Our Issues

Issues Facing New Jersey’s State Colleges and Universities

College affordability must be improved. The public is rightfully concerned about college costs, especially when it comes to having an affordable four-year public college option. The state now only supports about 25% of overall institutional spending at the nine state colleges and universities. The state pays about 45% of educational costs (students/families pay 55%) compared to twenty years ago when the state paid 70% of costs and students/families paid about 30%. This happened not by design, but by circumstance (the state’s overall financial situation and higher education’s relatively low policy priority.)

We support funding policies that could help to rebalance the equation regarding paying for state college education. We also support keeping student financial aid focused on students with financial needs and on merit-based programs which help prevent loss of the state’s best-prepared students.

State college and university capacity should be increased to serve more New Jerseyans and keep them here. New Jersey institutions of higher education are receiving record numbers of applications as the state’s high schools hold steady in producing about 100,000 graduates per year, through 2010. Most of these graduates are college bound. The nine state colleges and universities, which educate nearly 50% of the state college’s four-year graduates, annually, receive about 55,000 applications for about 11,000 full-time, freshman class seats. This means too many qualified must be turned away.

Unfortunately, New Jersey ranks 47th nationally in public four-year undergraduate seats per capita and 49th on a per high school graduate basis. This helps explain why New Jersey is also, by far, the nation’s number one exporter of college bound high school graduates.

We support efforts to help expand state college capacity to keep talented students in New Jersey. We support creative efforts to help students graduate more promptly while still meeting their educational goals – something that can also help with reducing the tuition burden and opening up spaces sooner to serve new students.

Predictable state college funding is the key to opportunity, affordability and quality. State support for higher education has been inconsistent over the past two decades. In recent years, there have been many cuts when the state needed to balance its budget. Unfortunately, the cost of higher education has been shifted so that now the major share falls on students and their families. While institutions can raise private monies to enhance quality or support special programs, such funds cannot replace basic state aid.

We support the concept of multi-year funding plan practiced in several states. We believe the state should live up to its responsibilities to fund adequately operations, the negotiated salary increases it mandates, and facilities renewal. We also support state incentives and deregulation that encourages public-private partnerships and philanthropy by generous New Jersey citizens.

Investment in colleges/universities facilities increases student capacity, educational quality, and state economic competitiveness. To accommodate increased demand with diminished state support, state colleges and universities have been financing their own revenue (dormitories) and non-revenue (classrooms) construction projects. This means taking on institutional debt supported by increases in student fees, thereby reducing affordability for students and families. Abuse of state investment in facilities also makes New Jersey less competitive in creating and attracting jobs generated by higher education.

We support public-private partnerships that allow expansion of capacity without further accumulation of institutional debt. We also believe the state should fund programs to provide a regular budget and support for state college facilities construction, renewal and maintenance.

Nonpartisan boards of trustees are key to state college/university productivity and accountability. State colleges and universities are governed by independent, non-partisan citizens appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. They protect the colleges from political intrusion and set policy governing academic and financial affairs and hold the institutions in public trust.

We support efforts that strengthen trustee boards that protect them from political interference and that enhance their public accountability. Polls, as recent as 2009, show that this is precisely what the public wants.