Rutgers Board of Governors Approves $50 Million in Spending Cuts Following Inadequate State Funding; Staff Cuts, Program Reductions and Increased Student Charges Needed to Balance Shortfall in University’s Budget
July 14, 2006
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers Board of Governors today approved a universitywide budget for the 2006-07 academic year that includes $50 million in spending cuts to programs, staff and services that will affect virtually all academic and administrative operations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
The board approved the university’s 2006-07 spending plan in the wake of the recently adopted state budget, which significantly reduced funding for higher education and left Rutgers with an unprecedented state funding shortfall of more than $66 million. Other mandatory cost increases took the budget shortfall to $80 million.
“This inadequate funding combined with years of declining state support for Rutgers severely inhibit the ability of New Jersey’s most comprehensive public university to fulfill its mission to prepare future generations of well-educated citizens and productive contributors to the state’s economy,” said Albert R. Gamper Jr., chairman of the Rutgers Board of Governors. “My fellow board members and I wish there had been a way to avoid these devastating spending cuts, but we were left with no alternative. These are serious reductions with serious consequences.”
Spending reductions include the elimination of hundreds of courses and course sections, layoffs and programmatic cuts across the university. They range from the phasing out of certain language programs at Rutgers-Newark to the phasing out of six intercollegiate varsity sports in New Brunswick/Piscataway after their 2006-07 seasons.
The Board of Governors also established tuition, fee, and room and board rates for the 2006-2007 academic year. Total charges for a typical in-state undergraduate student living on campus will rise by 6.7 percent. Tuition for most in-state undergraduates will increase 8 percent, to $7,923 for the coming year. Out-of-state tuition will rise 10 percent. Due to inadequate state funding, tuition at Rutgers has increased more than 65 percent since fiscal year 2000.
“The board would have preferred to keep the increase in tuition lower than the 8 percent that most undergraduates will see,” Chairman Gamper said. “However, the severity of the cuts in state funding means that tuition increases are necessary to protect academic programs and student services from even more serious cuts.”
For tens of thousands of New Jersey citizens who attend Rutgers, the impact will be that they will spend more time and money to complete their educations; many others will not be in a position to attend the university under any circumstances, Chairman Gamper added.
Preliminary budget plans developed over the spring will be finalized based on the budget adopted today. These plans include spending cuts in all programs across the university’s campuses.
An estimated 800 courses and course sections will be eliminated in the upcoming academic year, forcing many students to take more time to graduate.
As many as 750 employees and positions will be eliminated: 250 through layoffs and non-reappointments of staff, faculty and teaching assistants; 400 through non-reappointments of part-time lecturers; and 100 other staff positions cut through attrition.
Approximately 100 faculty searches will be called off.
Senior administrators will forgo salary increases with the savings dedicated to student financial assistance.
More than $12 million will be cut from non-salary expenditures, ranging from library collections to building maintenance.
Service hours at university libraries will be reduced.
The Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick will eliminate the Department of Business Environment and International Business.
Enrollments have been suspended for the coming year in the Ph.D. program in Industrial Relations and Human Resources in New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Repairs of computer network outages will take longer at night and on weekends – times when many students rely most on their computers.
The Rutgers-Camden campus has reorganized student services, including academic advising and financial aid, to deliver these services more effectively at a lower cost.
An increasing number of Rutgers publications – including course catalogues and Focus, the university’s faculty-staff newspaper – will no longer be printed on paper. Electronic versions of these publications will continue to be available on the Rutgers Web site, www.rutgers.edu.
To ensure that Rutgers remains accessible to a broad range of New Jersey residents, an additional $1.5 million in university funds will be allocated for student financial aid in the coming academic year.
Another $2.7 million will be set aside to enable the university to honor its commitment to incoming Outstanding Scholars, some of the state’s brightest students. These students had been offered scholarships to Rutgers as part of the state-funded Outstanding Scholars Recruitment Program (OSRP), which had succeeded in keeping many of the best students from leaving New Jersey to attend college. The new state budget eliminates the Outstanding Scholars program for incoming first-year students. It has not been determined if Rutgers will be able to continue the program for additional incoming classes given the severity of the current reductions in state funding.
Six intercollegiate sports – men’s heavyweight crew, men’s lightweight crew, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, men’s swimming and diving, and men’s tennis – will be phased out after their 2006-07 seasons. The university will honor scholarship commitments for student-athletes who compete in these sports and currently receive athletic scholarship funding.
“Throughout this budget crisis, we have stressed that we will keep our word to our students and honor their scholarship commitments,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “Although the university has been forced to make many difficult financial decisions, we are doing everything within our power to guarantee that all students who have been promised an academic or athletic scholarship will continue to have the means to complete their education at Rutgers.”
More than 60 percent of Rutgers undergraduates receive need-based financial aid from federal, state or private sources. While stressing that Rutgers already is a lean operation compared to its peers, President McCormick directed every unit and department across the university to look for potential cost savings. He also will create a permanent Committee on Efficiency and Entrepreneurship at Rutgers that will seek to identify both long-term cost savings and higher returns on the university’s educational and research accomplishments.
In addition, McCormick emphasized that a higher percentage of spending cuts were made to administrative areas. And he expressed his appreciation to the Board of Governors and the entire university community – including students, faculty, staff and alumni – who worked hard in recent months to advocate for quality, affordable education in New Jersey and to emphasize the importance of higher education to the state’s economic strength and social progress.
Established in 1766, Rutgers is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning and one of the nation’s premier public research universities. Serving more than 50,000 students on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick/Piscataway, Rutgers offers more than 280 bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and professional degree programs.
Members of the Rutgers Board of Governors serve with no compensation.
Contact: Greg Trevor
732-932-7084, ext. 623
E-mail: gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu