After a standoff that shut down the New Jersey state government for a week, the legislature and governor agreed on a budget that does nothing to help a bad funding situation for public higher education in the state. In the face of a $150 million cut, the only solace for the faculty and academic unions that pressed hard for adequate support is that their activism warded off an even worse result.

A rally of 10,000 New Jersey state and local government employees, including faculty, whipped up attention in Trenton June 19 to win back budget money threatened by cuts so deep they would have created layoffs and pay freezes at state colleges and universities. Back from the brink came about $150 million of the $300 million in decreases originally proposed. "There was substantial restoration of the original [cutback] proposal," says Nick Yovnello, president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals/AFT, "enough to see to it that the jobs of our people are secure, that there is money for health benefits, and to alleviate somewhat the need for tuition hikes." But remaining cuts will keep schools scrambling to redefine their spending.

The decision over college funding was dramatically stalled when the legislature failed to pass the state budget by its July 1 deadline, and New Jersey gradually shut down select government operations over the course of the following week. As the legislature and governor wrangled over an enormous budget deficit ($4.5 billion), state parks, beaches, race tracks, many state courts, and the motor vehicles commission closed, and public schools had to wait on the $400 million in state aid scheduled for release July 5. More than 45,000 state employees were sent home. Colleges and universities remained in operation.

The final cut to higher ed will be difficult to mitigate. The budget bill caps tuition at 8 percent, so costs will not be passed easily on to students. To underscore the cap, the state will penalize colleges exceeding the limit with a 5 percent reduction in their state funds for every 1 percent they raise tuition beyond the cap. The state will fund benefits, as it has traditionally; those were threatened in the initial budget proposal. But it will not cover $40 million in salary increases, bargained through the union, that now must be covered by individual institutions. The salaries of "senior managerial employees" have been frozen. Also cut away was $4.3 million for a recruitment program designed to attract New Jersey students to state schools.

Many schools expect layoffs, position eliminations, course cancellations and diminished programs university-wide. At Rutgers, Lisa Klein, president of the full-time chapter of AAUP-AFT, says anecdotes are flying about non-tenure track faculty who have already had to leave the college, and the board of governors may vote this week to postpone salary increases in place through a negotiated contract. "We view this as a violation of our contract," says Klein, who adds that while full-time faculty salaries are on the chopping block, salaries for graduate employees are not.   

Such a climate only casts further shadow on dismal statistics that set New Jersey up as a poster child for the perils of poorly funded higher education.

In "Flunking Out: New Jersey's Support for Higher Education Falls Short," the New Jersey Policy Perspective shows that the money New Jersey sets aside for higher ed has diminished by half over the last 23 years. Tuition, jacked up to cover what the state does not, is so high 36 percent of New Jersey families send their children to out-of-state colleges and universities—more than any other state. Enrollment capacity is low, anyway: state schools reject 75 percent of the New Jersey residents who apply, and the state ranks 45th in the nation in its capacity to serve higher ed students.

"Underfunding of higher education is, unfortunately, a national trend," says Amy Bahruth, president of Rutgers' Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter, AAUP/AFT.  "The problem in New Jersey is that we were behind most other states to begin with so our case is more extreme."

The biggest issue, as union leaders see it, is a lack of specific funding. "There should be a dedicated source of funding," says Klein. "That way [higher ed] is seen as a priority." [Barbara McKenna]

July 11, 2006