Provide Adequate and Predictable State Funding
“Greater funding for New Jersey’s colleges and universities is critical to expand college opportunity, decrease student costs, and ensure the prosperity of the state’s economy.”
Report of the New Jersey Higher Education Task Force
While recognizing the state’s severe fiscal hardships, the report makes a strong case for increasing the state’s contribution to capital financing, operating support, and student financial aid. New Jersey’s public colleges and universities have seen a precipitous decline in state funding over the past two decades. “Continuing down a path that bypasses higher education will lead New Jersey to a fragile economy, fewer good jobs, and a vulnerable future,” the task force warns.
The report recommends that, as soon as fiscally possible, New Jersey should:
- Stabilize and enhance its financial support of Rutgers;
- Issue general-obligation bonds to support a revolving fund for capital improvements;
- Issue a higher education bond to provide a significant infusion of financial resources for capital construction;
- Provide annual capital support to state colleges and universities;
- Provide greater financial support for operating budgets;
- Reinstitute Challenge Grants;
- Restore the Higher Education Incentive Funding Program to attract private donations;
- Increase funding for the Educational Opportunity Fund; and
- Make the NJSTARS program broader based and more comprehensive to retain New Jersey’s brightest students.
In addition, the report states:
- “The governor and legislature should not impose tuition caps on Rutgers and the other senior public colleges and universities.”
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Falling State Support
As the report points out, “Compared to many of its national peers, Rutgers is financially disadvantaged.” Appropriations for FY2011 are at the lowest level since 1994, when Rutgers was a much smaller institution with some 10,000 fewer students. In 1994, state funding covered 62.4 percent of the cost of a Rutgers education. In the current fiscal year, state funding covers just 35 percent. Indeed, state appropriations now account for only 20.8 percent of total Rutgers revenue. -
Our Rutgers, Our Future: A Campaign for Excellence
Rutgers has launched a seven-year campaign, Our Rutgers, Our Future: A Campaign for Excellence, to raise $1 billion to sustain the university’s core mission of education, research, and service and to advance Rutgers into the highest ranks of the nation’s flagship public universities. This is the largest campaign in Rutgers history. -
Value of Out-of-State Students
Most Rutgers undergraduates are from New Jersey. But there is real value in increasing the numbers of out-of-state and international students attending the university. As the task force report notes, these students can help diversify the student body, boost intellectual capacity, and contribute much-needed revenue since they pay higher tuition than in-state students.
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