NJ Colleges Try To Solve Fiscal Woes

Courier Post
Jane Roh
February 8, 2010

VOORHEES — High unemployment and economic uncertainty have swelled the rolls of New Jersey's public universities and community colleges. Yet many administrators are hamstrung by slashed funding, rising costs, and an inability to hire more faculty.

Call it the recession-education paradox.

Gov. Chris Christie's transition report on higher education criticized the exodus of college-bound students out of state and a funding formula that
places state schools in debt.

But with a deficit forecast in the billions, Christie has warned that it will be difficult for Trenton to address these shortcomings immediately. Many school administrators anticipate aid cuts.

Last month, Christie said the state "will have to make better use of the resources showered on education." He has also pledged to increase funding for higher education during his first term, if not his first year.

The economic climate doesn't necessarily preclude leaving public college and university students out in the cold, lawmakers said. Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, D-Camden, chairwoman of the Assembly's Higher Education Committee, hopes to help the state's universities and colleges navigate a
difficult budget.

"I'm going to the colleges and looking at opportunities where they can make budget cuts," Lampitt said. "There are some things that strapped them, such as bonding and funding. These have increased their debt service."

Lampitt said she would also try to liberate schools from unfunded mandates.

Reduced tuition for state residency can become an even more attractive draw during tough times. Schools are reporting higher enrollments. But more
students don't always equal a commensurate increase in revenues. In many cases, faculty are finding themselves stretched thin amid layoffs and
attrition.

The problem was serious enough at Rutgers University that faculty made sacrifices so the school could add hires. The university is still grappling
with a $44 million shortfall.

County colleges, which are cheaper to operate, also have not kept pace with growing enrollments.

"We don't have enough staff," said Raymond Yannuzzi, president of Camden County College. He estimates an increase of up to 600 students this year.

Educators say the burden of the recession is also being placed on students. Each of the tri-county colleges raised tuition last year and expect to do so again this year.

"We have one of the lower tuitions in the state of New Jersey, but that's not going to be a statement I can make in a year or two," said Robert C. Messina Jr., president of Burlington County College.

The school raised tuition by 12 percent to 13 percent last year, he said. Administrators at Gloucester and Camden county colleges also have raised tuition, and statewide many public schools, have joined them.

While stressing that teachers are an easy scapegoat in difficult times, Lampitt agreed with conservative critics that future faculty benefit packages should look "significantly different" than previous ones. She
also considers the system whereby the state negotiates public university salaries and leaves institutions with the bill an unfunded mandate.

"We should be looking at that formula and where we are with the salary structure," she said.

Labor contracts and benefits are popular targets of ire in New Jersey, but schools contend that employees are sharing in sacrifices.

Rutgers also was able to negotiate a salary freeze with most union employees last fall.

Republicans and Democrats also share a vision to promote county colleges more, push more Garden State students to seek advanced degrees, and seek
synergies among schools, businesses, and communities.

"One of my goals this year is to work very closely with all the sectors to try and make education cost-affordable. We have this mind-set here in New Jersey that to go off to college means going to a four-year college," Lampitt said. "We need to do a better job within high school of educating them on schools where the financial impact is far less."

Christie has pledged new grants for state and community schools to update alternative energy and other vocational training, something many Democrats endorse. There is also bipartisan agreement to bring businesses and schools
together to help ensure a skilled and competitive work force in the state.

Lampitt, a general manager of conference services at the University of Pennsylvania, is viewed as a learned advocate for higher education.

"She clearly has an understanding of higher education, and that's the strength she has. Her experience lends itself to the broader conversation and she has a good perspective," Rowan University spokesman Joseph Cardona said.

Rough patches

Christie's transition report criticized New Jersey for being one of the few states that doesn't not provide capital funding for public colleges and universities. As a result, institutions borrow heavily, making them "among the most leveraged in the country."

In a meeting with state higher education officials, Christie renewed a pledge to invest more in colleges and universities to help reduce an "over-reliance" on tuition and fees during his first term. But he warned that he probably would not be able to get to this agenda item in 2010.

Lampitt said she looked forward to working with the administration on the issue, and stressed that state schools were "so plugged in to the local economy" that "investing in higher education creates jobs."

Capital funding is a key part of that investment," she added.

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, recently co-sponsored a bill that would steer federal stimulus dollars to state schools.

Also, Democrats last year backed former Gov. Jon S. Corzine's creation of a new Secretary of Higher Education cabinet-level position. But the transition report recommended scrapping the Commission on Higher Education and replacing it with a leaner agency that reports to the governor.

Now that the fight to extend in-state tuition to illegal immigrants is dead, the next potential battle could be over revising the NJ STARS and NJ STARS II scholarship programs, committee members said.

While acknowledging that the STARS programs are viewed as unfunded mandates, Lampitt still championed them as a path for lower-income residents toward a college degree. She pointed out that the program had been streamlined to apply to the top 15 percent of high school classes, changed from 20 percent. Lampitt added that it was too soon since that modification for four-year institutions to see the cost savings.

The transition committee recommended lowering the 15 percent bar to 2 percent to 5 percent and bringing down the grant cap to $4,000 to $5,000 per year, for a maximum of four years.

While agreeing with the spirit of the $17.8 million STARS programs, Addiego said its breadth ought to be reconsidered.

The committee also recommended applying the scholarships to all public institutions, rather than having recipients spend their first two years at
community schools and then go to a college or university. That's not a change that will sit well with community schools, which are at odds with four-year institutions on this issue.

"STARS is designed to be a program to keep talented students in New Jersey. It saves students and their parents money," Yannuzzi said. "The top 2 (percent) to 5 percent are probably going to elite institutions already."

Yannuzzi added that allowing the top 15 percent of every class to attend college at reduced or no cost was crucial for students with solid but not stellar academic records who are too poor to pay full tuition but not quite so poor that they qualify for other aid.

"STARS is absolutely an unfunded mandate," countered Matthew Golden, spokesman for the College of New Jersey. "We are forced to bear the costs of students coming into the institution because it doesn't cover full tuition and fees."

Because of STARS' broad scope, which considers only class ranking and not need or SAT scores, schools like the College of New Jersey argue they must deny resources to more gifted applicants who are needy while accepting lower-performing STARS recipients, so long as their family income tops out
at $250,000.

Around 30,000 college students leave the state and approximately 3,600 come into the state, according to the commission report. Even critics of the program agree that the point of STARS is to address the state's brain drain, but add that costs should be cut.

"Everyone wants spending cuts but nobody wants cuts where they have an interest. Unfortunately cuts have to be everywhere," said Assemblyman Samuel D. Thompson, R-Middlesex, who taught while pursuing his doctorate. "If you don't have the dollars, you can't spend the dollars. It's as simple as that."