Combined University Senate Committee
Responses to Nursing Merger Proposal
February 2014
Academic Standards, Regulations,
and Admissions Committee
Members of ASRAC spoke with Julie Salmon, Dean of the
Rutgers School of Nursing for about 20 minutes and then continued
discussion of
the merger proposal after Dean Salmon went on to the next committee.
All those present were in agreement that it is untenable to
continue to have two Rutgers nursing
schools
less than two miles apart with different curricula and academic
regulations ,
competing for students. Thus we are ready to recommend unanimously that
the
Rutgers School of Nursing and Rutgers College of Nursing be merged into
one
nursing school. The specific proposal before us, however, is too
sketchy and
incomplete to allow us to recommend that the Senate do anything beyond
approving the merger in principle. Besides
a great deal more specific information
about the structure and governance of the proposed new (merged) school,
we
would also need more information about the process by which the
proposal was
developed before we would be willing to recommend approval of this
proposal.
ASRAC’s therefore recommends that the Senate approve the
merger in principle but reserve the right to consider and vote on the
detailed
merger proposal after it has been finalized.
Submitted
by Martha Cotter for ASRAC
Budget and Finance Committee:
The following is a
short summary of comment raised during our discussion:
·
In the copy of the proposal given to
us Thursday
1/23/2014 there were no budget and finance data. Members of BFC raised
concerns
about the role of BFC in this discussion. Many felt that the BFC could
not say much
about this merger.
·
A number of BFC members said that
given the
specific situation of these schools, the proposed merger made sense on
its
face, and no one disagreed.
·
A number of BFC members also said
that the following
should be addressed
o
The question whether the faculties in question
approved the suggested merger.
o
It was said that the budget and other financial
issues should have had been attended more carefully and should have
been
reported to BFC.
o
A question was asked whether the union contracts
would be affected.
Faculty and Personnel Affairs
Committee
The FPAC was asked by the University Senate Executive
Committee
to review the proposed merger of the Rutgers College of Nursing –
Newark &
New Brunswick with the Rutgers School of Nursing – Newark during
the committee
meeting on January 24, 2014.
The committee
invited the Dean of the Rutgers School of Nursing, Susan Salmond, to
address
the group. Dean Salmond provided
background on the proposed merger and answered questions.
Findings:
The FPAC was
satisfied that the merger appears to be a collaborative one that has
the support
of the faculty of each unit. Although the
committee unanimously endorsed the general spirit of the merger, it
requests
that the Senate reserve the right to examine the full merger proposal
once
adopted by the faculty of the affected schools.
Concerns
expressed by committee members included:
·
Sufficient faculty approval of
the merger and
participation in the merger process
·
Labor contracts
·
Staffing issues:
layoffs; change in administrative processes; training
·
Student issues:
location of classes; access to needed coursework; impact on
enrollment
or time to completion of degree
·
Change in Master’s level
programs offered
·
How the merger might impact the
Stratford University
School of Nursing and the Rutgers School of Nursing – Camden
·
Role of Senate in the merger
approval
·
The accreditation process
·
Alignment of degrees offered
given the apparent
differences in philosophy between the two schools (one more clinical,
the other
more academic)
·
Why there should remain two
Rutgers schools of nursing
in the state
The FPAC suggests
that a suffix be added to the proposed name of the merged nursing
school to
establish a separate identity from the Rutgers School of Nursing
– Camden.
Instruction, Curricula, and
Advising Committee
At
its January 24, 2014 meeting the Senate Instruction, Curricula and
Advising
Committee reviewed the proposal entitled “The merger of the
Rutgers College of
Nursing – Newark & New Brunswick and the Rutgers School of
Nursing –
Newark.” Dean William Holzemer of the College of Nursing
presented the proposal
and answered Committee questions.
The
discussion was wide-ranging, with questions about
programs—especially those
targeted for closure—as well as curricula, personnel, and
facilities. There was
some concern expressed about the lack of detail in the proposal as to
both the
justification (what would be the advantages for the University?) for
the merger
and the implementation. Dean Holzemer
explained that the version we received was the brief overview prepared
for the
Board and that he would be happy to provide whatever expanded
information we
needed.
There
were questions from the Committee about the facilities required to move
the
College of Nursing to New Brunswick. The College currently has 60,000
sq. feet
of newly renovated state of the art facilities in Ackerson Hall in
Newark. They
are trying to find 40,000 sq. ft. in New Brunswick, with the search
focusing on
the RWJ Hospital area. There were questions about why they
weren’t looking on
Busch Campus where the other New Brunswick health sciences programs
were
centered.
There
were questions about faculty issues—the College of Nursing
requires Ph.Ds for
their non-clinical tenure track faculty; the School of Nursing only
requires a
Masters degree. There are also differing missions and philosophies that
need to
be resolved.
