We support the general concept of a merger of the three research universities, provided that there is adequate and sustained funding to advance to the next level of academic excellence.  We support maintaining the name of Rutgers University, as well as its status as a land-grant university.  The merged system should preserve the level of autonomy Rutgers University currently has with regards to control of its funding and assets, and in other areas.   This could be achieved by retaining the current Board of Trustees and Board of Governors structure appropriately modified for representation by all institutions.  An important issue in the merger is the post-merger status of University Hospital in Newark, which is now owned by UMDNJ.  University Hospital serves an important social role in the Newark community, and we feel strongly that its funding must be directly ensured by the state legislature as a clear statutory obligation.

There is no documented justification for a three-way split between Camden, Newark and new Brunswick.  There may be arguments for a two-way split between New Brunswick/Camden and Newark.  In particular, the following issues have not been adequately addressed:

1. Any split, with the concomitant duplication of services and infrastructure, would incur significant costs that would require substantial additional state funding.

2. The state funding necessary to make all three proposed universities into institutions of great excellence has not been clearly and definitively committed.

3. The creation of a state bureaucracy to manage these three universities would incur significant costs.

4. The state is currently in a difficult financial situation, and taxpayers might not support large additional expenditures to implement this plan.

Given these doubts and concerns, we support a phased plan in which the one-to-five-year implementation period of the report would be split into two parts:

1. Review and implementation of the merger of the three research universities first, with the deferral of the decision whether there will be a split of the Camden, Newark and New Brunswick campuses from each other, and, if so, whether it will be a two- or three-way split.

2. The final decision should be made only after a post-implementation review of the impact of the merger, and there is certainty of completely adequate funding to achieve the next level of excellence.

We support the legitimate aspirations of any campus to be an independent university if and when adequate resources are available.  Until then, there should be increased autonomy for each campus.  Finally, more effort should be made to get a sense of the sentiments of the university community on these questions.