Research boost eyed from merging Rowan, Rutgers-Camden

Among the reasons Gov. Christie has cited for restructuring public higher education in New Jersey - including the merger of Rutgers University-Camden and Rowan University - is the desire to create powerful research institutions that can draw a bigger share of federal research funding.

New Jersey has lagged behind other states and is missing out on economic benefits it could get from more robust research-and-development programs. The National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation, for example, two key providers of research funding in basic science, spent just $237 million in New Jersey institutions during fiscal 2011.

Funding levels are the worst in the southern half of the state: From all sources, private and public, Rutgers-Camden, Rowan, and Richard Stockton College of New Jersey drew just $20 million in research spending in the most recent fiscal year.

By contrast, the University of Pennsylvania alone took in $459 million from the two federal sources, generating millions in wages. The total for Pennsylvania was $1.5 billion.

Against that backdrop, South Jersey leaders advocating the merger of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan argue that it would give the region a chance to have its own high-ranking university, which would boost the economy of an area that suffers in comparison with North Jersey and Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs.

George E. Norcross III, an insurance executive and chairman of Cooper Health System, said he supported the merger primarily because he thought it could help Camden.

"Putting together and designating a research university that will have a law school, a medical school, an engineering school, 20,000-plus students, an identity for those who live and work in southern New Jersey, and the ability to attract corporate interests to help advance the successes of the new university is a great cause," he said.

Generally, counties in southern New Jersey have lower wages, higher unemployment, higher foreclosure rates, lower percentages of people with bachelor's degrees, and fewer places to get a bachelor's degree.

"This is not just a discussion about education. It's an economic-development discussion on how are we going to play out this southern half of the state," said Anthony Perno, president of the Cooper's Ferry Development Association, a group charged with revitalizing Camden, and a member of the advisory committee that recommended the merger of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan.