Rutgers News Center

Board of Governors approves $1.7 billion budget, adjusts tuition

The Rutgers Board of Governors established a $1.7 billion operating budget for the 2007–08 fiscal year at its July meeting. The budget includes $618 million in restricted revenues and self-supporting enterprises. The remaining $1.1 billion in unrestricted revenues support the university’s basic instructional, research, and service mission.

Student tuition and fees and the state appropriation, the two major sources of unrestricted revenues, both increase in the approved budget with state operating support up by $18.9 million and student tuition and fee revenue $38 million higher. The remaining unrestricted revenues grow by $2.5 million, while fringe benefits paid by the state are projected to remain flat.

Under the new budget, total charges for a typical in-state School of Arts and Sciences undergraduate student living on the New Brunswick Campus will rise by 6.1 percent. An in-state, New Brunswick Arts and Sciences undergraduate will pay $8,540 in tuition and $2,145 in mandatory student fees in 2007–08.

Compared to the costs paid by a similar student at Rutgers College last year, annual tuition will increase by $617 (7.8 percent), while mandatory fees will increase by $110 (5.4 percent). Charges and increases may vary across the university’s campuses, schools, and colleges.

The board also announced that it is allocating an additional $1.5 million in student financial aid to ensure that Rutgers remains accessible to a broad range of New Jersey residents. Fifty-three percent of Rutgers undergraduates received need-based financial aid last year,  which offset their cost of attending college.

Major increases in expenditures in the budget are related to mandatory increases for costs like fuel and utilities, debt service, and contractual salary increases associated with union contracts.

– Greg Trevor

Rutgers staff recognized for many years of service

More than 390 Rutgers employees were honored at the Staff Service Recognition Luncheon held at the Neilson Dining Hall, Douglass Campus on June 14, 2007. The event recognizes Rutgers employees who have reached milestones of 10, 20, 30, and 40 years in their careers at the university.

The Staff Service Recognition Luncheon is held annually. In addition, University Human Resources hosts a Faculty Service Recognition Luncheon to highlight long-serving Rutgers professors.

Full list of honorees

 – Ashanti M. Alvarez

Rutgers Board of Trustees elects 2007–08 officers

Gerald C. Harvey, co-vice chair of the Rutgers Board of Trustees, has been elected to a one-year term as chair, succeeding Rochelle Gizinski. He was co-vice chair with Anthony J. DePetris of Camden. The new officers began their terms July 1.

Harvey, a Summit resident, is executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Breeze-Eastern Corp., a Union-based designer and manufacturer of rescue hoists and cargo hooks for military and civilian aircraft. A 1972 Rutgers College graduate, he earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1975. Harvey has been a member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees since 1998 and is a past president of the Rutgers University Alumni Federation. He and his wife, Keiko, a past member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees and Board of Governors, have funded the Keiko and Gerald Harvey Scholarship for Women in Engineering at the Rutgers School of Engineering.

DePetris will serve his second one-year term as co-vice chair with Mark P. Hershhorn, a current trustee. A 21-year public management professional, DePetris is director of administrative and personnel services for the LEAP Academy University Charter School District Inc. in Camden. A 1984 graduate of Rutgers–Camden, DePetris has been a member of the Rutgers Board of Trustees since 1998, and a member and past chair of the Rutgers–Camden College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council.

Hershhorn is a 1971 graduate of Rutgers College and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1972. He is chair and chief executive officer of CKS and Associates of Upper Providence, Pa. He is a member of the Quill and Ledger Society, the Chair and Gavel Society, and is the immediate past chair of the Rutgers Foundation Board of Overseers. He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2002.

– Ernest J. Miranda

Rutgers–Newark, city of Newark team up to improve services to citizens

In what is believed to be the only such arrangement in the nation, the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) began offering its executive master’s in public administration degree program on site in Newark’s City Hall for city employees and other public and nonprofit professionals.

The Newark Executive M.P.A. program is part of a collaboration between the city’s new administration and SPAA, based at Rutgers–Newark, to improve the city’s delivery of services to its citizens. “We propose to assist the city in a dramatic turnaround of its management and delivery systems for key municipal services,” said Marc Holzer, dean of SPAA.

The 22 city employees who enrolled in the first course this summer came from a broad array of Newark public service, ranging from the first female municipal council president, Mildred Crump, to Taquan Williams, a mayoral education aide who graduated from Rutgers–Newark in May.

Mayor Cory A. Booker said that the city of Newark has had a long-standing relationship with Rutgers. “The program adds a new chapter to this old alliance by integrating this class with our administration,” he said. “We are professionalizing public service to eliminate discredited old practices and to ensure that our residents get the very best government we can provide them.”

The Executive M.P.A.  program already is taught in Trenton. The 42-credit Newark City Hall program began with two summer courses: “Introduction to Public Administration” and “Leadership,” an online course.

– Carla Capizzi

Rutgers gets grant to promote historical tours

Rutgers Historical Tours started making some history of its own: Tour attendance increased nearly 800 percent from 2004 to 2005, and the tours are quickly becoming a staple for visitors to the university.

This recent success caught the eye of the New Jersey Office of Travel and Tourism. Campus Information Services (CIS), which runs the tours, was awarded a
$1,223 grant in spring 2007 from the travel and tourism office to help fund increased promotion of the tours around the campus and community.

CIS created the historical tour in 1993 as a way to showcase the rich history of New Brunswick and the university. The one-hour walking tour takes visitors on a journey back in time, exploring the university’s most cherished and legendary buildings, Revolutionary War battle sites, Kirkpatrick Chapel, and Old Queen’s Campus.

CIS-trained tour leaders, called Knight Guides, are well versed on everything Rutgers, including the deep lore and tradition that surrounds many of the sites guests visit.

It is the tour’s mix of history and mystery – in addition to the increased popularity of the university itself – that has attendance growing. Last year, more than 1,000 visitors walked the campus. With the grant, CIS plans to create a new color flyer and quadruple their direct mailing effort, as well as plan an advertising campaign in local papers.

 In addition to the historical tours, CIS also offers the Rutgers: Then and Now tour, a Ghost Tour of Rutgers, and customized tours upon request. The regularly-scheduled historical tour is free and runs every Friday and Saturday at 11:30 a.m. by appointment. Tours can be scheduled at alternate times or for groups over 10 for a fee.

For more information, visit the CIS website, or call RU-info at 732/932-4636.

– Stephanie Perez

Rutgers wins national award for student services

The 2007 EDUCAUSE Catalyst Award for innovations that provide groundbreaking solutions to challenges in higher education will be awarded next month to a consortium of universities, including Rutgers, for their contributions to the development of student portals

The Rutgers student portal – myRutgers – allows students to customize access to university services and information such as course schedules, grades, finances, and events.

The portal was an outgrowth of student feedback from the Presidential Student Services retreat in 2003. Students found locating services difficult and wanted a central location to access them.

The myRutgers portal is based on the uPortal project – collaboration among higher education institutions across the country. Rutgers is collaborating with such institutions as Cornell, Duke and Princeton universities to share open technology and continue to improve the student portal model.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Its current membership numbers more than 2,100 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with 16,500 active members.