Embattled Barchi Defends Rutgers-UMDNJ Merger, Leadership

Embattled Rutgers University President Robert Barchi Thursday not only had to defend his controversial handling of basketball coach Mike Rice’s firing, but also the pending merger of Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and his vision for the future of Rutgers’ three campuses.

Barchi, who was chosen last spring as Rutgers’ new president principally because of his record building Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University into a medical research and development powerhouse, told the Assembly Budget Committee that the Rutgers-UMDNJ merger remains on track, despite the controversy swirling around the basketball program and calls for Barchi’s firing by some faculty members.

Gov. Chris Christie has steadfastly defended Barchi during the firestorm of criticism over his handling of the Rice firing. But ultimately it is likely to be how successful Barchi is in reorganizing Rutgers that will decide his fate, as well as the future of the institutions he has been entrusted to lead.

Barchi’s straight-ahead leadership style since coming to Rutgers in October -- a trait he shares with Christie -- and his recent declaration at a Rutgers-Newark public meeting that he envisions the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus as the “research” flagship, with Newark and Camden serving less prestigious roles as “diversity” and “social service” campuses, has the fiercely independent faculty up in arms.

Meanwhile, Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) yesterday pronounced himself profoundly dissatisfied with various “unanswered questions” and a lack of detail on how Barchi plans to implement the massive merger of New Jersey’s two large public research universities by July 1.

"This reorganization plan is a great opportunity for our state, but it almost seems like it’s being slapped together by the Christie administration without much thought or planning. That was definitely not the Legislature’s expectation,” Prieto said.

Prieto noted that the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved the Rutgers-UMDNJ merger last spring despite concerns over the absence of concrete cost estimates, but now finds itself with even less information than the merger bill required.

“The law called for separate budget line-items for each of the three Rutgers campuses in Newark, New Brunswick, and Camden, as well as the School of Biomedical and Health Services, but we have none,” Prieto pointed out.”We’ve heard estimates for transitional costs, but there is no appropriation for them. And the budget does not provide any specific funding for University Hospital.”

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