Sweeney: a partnership, not a takeover

NJ State Senate President Steve Sweeney sees the future of Rutgers-Camden as a "partnership" with, and not a "takeover" by, Rowan University.

"We have to respect the Rutgers name," the West Deptford Democrat says.

Taken aback by fierce resistance -- including from the faculty of the Rutgers School of Law-Camden -- to the proposed shotgun marriage of South Jersey's two public universities, Sweeney, George E. Norcross 3d and other local political leaders are campaigning to recast, if not reconfigure, Gov. Christie's proposal.

The notion of severing Rutgers-Camden from the statewide Rutgers system and merging its downtown campus with suburban Rowan is contained in the final report of a gubernatorial advisory commission, the members of which appear to have spent most of their time re-allocating the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's assets among Rutgers-New Brunswick and other institutions in the northern and central parts of the state.

Clearly, some form of Rowan-Rutgers merger was supposed to be presented to the public as a means of  ending the step-child status of Rutgers-Camden. (Consider: Rutgers' current $1.5 billion wish list of construction projects includes less than $150 million for the Camden campus).

Democratic leaders also saw the UMDNJ report as, among other things, a mechanism to ultimately create a single South Jersey research university of a scale and scope commensurate with the region's size.

But the typically unequivocal tone of Christie's announcement ("this is going to happen") suggested the proposal -- with its enormous ramifications for students, faculty, alumni, donors, and the municipalities of Camden and Glassboro -- is a done deal.

"It's a concept," Sweeney says. "Everyone should take a deep breath so we can get some answers to the questions."

One might argue that the Senate president himself could use a breather; last weekend he compared an anti-merger rally at the Camden campus to a "lynch mob."

But Sweeney insists he "meant what I said," and suggests that Wendell Pritchett, chancellor of Rutgers-Camden, ought to have dampened the protests by making clear to all currently enrolled students that their diplomas will be from Rutgers, not Rowan.

"When I heard about the rally, I was absolutely furious," Sweeney says. "I'm the Senate president. Wendell Pritchett has my number. He didn't bother to call me. And he still hasn't called me."

Pritchett's office declined to comment.