New Jersey Association of

State Colleges and Universities
committed to college opportunity for new jersey citizens

150 West State Street, Trenton, New Jersey 08608                       609-989-1100     609-989-7017 fax                   njascu@njascu.org

NJ Colleges Supplement State Funds
Coping with New Realities

by Darryl G. Greer

Home News Tribune

April 5, 2005

 

The leaders of New Jersey's state colleges and universities realize that state government is coping with a dismal fiscal reality that means, for the time being, no major new investment in higher education.  We realize that New Jersey is not alone; many states are in similar fiscal binds, even though more students than ever are bound for college.

Given New Jersey's multibillion-dollar structural deficit, it is a relief to know that higher education is valued and was not summarily put on the chopping block in acting Gov. Richard J. Codey's spending plan for fiscal year 2005-2006.  While his proposal doesn't fully cover mandatory increases in personnel costs, it covers these expenses partially, and the colleges are accustomed to finding ways to reduce costs and raise institutional revenues.

Our association's members - The College of New Jersey, Kean University, Montclair State University, New Jersey City University, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Rowan University, Richard Stockton College, Thomas Edison State College, and William Paterson University - are grown-up institutions and fully capable of adjusting to new realities.

Certainly these colleges would benefit from more support from the state.  While our institutions will voice the need for more money, we will be realistic about our prospects, keeping in mind that the state, with funds in short supply, faces other pressing public service demands.

Here is what the public can expect from state colleges and universities:

We will continue to find ways to reduce our costs and gain efficiencies within the constraints of current state laws and regulations;

We will continue to find creative new ways to raise additional funds for strengthening programs from varied sources other than charges to students (a dramatic case in point being the recent Rohrer Foundation gift of $10 million to Rowan University);

We will work creatively to keep college affordable, especially for needy students;

We will continue to point out the degree to which the state investment measures up to our fiscal needs and state-mandated cost increases;

We will call attention to the direction of trends regarding student demand and affordable education;

We will continue to recommend to state officials ways that the state might secure revenues that would permit major new investments in academic facilities, technology and faculty, to help meet pent up demand;

We will continue to make the case for a multibillion dollar voter-approved, higher education facilities bond to expand opportunity, as the state fiscal picture brightens;

We will work with the governor and legislature toward enactment of legislation that will update decades old state requirements, toward the goal of making our operations, particularly purchasing and construction, more cost-effective; and

We will continue to be accountable and uphold the sacred trust placed in us as public institutions working for the good of all in New Jersey.

The state can help us in ways other than giving us money.  Currently there are companion bills in the Legislature, introduced by state Senator Wayne Bryant and Assemblyman Lou Greenwald, both D-Camden, which will save our institutions millions of dollars.  The bills, S-1543 and A-2641, untie college administrators' hands regarding purchasing and contracting.  Friends of higher education and taxpayers should let their representatives know they support them.

Will New Jersey ever move from its lowly position of 45th in the nation in four-year public college enrollment per 1,000 residents, and first place in the net loss of students migrating across state lines to attend college?  Such progress will require a set of trim, highly evolved, top-notch public colleges and universities.

Darryl G. Greer is executive director and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities.

 

 
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