Fourteen
ICA members were present at the meeting; several others who could not
be
present sent comments. The fourteen present at the meeting voted to
support the
merger in principle—we didn’t feel we were familiar enough
with the details to
do more than that. One member who could not be present cast a
“No” vote. She
was concerned about the extent to which the faculties at the College of
Nursing
and the School of Nursing had or had not been consulted and involved in
merger
discussions as there was nothing in the proposal about this. She was
also
concerned that there was nothing In the proposal about where the
Stratford
programs would fit.
Research, and Graduate and
Professional Education Committee
On
January 24, 2014, The Research and Graduate & Professional
Education Committee
(RGPEC) of the Rutgers University Senate heard testimony from William
Holzemer,
Dean, College of Nursing – Newark campus, about the proposed
merger of the
College of Nursing (Newark and New Brunswick) and the Rutgers School of
Nursing
(legacy UMDNJ) into one school, the Rutgers School of Nursing.
From
a strategic perspective, Dean Holzemer explained that the merger will
create
the largest nursing school in the United States, with more than 1,800
students.
Since 90% of the programs at the current schools are identical, as
specified by
the State’s licensing board, minimal programmatic impact will be
felt.
Operational issues surrounding the merger include addressing the
existence of
two different faculty unions, two salary structures, and two teaching
loads.
The
RGPEC recognizes that the culture shift for faculty, students, and
staff
affiliated with both institutions will be time consuming, and is
pleased to see
that mechanisms are in place to address these changes. We also
recognize that
changes will be needed in both the admissions systems and the grants
application systems. The care with which merger issues are being
addressed bodes
well for the future of the merged schools.
By
acclamation of the members present at the January 24 RGPEC, we support
the
merger of the College of Nursing (Newark and New Brunswick) and the
Rutgers
School of Nursing (legacy UMDNJ) into one Rutgers School of Nursing.
Gayle
Stein and Jane Otto, committee co-chairs
on
behalf of the RGPEC
Student Affairs Committee
The
Student Affairs Committee voted in support of the concept presented in
the
proposal to merge the nursing programs in Newark and NB.
The
concerns are as follows:
1. There
should be clear name/location
distinction with the newly merged programs and the School of
Nursing-Camden.
Our suggestions were: School of Nursing-Newark/NB or School of
Nursing-RBHS.
2. The
name of the school on a student's
diploma needs to be resolved for any current students. Will they have
the name
of their current school/program(the one they were admitted under) or
the soon
to be created merged school on the diploma? Will it be their choice
which to
have on the diploma?
3. Where
will the newly merged school be
centered in terms of physical location? How will this impact on other
schools/programs located in the same places?
University Structure and
Governance Committee
Report of the University Structure and Governance Committee
Recommendations on the merging of the Rutgers College
of Nursing – Newark & New Brunswick and the
Rutgers School of Nursing – Newark.
Background: The
University Structure and Governance Committee was tasked by the Chair
of the
University Senate, Ann Gould, to look at the proposal by Chancellor
Brian Strom
of the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences to combine Rutgers
College of Nursing – Newark & New
Brunswick and the Rutgers School of Nursing – Newark. Each committee in the Senate has been asked
to assess this proposal and vote as a whole on whether to support or
not a
proposed merger. The USGC and other
committees are tasked with responding to the Executive Committee by
Wednesday
January 29, 2014.
In
preparation, the committee posed a series of questions internally in a
preliminary discussion of the consequences and potential advantages of
this
merger.
The
following questions were posed by committee members prior to the
meeting with College
of Nursing Dean William Holzemer.
1.
What
is
the rationale for the merger?
2.
What
are
the merits of the merger?
3.
What
are
the consequences of not merging the units?
4.
What
will happen to each curriculum?
5.
What
is
the result of the harmonization meetings by the respective faculties?
6.
What
exactly is the committee being asked to do?
7.
What
are
the costs of the merger?
8.
What
are
the savings?
9.
How
will
the admission process change if at all?
10.
What
will happen with enrollments?
11.
Where
is the financial data for the proposal?
12.
How
does the College of Nursing in Camden
relate to the merger? Will it eventually
be merged as well?
13.
What
impact will a potential merger have on
staff?
14.
What
impact will a potential merger have on
Part Time Lecturers?
15.
What
impact will a potential merger have on
Senate entitlements?
A
brief
introduction by Dean Holzemer included an apology to the Senate with
his
admission that the school had been working on this proposal for a year. With the addition of RBHS, most other units
easily moved over into the new Rutgers structure. Nursing
was the only school that had been
duplicated. Dean Holzemer expressed that
the main idea under which the proposal is submitted is to “do no
harm to the
students.” The two nursing schools
are
approximately 10 blocks apart, and space is an issue because what is
currently
available is inadequate.
