A MESSAGE FROM DR. STUART D. COOK, PRESIDENT
December 12, 2003

Today, Governor McGreevey and the Rutgers Board of Governors issued a joint statement on the higher education restructuring proposal concluding this is not an appropriate time to submit a plan to the State Legislature. The joint statement is available on the Governor's Web site.

For the past several months, the University family has been involved in working on the proposed restructuring of New Jersey's three research universities. Many members of the faculty and the administration have dedicated a significant amount of time gathering information and participating in committee meetings to respond to the report issued earlier this year by the Governor's Commission on Health Science, Education and Training.

In addition to the formal process, I know most of us have had many discussion with colleagues here and at Rutgers and NJIT about the viability of restructuring higher education in New Jersey in general. In the course of these discussion and the self-examination necessitated to support this proposal, many important ideas have evolved that will strengthen all of our institutions of higher education. UMDNJ, Rutgers and NJIT have a history of many successful research collaborations such as University Heights Science Park in Newark, and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, both in Piscataway. From an educational perspective, we have more than one hundred joint degree programs with each other and other colleges and universities throughout the state.

Based on our history of fostering collaboration and partnerships with many institutions of higher education, I am confident UMDNJ will continue to work with our colleagues to increase the quality of all New Jersey colleges and universities. We continue to support the Governor's vision for excellence in higher education in New Jersey. Looking ahead, we are committed to raising New Jersey's institutions of higher education to an elite tier of state systems nationwide just as we have been committed to enhancing UMDNJ's reputation nationally.