Rutgers-Camden board to hold its first meeting

This just in from my colleague, Jonathan Lai, who covers higher education in New Jersey:

It's official: The Rutgers-Camden Board of Directors is meeting for the first time Friday.

The 10-member board remains incomplete, awaiting two more appointments from Gov. Christie. But the school says it now has a quorum and can move forward, holding its inaugural meeting 10 a.m. Friday in the Camden Campus Center at 326 Penn St. The new board is a result of a state higher-education restructuring that, in part, was designed to give Rutgers-Camden more autonomy.

The first agenda includes standard administrative business such as the election of its officers and adopting bylaws for the new board.

It also includes the election of two members to a joint board with Rowan University. That board has entered the news recently because the state Legislature passed a bill that, among other things, gave the joint board eminent domain power in Camden. Christie, who signed the bill into law in January, was asked about it during a radio show and said he had not heard of the bill.

The joint Rutgers-Rowan board will have seven members when it is complete. Its current appointments are Chad Bruner, Fred Graziano, Jack Collins, Louis Bezich, and Michellene Davis.

The Rutgers-Camden board of directors, when it meets Friday, will have eight of its 10 members:

1. Wendell Pritchett, the campus chancellor

2. Gerald Harvey

3. Anthony DePetris

4. Dudley Rivers

5. Robert Mortensen

6. George Rears

7. Dana Redd, the mayor of Camden

8. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, a former assemblywoman

Redd and Cruz-Perez were appointed by Christie on Jan. 13 and confirmed by the state Senate the same day.