By Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor
NJ Today
To acknowledge the significance of the new integrated Rutgers, as officials describe it, the old queens bell rang 34 times.
“It is exciting and I think that I’m hopeful that everything will go smoothly,” Medical Student Sharon Vaz said. “I know a lot of people have been working really hard to make this merger go as smooth as possible.”
University officials say the new Rutgers — with a student population of 65,000 — is a powerhouse and now ranks among the top 25 research universities in the nation. As part of a higher education restructuring act, Rutgers absorbed seven of the eight schools that were part of UMDNJ, including Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine and other nursing, dental and biomedical institutions from Newark and Camden.
“We now look at a place like University Hospital that’s having its mission reinforced as a Level 1 trauma center, as a charity care provider for our neediest and as a teaching hospital for the state’s aspiring doctors, nurses and dentists. Rowan University today is established as a public research university,” Gov. Chris Christie said.
“Working as an integrated whole and drawing on the resources of both legacy partners, we can provide research opportunities, educational programs and clinical initiatives that multiply those numbers rather than just adding them together. That’s the synergy,” said Rutgers President Robert Barchi.
Getting to this point wasn’t easy. Previous governors proposed similar ideas but hit roadblocks. Gov. Christie’s initial plan to fold Rutgers Camden into Rowan sparked protests and outrage by some students and faculty. But once that idea was dropped, Christie found bipartisan support in the legislature.
“So today, after literally more than a decade of work, Rutgers University takes a great leap into a very bright future,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski.
But there are still vocal critics, among them New Jersey Sen. Ron Rice who talked to NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider before the deal was approved last summer.
“There’s been no financial audit of all the institutions that are involved. There’s been no audit of the capital needs of those institutions,” Rice said.
One-time merger costs are $76 million. After taking on UMDNJ’s debt, the tally for Rutgers now stands at about $1 billion. As result, its credit rating was lowered. Despite this, Barchi and Gov. Christie are being credited with completing what school officials call the largest university merger in U.S. history.
Related: Rowan University President Pleased with College Merger Progress