TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Labor unions representing faculty, staff and others who would be affected by an ambitious plan to overhaul higher education in New Jersey have asked lawmakers to tweak the bill so that thousands of current employees are protected.
The unions are seeking amendments to the measure that insure collective bargaining rights and contracts, limit the authority of a new Rowan University/Rutgers-Camden governing board, and guarantee no layoffs at University Hospital in Newark by providing financial stability to the money-losing teaching hospital.
A draft of their recommendations was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
There’s no word on which changes, if any, will make it into the 100-page bill before it’s voted on by lawmakers. The bill gets its first legislative hearing on Thursday.
The legislation creates a quasi-merger between Rowan and Rutgers-Camden and transfers most of the University of Medicine and Dentistry to Rutgers. The School of Osteopathic Medicine in Gloucester County would go to Rowan, which was granted a medical school in 2009 in partnership with Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Restructuring proponents envision broader educational opportunities in South Jersey, especially in the health sciences. They include Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic Party leader George Norcross III. Norcross is Cooper’s chairman; his brother, Sen. Donald Norcross, is among the sponsors of the bill.
Rowan University’s trustees signed off on the legislation Monday, but they asked to retain authority over matters on the Glassboro campus. The legislation as drafted calls for a new joint board to oversee Rowan and Rutgers-Camden. The trustees and the unions want the new board’s authority limited to collaborations between the schools.
The legislation also calls for the Camden and Newark campuses to be overseen by new, eight-member governing boards. Rutgers wants to retain authority over the satellite campuses; the bill as is gives the university ultimate authority over Newark but not Camden.
The amendments also seek job protections for all current employees — including assurances that current contracts will be honored and that tenure and other rankings will be upheld. The unions are also seeking assurances that no one will be laid off as a result of the overhaul.
Another area of concern is cost. Rowan would assume the osteopathic school’s debt under the proposal, and Rutgers would absorb UMDNJ’s debt, which totals hundreds of millions of dollars.
Rutgers’ two governing boards — the Board of Trustees, which is mainly advisory, and the more powerful Board of Governors — last week affirmed principles objecting to any loss of autonomy on its campuses, but they authorized negotiators to try and work out a compromise with the Legislature.
The proposed amendments address some but not all of the boards’ concerns.