Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Gives $12.5 Million to Rutgers to Support Integration With UMDNJ

The foundation’s largest single gift ever to Rutgers will help fund initiatives essential to integration

The impending integration of Rutgers University with most of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has received a major financial boost – a $12.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the university and the foundation announced today.

The grant – the largest single gift that Rutgers has ever received from the foundation – will support a wide range of initiatives that are essential to integration, including:

• The ongoing development of a universitywide strategic plan. 
• Recruiting key academic and administrative leaders to help run the new Rutgers. 
• Consolidating complex systems in finance, human resources and information technology.
• The pending development of a universitywide facilities master plan.
• Communicating the benefits of integration to the people of New Jersey and beyond.

The grant, from one of New Jersey’s most prestigious foundations, is the latest example of strong statewide support for integration. 

 “To our knowledge, the integration of Rutgers and UMDNJ is among the largest ever undertaken in higher education,” said Rutgers President Robert L. Barchi. “Combining the outstanding health education offered by UMDNJ with Rutgers’ many strengths in the arts, sciences, humanities and professional schools will create an academic powerhouse that will rank among the nation’s finest research universities. We greatly appreciate the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s historic investment in Rutgers University’s future.”

Under the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act, which takes full effect on July 1, most of the schools and institutes that make up the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will become part of Rutgers University. Representatives of Rutgers and UMDNJ are working together to facilitate every aspect of integration – from academic and clinical programs to research initiatives and student services.

 “The Rutgers-UMDNJ integration holds the promise of transforming Rutgers into a premier research and academic institution,” said Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. “This grant reflects the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s commitment to supporting these educational and health care institutions, which are vital to the state’s economy and the health and well-being of its residents, especially the most vulnerable.”

As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, measureable and timely change. For 40 years, the Princeton-based foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves.

Established in 1766, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is America’s eighth oldest institution of higher learning and one of the nation’s premier public research universities. Serving nearly 60,000 students on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick, Rutgers is one of only two New Jersey institutions represented in the prestigious Association of American Universities. 

Media Contact: Greg Trevor
732-932-7084, ext. 623
E-mail: gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu