Good afternoon.\u00a0 I am very pleased to see you all here today, and I will begin by confessing that I am as puzzled as any of the pundits out there about how to interpret the implications for us of the nation\u2019s and the state\u2019s current circumstances.\u00a0 If I were given the opportunity to select a decade in which to effect the substantive growth and development of a large public university, I am thinking this decade is not the one I would have chosen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a recent statement I made to the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, I point out that public higher education has never, at any time in its history, been a high priority for New Jersey.\u00a0 But the dramatic disinvestment in public higher education that has occurred over the last decade is unprecedented, and it has caused a major shift of the costs of public higher education from the state to students and their families, constituting an effective user-tax on a large and very important segment of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
The fundamental principle of public higher education, the principle that is at the heart of our mission, is that individuals with ambition and ability in our state and nation should have the opportunity to go to college without regard to the circumstances of their birth or the income level of their families.\u00a0 And the purpose behind that principle is that this nation needs the contributions that can be made by a broad range of its citizens.\u00a0 I pointed out that seven members of that Senate Committee had been the beneficiaries of public higher education, including Senator Buono, the Chair of the Committee, who is a 精品成人福利在线 graduate.<\/p>\n
At the annual University fundraising dinner several weeks ago, we presented a short glimpse of the face and meaning of public higher education.\u00a0 We pointed to our honorees, two alumni \u2013 Angelo Genova and A. J. Khubani.\u00a0 Angelo graduated in 1975 with a degree in History.\u00a0 Today, he is a leading member of the New Jersey Bar; he has served as an advisor to four governors; he is a highly recognized expert in election law; and he is an active and generous philanthropist.\u00a0 A. J. Khubani graduated in 1984 with a degree in Business Administration.\u00a0 He launched his first direct marketing business while he was a senior at 精品成人福利在线, and, by the age of 26, he had founded and was the CEO of TeleBrands Corporation.\u00a0 Today he is an enormously successful businessman, the undisputed king of infomercials, and also a generous donor and philanthropist.<\/p>\n
More recent graduates include Orlando Cabrera who entered our Health Careers Program in 2000, a program designed to recruit and mentor promising young students from less privileged backgrounds.\u00a0 Orlando graduated in 2004 with a major in Biology, earned a commission in the U.S. Navy, graduated from UMDNJ, and is currently practicing family medicine at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.<\/p>\n
Meshele Scipio graduated in 2007 with a degree in Molecular Biology.\u00a0 She got a job working as a Senior Laboratory Technician for the Rutgers University Cell & DNA Repository.\u00a0 She has now decided that she can make her best contribution by becoming a Biology teacher and mentoring students like herself in the Newark public schools.\u00a0 So she has returned to 精品成人福利在线 as a Prudential Teaching Scholar.<\/p>\n
And for a glimpse at this year\u2019s graduating class, Ron Chicken, who happens to be the president of the Student Government Association, is graduating with a degree in Philosophy and Religion and has been accepted to the Princeton Theological Seminary where he will begin graduate studies this fall.\u00a0 Erica Emmich will graduate this May with a degree in Broadcasting, and she is already well into her career as a journalist.\u00a0 She covered the recent presidential election with the polling firm Rasmussen Reports, and she is now working as a digital reporter for Fox 5, providing Web-exclusive reports for college-age viewers.<\/p>\n
It is these faces that tell the story of why we do what we do.\u00a0 It is the thousands of faces absent from these pictures that pose the question, what could New Jersey be thinking as it cannibalizes its educational and cultural institutions and diminishes the opportunities available to its citizens.<\/p>\n
Let me share a few straightforward facts to focus more specifically on what I mean:<\/p>\n
