is made up of eight schools — three medical schools, a dental school, a nursing school and several public health and professional schools — that radiate across the state. Together, they make up a $1.7 billion institution with 6,000 students.
Last week, UMDNJ officials were confronted with an unwelcome new question: Can their university survive without two of its arms?
A task force headed by former Gov. Tom Kean proposed taking two UMDNJ schools — the 650-student Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the 350-student School of Public Health — and giving them to Rutgers University. The task force recommended UMDNJ’s remaining pieces be "fundamentally transformed," though the report did not give any specifics.
The idea was met with a mix of confusion, curiosity and déjà vu at UMDNJ.
"I don’t know what to make of it," said Tony Tarchichi, a recent graduate of UMDNJ’s New Jersey Medical School now serving his residency on the Newark campus.
Like many UMDNJ students and faculty, Tarchichi has spent years hearing various plans to merge, break up or dismantle the state’s health care university. The West Orange resident said he isn’t sure what all the fuss is about.
"I went to medical school here and I thought it was run really well," said Tarchichi, 31. "The leadership is clear. I have no complaints."
This is the third time in eight years UMDNJ is facing a possible dismantling.
In 2003, a commission put together by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey proposed combining Rutgers, UMDNJ and the New Jersey Institute of Technology into a united University of New Jersey. That merger was debated for months until cost estimates and resistance from lawmakers and the schools’ governing boards derailed the plan.
In 2006, a federal corruption investigation at UMDNJ renewed interest in reforming the school. A task force was formed in the state Legislature to explore folding all or part of UMDNJ into Rutgers. But, the idea was eventually dropped.
This time around, Gov. Chris Christie says things are going to be different. As U.S. attorney, Christie oversaw a landmark corruption investigation that eventually led to a two-year federal takeover of UMDNJ. Last week, Christie said that experience makes him uniquely qualified to oversee major changes at the school.
The governor signed an executive order last Tuesday creating a second task force to explore the Rutgers-UMDNJ merger idea.
A MERGER
The battle lines are already drawn. Rutgers President Richard McCormick is enthusiastically pushing for the state university to merge with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. UMDNJ President William Owen Jr. has come out against losing a chunk of his university.
The plan means Newark-based UMDNJ would lose some of its statewide reach. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has locations in Piscataway, New Brunswick and Camden. The School of Public Health has campuses in Piscataway, Newark and Stratford.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said she is concerned UMDNJ’s faculty and staff will begin to flee if the school’s future remains in question.
"If they feel this UMDNJ system is going to be in flux, I am very worried we are going to lose some of the talent," Oliver said.
UMDNJ was created in 1970 by merging various health care colleges around the state into one entity. They included Rutgers Medical School, a fledgling medical school that was eventually renamed Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
The formation of UMDNJ meant Rutgers was left as one of the few state universities in the nation without a medical school. Critics say the lack of a joint medical school and research university holds New Jersey back in the competition for public and private research funds.
If Rutgers succeeds in absorbing Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, some experts see it as the beginning of the end of UMDNJ.
"For a state university to have a medical school makes some sense, but can two state-sponsored medical schools continue independent of each other?" asked Donald Malafronte, head of the Urban Health Institute, a nonprofit hospital consulting group in Roseland.
Eventually, it would probably make sense for Rutgers to also run UMDNJ’s New Jersey Medical School in Newark, Malafronte said.
"Rutgers ends up the winner," Malafronte said.
Either way, a lot of money is at stake. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School brought in $109.5 million in outside research, education and service funding in 2009, the latest figures available. UMDNJ’s School of Public Health took in another $9.9 million.
If UMDNJ loses the two schools, the research funding would likely go to Rutgers along with revenue from the schools’ 1,000 students and a portion of UMDNJ’s state funding.
Some advocates worry what the loss of cash will do to UMDNJ’s troubled finances. Newark resident are particularly concerned about the future of University Hospital, the debt-ridden teaching hospital run by UMDNJ that provides critical care for Newark’s low-income residents.
"Over the last decade, seven local hospitals have closed and our residents rely heavily on UMDNJ for their primary and emergency health care. … It is essential that whatever path is chosen for UMDNJ to follow, the facility must remain part of the landscape in Newark and Essex County," County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.
But some at UMDNJ see the wisdom of merging with Rutgers.
"My personal feeling is UMDNJ is not well-run financially," said Shabbar Danish, director of stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "I think Rutgers deserves a medical school. It’s positive change for higher education in this state."
For now, many at UMDNJ said they will continue to do their work and wait for others to decide the university’s fate.
"Everyone has heard what others have heard and continues to do their job," said UMDNJ pediatrician Peter Wenger. "We’re all still doing what we’re supposed to do."
Staff writer Seth Augenstein contributed to this report.
By Kelly Heyboer and Rohan Mascarenhas/The Star-Ledger