The
curricula of both schools are approximately 95 percent similar, largely
because
the relevant accrediting body constrains the nursing curriculum. The student side of the merger will be a
unified school (curricula, research), and appears to be a seamless
union. The generic four-year program will
benefit
students due to the expansion. The
administrative
side of the merger will take some time to transition because there are
multiple
unions, and otherlegal and financial issues that need to be worked out.
Upon
conclusion of Dean Holzemer’s remarks, the committee began posing
questions to
better understand the issues at hand.
We
began
with the fact that the document presented to USGC provided information
about
what is going to occur for a merger but not any rationale for said
merger.
1.
The
proposal was originally released and tailored to the Board of Trustees
only. The schools had no sense that the
Senate would be involved and subsequently that is why the information
needed by
the Senate is missing. No one involved
in the merger process indicated that they knew the Senate must be
involved
until now.
2.
The
fundamental reason for the merger is that Nursing is a small community. For Rutgers to have an impact statewide and
nationally requires a large presence.
Running small schools maintains a mediocre reputation. Coming together allows for the potential to
becoming a national and global powerhouse.
3.
The
mandate originally came from President Barchi to create efficiencies
and reduce
complexity.
4.
No
extra
costs will be passed on. The merged
school will manage all additional costs through their existing
discretionary
funds.
5.
No
negative consequences other than the transitional issues are seen by
Dean
Holzemer.
6.
Both
faculties do support the merger.
7.
Enrollments
will stay the same.
8.
Faculty
will stay the same with some additional recruiting.
USGC: Will programs currently in Newark, come to
New Brunswick?
1.
Some
will, and some will not because of clinical affiliations in Newark that
are
missing in New Brunswick.
2.
USGC: Is there a transitional plan for the
administrative
issues?
1.
Yes,
the
financial and legal teams are working on this.
Some discussion will continue about RIAS vs. Banner as one
example.
2.
Working
with Academic Affairs concerning faculty issues.
3.
Space
issues still need to be resolved.
USGC: One combined student body?
What are the consequences for administration?
1.
Yes
both
student and faculty bodies will be combined into one student and one
faculty
body.
2.
Dean
Holzemer will be appointed as the Dean of the merged school. Dean
Salmond will
act as the Executive Vice Dean.
3.
Administrative
draft of the structure will go to faculty shortly, and changes are
anticipated.
4.
Proposing
a change from department structure to a functional entry, undergraduate
programs, advanced practice and the science as three functional areas.
USGC: No cost impact on the university as
stated. Will using school reserves have
any impact on the university as a whole?
1.
It
is
not likely to have an effect on the university budget.
2.
One
area
long term will be in the construction of new building including
simulation
laboratories. This will impact RBHS as a
whole.
3.
Simulation
labs are needed since it is difficult to get into hospitals for
clinical
training. Community colleges have
saturated those areas.
USGC: In the future is Camden being considered for
inclusion?
1.
Camden
was invited.
2.
Camden
has indicated that they are not interested.
Newark and New Brunswick are open to this if Camden does become
interested.
USGC: Are their plans to consult with the student
body before any construction occurs? Students felt they were not
previously
consulted with other Nursing facility projects.
1.
Meetings
with Vice President for Facilities and Capital Planning Tony Calcado
continue.
2.
Satellite
areas are being looked at throughout the state.
3.
Students
are included on multiple levels and will continue.
USGC: Has it been established that Camden will not
object to the name?
1.
They
are
the Rutgers, Camden School of Nursing, new name is going to be Rutgers
School
of Nursing.
2.
Right
now there are two Schools of Nursing and one College of Nursing.
3.
Unsure
if they will object though none has been heard.
USGC: Does 66 clinical track include NTT include
PTLs? Merging includes PTLs?
1.
They
are
all full-time.
2.
PTLs
are
part of the 500 listed; the 66 are only full-time faculty.
USGC: What, if any, will be the impact on
accrediting bodies?
1.
Planning
on how accreditation will be maintained, curricula changing minimally.
2.
All
accredited by CCNE, with $25,000.00 annual dues per school.
Committee
Conclusions:
Concerns
include the lack of information on financials and rationale for the
merger.
We
don’t
yet know how much of the school’s reserves will be used for the
merger. We do not have any financial data
on cost
savings or increased costs. We do not
have any idea of potential impact on faculty and staff at this time.
The
structure, research teaching, curricula, funding and impact do point
toward
merging. The increased impact from
combining schools will enable more funding and national recognition.
Although
it does not include all three campuses, this consolidation does appear
timely
to the committee and is a good start toward a complete integration of
disciplines.
Committee
Recommendation:
USGC
has
heard and read nothing that would recommend against merging these
schools.