Governor urged to go slow on potential UMDNJ merger
A single state school gains fans in Trenton
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
BY TED SHERMAN AND JOSH MARGOLIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Faculty members and some elected officials voiced concerns yesterday over a proposed merger of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with Rutgers University and other state institutions, a plan gaining momentum in the Legislature.
At an open forum with Gov. Jon Corzine -- who visited the UMDNJ campuses in Newark, Piscataway and Stratford for a series of so-called "town hall meetings" -- the governor was urged not to rush ahead with major changes in the university's structure.
Calls for such change have been growing, amid continuing revelations of widespread waste, fraud and abuse at the state's medical university. UMDNJ remains the focus of a federal criminal investigation and has been battered over the past 12 months by allegations of unbridled patronage, the awarding of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected consultants, and charges of Medicaid fraud.
A governor's task force already is looking at the possibility of merging UMDNJ with Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology to create a single statewide research university. Separately, a joint legislative committee was formed last month and will soon hold hearings on the issue.
Corzine, who fielded questions that ranged from budget cuts and layoffs to the politically sensitive merger issue, opened yesterday's meetings by praising the university and those who work there.
"I believe in this institution, in its people, in its mission," Corzine said. "We have our challenges. There's no question about it. But there's a lot of good things going on at UMDNJ."
He called himself "agnostic" on the possibility of a merger, but also alluded to the failures of the institution and said the state must do more to get additional federal research dollars.
"We have a common objective. That is to make sure we have an institution of excellence. My job is to facilitate and make that happen," he said before a packed auditorium at UMDNJ's New Jersey Dental School in Newark.
However, Rep. Donald Payne (D-10th Dist.) said a merger would do serious damage to Newark-based UMDNJ.
"I totally oppose a merger," said Payne, whose district includes Newark. "It will be a sub-merger for UMDNJ."
Assemblyman William Payne (D-Essex), the congressman's brother, said the state made specific promises of support to the community when UMDNJ was created more than 30 years ago -- known as the Newark agreements -- which should not lightly be broken.
Others said the governor should give the new leadership he installed at UMDNJ a chance to govern. Larry Frohman, one of the university's faculty leaders, suggested a three-year moratorium on a merger.
"Let's see what the new leadership will bring," he said.
UMDNJ researcher Scott Diehl, director of the school's Center for Pharmacogenomics and Complex Disease Research, complained that the university has been in a kind of paralysis since 2003, when former Gov. James E. McGreevey first pressed the case for merger, and said the renewed merger talk made recruiting difficult.
"Any potential top candidates will not touch those positions because they don't know if their jobs will be there," he said, expressing skepticism of the magnitude of benefits of a merger.
Corzine said he has made no decision. Speaking later at the Stratford campus, where the merger issue was far less heated than at Newark, the governor said those advocating for the change will have to prove to him that a merger would be justified.
"You've got to promise to me that you're not going to muck it up," he said, referring to those who have long pushed for one unified institution.
At the same time, he expects a quick resolution of the issue.
"I expect a quick answer back sometime in the next couple of months at a minimum," Corzine said. "We need to make sure that we get together on it. I want this to end, either with a recommendation and an attempt to move whatever is going to happen, or to walk away from it, and restore these institutions."