Study: N.J. colleges wasteful
An investigator said wasteful spending is rampant at the state's public institutions.
TRENTON - A top state investigator yesterday said wasteful spending is rampant at New Jersey public colleges and universities and urged lawmakers to impose stricter oversight.
Cary Edwards, chairman of the State Commission of Investigation, told the Assembly Higher Education Committee an inquiry found lax financial oversight and paltry accounting rules at the state's public colleges.
Edwards, a former attorney general, said the SCI review found a "wide spectrum of serious problems and weaknesses."
"What we found was more than disturbing," Edwards said. "No one quite understands what's going on at those institutions."
New Jersey has 31 public colleges that enroll more than 385,000 students and will get $2.2 billion in state aid this fiscal year.
The SCI, an independent state agency created to uncover government corruption, found officials taking gifts from contractors, indecipherable accounting, patronage and questionable borrowing, hiring and spending.
Edwards told lawmakers the state Commission on Higher Education should become a cabinet-level department, restoring some oversight lost when the Department of Higher Education was axed by lawmakers in 1994.
Yesterday's hearing comes with Gov. Corzine mulling billions in spending cuts for the budget he is set to introduce today. State aid for colleges and universities is expected to be among the cuts.
"There are some draconian cuts that are going to be on the horizon, and I do not want higher education to be a victim," said Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan (D., Middlesex), the committee chairman.
But he said lawmakers need to be convinced public colleges and universities wisely spend taxpayer money.
Tuition at the state's 10 four-year colleges averages $7,083, up 15 percent since 2006 when Corzine took office.
Richard L. McCormick, the Rutgers University president, said tough audits have found the university properly manages money and decried calls for increased state regulation.
"Universities have a unique mission, vital for democracies to flourish and economies to prosper, and they must maintain their intellectual independence," McCormick said.