Press Release
Date: 08-22-12Name: Rob Forman Phone: 973 972 7276
Email: formanra@umdnj.edu
Statement on Signing of New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Restructuring Act
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The signing today by Governor Christie of the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Restructuring Act brings us an important step closer to a goal we all share � realizing the enormous potential of health sciences education in this State. While this historic and far reaching law effectively ends an era by mandating the formal dissolution of UMDNJ as an institution, it also ends the uncertainty that has overshadowed this University�s activities for the past decade, and it marks what promises to be a bright new beginning for UMDNJ�s schools, clinical units, faculty and staff.
We have great confidence in the commitment of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, to successfully incorporate the schools and units of UMDNJ that will form the foundation of the new Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, as we also do in the future stewardship of our School of Osteopathic Medicine by Rowan University, which will officially join the ranks of New Jersey�s research universities when the Act is implemented. We also look forward to the benefits of a soundly positioned University Hospital as a separate stand-alone hospital and instrumentality of the State of New Jersey, further strengthened through a to-be-established public-private partnership.
The provisions of the Act are effective July 1, 2013. While final approval by the Rutgers Boards of Governors and Trustees of the integration of UMDNJ with Rutgers is still pending, teams from UMDNJ have already begun active discussions with their counterparts at Rutgers, as well as with Rowan, on the many details involved in the upcoming reorganization. These discussions are a collaborate effort aimed at ensuring that the transition will be smooth for all involved. Through this process, UMDNJ will integrate its many strengths with those of our colleagues at Rutgers and Rowan to reach even greater heights of achievement on behalf of our students, patients and communities.
We thank Governor Christie and the legislative leadership � especially Senate President Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Oliver � and others for their diligence and resolution in achieving a structure that will benefit all of New Jersey.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Administration of UMDNJ, we are especially grateful to the members of the UMDNJ community, who have remained steadfast in their commitment to provide the best in education, clinical care, research and community service through years of unprecedented challenges and uncertainty.
We embrace this promising new era for all of higher education in New Jersey.
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