New federal relations director knows Capitol Hill
Archived article from Oct 4, 2004
By Ashanti M. Alvarez
Francine Newsome Pfeiffer became director of Rutgers’ Office of Federal Relations in July after longtime director Leslie Koepplin retired. In addition to campaigning for student aid, her office is responsible for advocating for higher research budgets, lobbying members of Congress for federal budget earmarks and helping Rutgers adjust to the ever-changing political climate in Washington.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, the federal relations office has worked to make it easier for international students to get on campus and stay here. Federal funding for stem cell research is also a top priority. “Our goal would be to have the current limitations on federal funding for stem cell research be lifted, so we can really augment the investment made at the state level. It seems like the time is right,” Newsome Pfeiffer said, adding that Rutgers recently joined the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a group advocating stem cell research and therapeutic (not reproductive) cloning.
Washington, D.C., is a long way from Williamstown in Gloucester County, where Newsome Pfeiffer grew up. She has a soft spot for students who aren’t as privileged as others.
Newsome Pfeiffer (RC ’95) felt the difference firsthand as a White House intern in 1995. Working in Washington, D.C., for the first time, she noted that the children of large donors or otherwise politically influential families often got prime assignments.
“Most of them had contacts. In fact, one of the interns would get placed in the West Wing to staff the assistant to the president for domestic policy. And the appointment was made based on someone’s dad being a really big donor,” Newsome Pfeiffer recalled.
Newsome Pfeiffer’s working-class background informs her work ethic today. She holds dear one of the top priorities of her office – ensuring adequate federal support for student aid programs – and five years ago started the Rutgers in Washington program, a collaboration with Career Services. The program helps Rutgers students figure out the essentials of working and living in Washington.
“I think so many students at Rutgers, particularly if they have a lot of financial need, tend to think Washington isn’t for them,” Newsome Pfeiffer said. “I want to make sure that there are options and alternatives.”
Although her family may not have had the money to buy their way into the political process, they did it the old-fashioned way. Both of her parents were active in the local political committee. “I grew up going to pig roasts,” recalled Newsome Pfeiffer. “The sense of how important it was to be involved in politics was instilled at a pretty young age.”
Newsome Pfeiffer spent her years at Rutgers doing decidedly nonpolitical things – she was an intercollegiate gymnast for three years and worked as a preceptor on the Busch and College Avenue campuses. But she relished her political science courses, and when it came time to get some real world experience, she went to Career Services and applied for a White House internship.
At the same time, she dug into a class taught by former Gov. Jim Florio called “Decision Making in the 1990s.” Until then, Newsome Pfeiffer had been interested in international law. When she was accepted to the White House program, it cemented her footing in domestic policy.
After the White House, Newsome Pfeiffer worked for several months with a foundation providing civic education for junior high school and high school students. Then she saw a job advertisement in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call for a government relations assistant at Rutgers’ Washington office.
“I didn’t know they had an office in Washington. I didn’t know that universities generally had lobbying offices. At that point it [higher education lobbying] was even newer than it is today,” Newsome Pfeiffer said. “It was Rutgers. I’m passionate about Rutgers. It has served me well so far.”
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