N.J. Governor Wants to Merge Thomas Edison Into Rutgers

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Thomas Edison president takes dim view of proposed Rutgers merger - NJ.com

TRENTON -- The president of Thomas Edison State College said yesterday the school would fight a budget proposal suggesting the college merge with Rutgers University, a plan president George Pruitt said "was not in the public interest."

For the four-year college, the news coming out of Gov. Chris Christie's budget address Tuesday was disheartening to say the least -- the institution was granted zero state funding, after receiving $5.6 million last year.

But of more serious concern to Pruitt was a proposal buried within the governor's 142-page "Budget in Brief."

"The Governor's Fiscal 2011 Budget replicates Rutgers' central role in the revitalization of downtown New Brunswick by proposing to bring Rutgers to the Capital City through a merger with Thomas Edison State College," it reads, noting further down that Rutgers would also take over the State Library, which Thomas Edison oversees, and the State Museum.

Thomas Edison serves a distinct sector of students -- almost all of the 18,000 currently enrolled are adults looking to continue their education on a flexible basis while working, raising a family or after retiring from the military, for instance.

The average age of a typical Thomas Edison student is 40, Pruitt said, and many utilize online courses and distance learning, as opposed to classroom-based institutions like Rutgers or The College of New Jersey nearby.

Pushing the college under the umbrella of Rutgers would not serve the students who have come to rely on the school's specialized programs and approach, he said.

"This is a very distinctive institution that serves a very special niche within higher education," he said. "We play a special role and that role requires us to be autonomous and separate from other institutions."

Pruitt also took issue with the proposal's suggestion that bringing Rutgers into the picture would ignite economic development in Trenton, saying he didn't see how changing the name from "Thomas Edison" to "Rutgers" would increase economic opportunities in the capital city.

"I fully appreciate it's a new administration faced with one of the biggest fiscal crises in the nation," he said. "But the policy rationale I just don't understand."

While other colleges have come and gone, often leaving for the outlying suburbs of Mercer County, Thomas Edison chose to move to Trenton from Princeton years ago, he said.

"We're the only institution to make a conscious decision to invest in Trenton," he said. "I don't understand why another new institution would have to come into town for economic development. We've already been here and been here for 30 years."

Rutgers faces its own challenges -- under Christie's proposed budget the university would lose $37.8 million in state funding, part of the $175 million in cuts dealt to higher education as part of Christie's plan to close a glaring deficit in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

"It doesn't make sense financially," Pruitt said. "I don't understand how any money is being saved. The president of Rutgers told me this was not his idea, and he did not know about it and it was not something he coveted or wanted."

Rutgers president Richard L. McCormick touched briefly on the proposed merger in a letter sent out yesterday to the Rutgers community, calling it an "unsolicited proposal" that would "require consultation within and beyond the university community and would ultimately require approval by our boards of governors and trustees."

The governor's budget brief noted Thomas Edison's nontraditional education model and Rutgers' utilization of both classroom and online learning and said "the combination will allow new classroom-based services for students in Trenton, while leveraging the two institutions' distance learning programming."

Representatives from the governor's office could not be reached for further comment on the proposal.

The proposal is not iron-clad of course -- the budget as a whole will require approval from the state Legislature.

Pruitt said the college has been reaching out to the governor's office and legislators in the wake of Christie's budget address to make the case for why Thomas Edison should stand apart as a separate institution of higher learning.

"We are very encouraged by the comments we've had from the leadership in the Legislature from both parties that ... don't seem to understand (this proposal) either," he said.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Ewing, said she will urge her fellow legislators to reconsider any sort of Rutgers merger or takeover.

"I think that if the mission of Thomas Edison College becomes submerged in the priorities of a large university, then the mission will get lost and disappear," she said, adding that Thomas Edison has always been highly involved in the city of Trenton.

"Even the transition team's report on higher education said New Jersey needs to get more serious about it and invest in it and this certainly isn't an investment."