Rutgers-Rowan protests sweep across New Jersey

The protests that have swept Rutgers-Camden since Gov. Christie announced last month that he planned to merge the school into Rowan University reached a crescendo Wednesday as opposition spread beyond the small inner-city campus to Rutgers faculty and students across the state.

Students from the university's flagship campus in New Brunswick were bused in ahead of a board of governors meeting on the Camden campus. The president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly rallied students outside the library, while a faculty member of the university Senate spoke to oppose the plan, calling it "ill-advised."

"I don't think they foresaw the overwhelming opposition from the entire Rutgers faculty," said Jeanne Fox, a Rutgers trustee and a commissioner of the state Board of Public Utilities. "I can't imagine [the board of trustees] going against the faculty."

With university officials saying that both the board of governors and the board of trustees would have to approve any merger, the increasing opposition, including an extensive alumni network, seemed to put the Republican governor and New Jersey's largest university on a collision course.

After hearing more than three hours of angry criticism of the merger plan, Ralph Izzo, chairman of the board of governors and chief executive of PSEG Enterprise Group, said members would need more details from the governor before voting on any plan but had heard the protesters.

"There's nothing like seeing something firsthand," he said.

New Jersey's public universities have been in the crosshairs of governors going back a decade who wanted to see the resources of Rutgers, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and other state schools realigned to match up better with more competitive out-of-state schools.

While that idea has broad support, the details of moving schools and faculty among institutions with long histories has proved tricky.

In the case of Rutgers-Camden, the idea of merging two schools to create a larger research university that could compete for national funding - and potentially draw pharmaceutical and technology companies to South Jersey - has butted up against opposition from the Rutgers-Camden alumni and concerns among Rutgers officials that they might end up competing with Rowan for dwindling state funding.