TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie and former Gov. Tom Kean today said a controversial proposal to merge the state’s medical university with Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology is one option they’re exploring as they launch a study group to improve New Jersey’s college and university system. Christie today signed an executive order creating the commission...
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First-year medical students in the Class of 2011 read the Hippocratic Oath during the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson White Coat Ceremony in a 2007 photo.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie and former Gov. Tom Kean today said a controversial proposal to merge the state’s medical university with Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology is one option they’re exploring as they launch a study group to improve New Jersey’s college and university system.
Christie today signed an executive order creating the commission headed by Kean, a former Drew University president who serves as a mentor to the new Republican governor.
The five-member task force, first reported by The Star-Ledger on Tuesday, aims to increase the “overall quality and effectiveness” of higher education and to make it more affordable for New Jersey students to stay home for college.
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Kean, who previously endorsed a merger, today said “I’m going to take another hard look at it.”
“This is a commission with an open mind,” he said. “It’s only one aspect of a huge, broad mandate.”
Christie echoed that view and said he’s also open to revising recommendations for higher education in his proposed state budget. Plans call for a cap on tuition increases and $173 million in aid cuts. Several of the financial aid and scholarship programs would also be cut or eliminated, while Thomas Edison State College would be merged into Rutgers.
“This is not a commission that is a result in search of a rationale,” Christie said.
