From: Alan Sadovnik, Chair Newark Faculty Council

Re: Senate Report, February 16, 2007
 

The NFC met on Monday, February 5, 2007. President McCormick, Vice President for Academic Affairs Furmanski and Vice President for University Budgeting Winterbauer attended the meeting. The agenda consisted of responses to two questions sent to the President in advance of the meeting:

1. In November 2006, the NFC sent you a letter expressing our dissatisfaction with the decision not to form an ad-hoc budget equity committee, which you proposed at your meeting with us last May. Instead, issues related to budget allocations across campuses, were to be part of the overall long-term strategic planning process. Would you please comment on this decision and specifically how you see the strategic planning process providing the type of transparency about budget allocations across campuses desired by the NFC.

2. A proposed merger with UMDNJ (and possibly NJIT) has been the subject of ongoing discussion and deliberation at the executive, legislative, and university levels. Rumors are flying about the nature of such a merger, if and when it will happen, and to various specifics relating to governance, the status of a unified Rutgers system, etc. To the best of your knowledge, what is the current state of these discussions? What is your view of the desirability of a merger? At this point, does Rutgers’s have an official position on a merger? Have the concerns that resulted in Rutgers position on the Vagelos Commission’s recommendations been addressed in any of the proposals currently being discussed?

With respect to Question 1, Vice-President Furmanski gave a detailed report responding to a set of questions from the NFC on the allocation of resources across campuses. Vice-President Furmanski stressed the complicated issue of defining “equity” and that equity, if defined by allocations based on a 70-20-10 formula may be neither desirable or warranted given the University’s need to invest in programs based on a number of factors, including excellence, need, strategic priorities, etc. Nonetheless, he stressed the need for fairness and transparency in budgetary allocations. After these prefatory remarks, the Vice-President’s report provided an in-depth analysis of University budgetary allocations across campuses, which indicated some disparities in funding, no discernible evidence of gross inequities across campuses. The presentation and ensuing discussion provided a fruitful exchange of ideas about budget issues.

Following the presentation, President McCormick explained his decision against a Budget Equity Committee, indicating that the type of budgetary decisions represented in the presentation should be part of the ongoing University planning process. The NFC indicated that the presentation provided important transparency about budgets and such a presentation should be done on an annual basis to the Council.

With respect to Question 2, President McCormick addressed the current fluid status of discussions about merger. He indicated that the current process appears to be more inclusive and participatory than the process of the Vagelos Commission’s recommendations, but at this point it is not clear what the outcomes will be. The President indicated that Rutgers would in all likelihood be in favor of merging with the Robert Woods Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, but any merger will likely require mergers in Newark and Camden as well. In Newark, a merger will likely include NJIT. At this point, there are numerous political and organizational questions that must be resolved, including the governance structure of merged institutions, whether the merged institutions will be separated in Newark, New Brunswick and Camden or part of one connected institution, and whether the Rutgers name will be retained for all three campuses, or just in New Brunswick. Provost Diner, who distributed his testimony before Legislative Task Force on Higher Education prior to the meeting, reiterated his position that a merger of Rutgers-Newark, NJIT and UMDNJ has numerous positive possibilities in Newark, but must be accomplished by working out a set of complicated organizational and governance questions. He also stressed that it is imperative that the Rutgers name be retained in Newark for a merged institution. Both the President and Provost stressed that sufficient state resources to make it successful must accompany any merger.

Members of the NFC asked a number of questions concerning whether a merger would result in separating the three campuses into separate research universities, which would be part of a state-wide research university system or retain the current one university-three campuses system; what the status of current across campus schools such as the Business School and the School of Nursing would be; what the status of Rutgers-Law School would be; and what is the role of faculty governance in any merger decision.

The Chair of the NFC indicated that although the Council agreed with the Provost’s position about the positive possibilities of a merger in Newark, it is concerned about losing the Rutgers name, the issue of whether the three campuses would be separated under a merger, and about the resources required for a successful merger.

The NFC is currently discussing these issues in more depth and will issue a position statement shortly.