精品成人福利在线 University has 17,475 students.\u00a0 That is 4,000 more students today than it had in the year 2000.\u00a0 Next year we will have closer to 18,000 students. \u00a0精品成人福利在线 granted degrees to 3,477 students last year.\u00a0 That is 1,200 more degrees than it granted in the year 2000.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding that growth, the Governor\u2019s proposed FY \u201810 budget provides 精品成人福利在线 with direct state appropriation that is less in actual dollars than we received in 2000.\u00a0 When one factors in the effects of inflation, the direct state appropriation proposed for next year represents a 34% decrease in real support over this decade. \u00a0State appropriation per student at 精品成人福利在线 in 2000 was $3,366, already an appallingly low number.\u00a0 In the Governor\u2019s proposed budget, state appropriation per student drops 31% below that 2000 number to $2,411.<\/p>\n
Beyond the gross decline in operating support, there has not been a bond issue for the capital facilities of the state\u2019s public colleges and universities since 1988.\u00a0 While this state spent tens of billions of dollars on facilities construction and continues to spend billions for K-12 schools, not one penny has been spent for the state colleges and universities.\u00a0 Our students have built their own buildings, and despite all that we have built, we are still grossly under-resourced in facilities based on even the most conservative national comparisons.<\/p>\n
In this environment, you can imagine my further disappointment at the fact that there has been no indication to date that any of the federal state stabilization funds will be used for higher education.\u00a0 While other states are talking about how they can use these stimulus funds to secure operating support for public colleges, minimize tuition increases, and provide for facilities renovations, there is, so far, no similar discussion happening in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Applications to our state colleges and universities have been rising every year.\u00a0 This year, 精品成人福利在线 has seen a 20% increase in undergraduate admissions and graduate applications have risen by over 23%.\u00a0 New Jersey citizens are voting with their feet.\u00a0 They want a place in one of their<\/em> state colleges.\u00a0 Many of them won\u2019t get one, and they will continue to be forced out of state.\u00a0 Net out-migration of New Jersey students constitutes close to 40% of the total net out-migration in the nation.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about a net loss of about 29,000 students every year.\u00a0 No other state in the nation does that. New Jersey stands alone in systematically and blithely escorting out the door the very young people who represent our future, after having spent more dollars per student on their primary and secondary education than any other state in the nation.\u00a0 How nice for our competitor states, who, by the way, welcome them in gleefully.<\/p>\n More specifically, as we look ahead to the next fiscal year, the portion of the proposed cut applicable to 精品成人福利在线 is a reduction in our direct State appropriation from $45.5 million this past year to $43.2 million next year, a loss of $2.3 million.\u00a0 In fiscal year 2010, general appropriation as currently proposed would drop to an estimated 26% of our total revenues.<\/p>\n In addition, the State has cut all funding for the state-negotiated salary increases, an additional $1.6 million cut for 精品成人福利在线, and the governor\u2019s modest proposal to us is that we simply furlough our employees to make up this cut.\u00a0 We cannot be certain at this point in time how the budget and the furlough issues will be resolved, but we will be following the situation closely and making sure that the Governor is aware of our concerns.\u00a0 My principal concern is that 精品成人福利在线, as an operating entity, is not anything like a state agency and cannot be treated like one.\u00a0 We are not contracting or failing.\u00a0 We are an expanding enterprise with a balanced budget and sound operating practices, and, far from laying people off, we are hiring new faculty and staff to serve our students, enhance our programs, and develop and maintain our new facilities.\u00a0 It is just that, despite being a so-called public university, we are relying increasingly on non-state revenues, principally tuition and fees.<\/p>\n Even as State investment in public higher education has been shrinking, 精品成人福利在线 has moved forward to create better educational opportunities for more New Jersey students.\u00a0 From fiscal years 2000 through 2009, the University\u2019s operating budget has more than doubled, growing from $133 million to $282 million.\u00a0 This increase reflects enrollment growth, increased full-time faculty positions, and enhancements to information technology, facilities, academic support, and student housing.\u00a0 Next year, the University\u2019s operating budget will grow once again as we hire new faculty and operate expanded facilities.<\/p>\n To compensate for the reduction in State appropriation, we will continue to focus on using available resources as wisely and efficiently as possible, and on generating additional revenue from non-State sources wherever feasible.\u00a0 To the greatest extent possible, we will observe the following principles:<\/p>\n