N.J. colleges brace for more cuts

New Jersey's students, public colleges, and universities are bracing for another round of painful cuts after Gov. Christie last week proposed chopping $173 million, or 7.7 percent, of state funding from higher education next fiscal year.

If approved by the Legislature, the spending plan would follow $62 million in midyear budget cuts. Together, the cuts would likely result in tuition increases, fewer new faculty hires, and cuts to several scholarship programs.

"New Jersey keeps heading in the wrong direction," said Darryl Greer, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities. "If it doesn't get fixed, New Jersey doesn't have much of a hope for retaining more talented people in the state.

"We've been behind the 8-ball for a decade," Greer added.

On the campaign trail, Christie singled out higher education as a priority. But facing an estimated budget gap of about $11 billion, in a budget of $29 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1, there were few dollars to rearrange.

"Even with the reduced level of resources available, the governor maintained his commitment to our four-year institutions, community colleges, and New Jersey residents who choose to attend an in-state institution," Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella said. "Furthermore, the governor is calling for a series of reform initiatives that will empower higher-education institutions and help reduce operating costs."

State funding for four-year public colleges is slated to drop 17.7 percent from the current fiscal year, in addition to the cuts already made by Christie in the current fiscal year. County colleges are in line for cuts of 8.6 percent, and student financial assistance for 4.9 percent.

Critics hope the governor will reconsider some of the cuts to higher education.

"These cuts ... show that the governor does not see our institutions of higher education as the vital economic engines they are," said Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D., Camden), chairwoman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. "These cuts will likely force staffing cuts across the board and will limit our colleges and universities' ability to attract and produce the top-notch professionals businesses in the state and across the region have come to expect."

Higher education in New Jersey has already gone through years of cuts or flat funding.

New Jersey ranked 33d among the 50 states in terms of state funding for higher education per capita in 2008-09, and 44th per $1,000 of personal income, according to data compiled by the Grapevine Survey by the University of Illinois.

Last year, the State Higher Education Executive Officers, based in Colorado, found that state spending per full-time student in New Jersey dropped 24.1 percent over the preceding decade, after adjusting for inflation, the sixth-largest drop in the country.

And according to Christie's transition-team report on education, the state ranked last nationwide in terms of the number of public baccalaureate seats provided per high school graduate and has the highest level of outmigration of college students nationwide.

Rowan University President Donald Farish said that while the overall state budget would be set back to somewhere between fiscal years 2006 and 2007, the cuts to Rowan put that institution back to 1994.

"The state is, in essence, ever so gradually extracting itself from its historic commitment to creating affordable, high-quality education," Farish said. "It's difficult because all the low-hanging fruit we've taken care of in previous years."

Farish said at Rowan, the state aid cuts would likely mean the university would be forced to deny admission to some well-qualified students.

"We'll be telling some number of in-state kids we can't take you in, and that's where the impact is going to be felt," Farish said. "That's a serious problem. Those are people the state is counting on getting educated so they can contribute to the economic recovery."

Among the reductions several college and university presidents said they would fight the hardest are cuts to student-aid programs, including Tuition Aid Grants and NJ Stars. Christie has proposed not accepting incoming freshmen into NJ Stars, which allows students who graduate in the top 15 percent of their class free tuition at county colleges and tuition assistance if they later transfer to a state four-year college.

"We hope there's still some avenue of opportunity with the governor's staff and Legislature to look at [NJ Stars] and maybe come up with other ways to save that," said Raymond Yannuzzi, president of Camden County College.

"It's a great help to many students and their families," Yannuzzi said. To freeze enrollment raises doubt as to whether the program might continue in the future, he added.

Burlington County College President Robert Messina said he also feared NJ Stars could be ended altogether if enrollment is frozen.

"A lot of students were counting on the NJ Stars program," Messina said. "Of all the programs they've enacted in my 22 years, that's been the most successful."

Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick said about 80 percent of the students at Rutgers rely on financial aid of some sort, most of them based on financial need. McCormick said he expected enrollment this fall to be as high as ever - perhaps even an all-time high - despite the cuts to financial aid, if only because out-of-state options are even more expensive.

"The problem is that with significantly diminished resources, we're having trouble offering as many courses to those students as we would like," McCormick said.

McCormick, like several other college presidents interviewed, said he understood the state was in a difficult position, but added he hoped Christie would invest more in higher education in coming years.

"I know he realizes higher education is essential to economic opportunity and economic development," McCormick said. "I'm hopeful over the course of his governorship we'll see New Jersey reinvesting in colleges and universities, but clearly not next year."