It looks like more bad news for my bank account; a few days again Gov. Corzine proposed what he called "a very tough budget" that would cut state aid to New Jersey colleges and universities by about $76,000,000 according to the New York Times. Whether the proposed cuts end up as part of the final budget will only be known as the proposal is finalized, but things aren't looking good for state college.
What does this mean for Rutgers specifically? In an e-mail sent by the president of the university, Richard McCormick, it was noted that we cannot be certain how the proposed cuts will affect Rutgers, although there are a few bright spots like tuition aids rising by $15,000,000 statewide. The strange part of all this is the elephant in the room not acknowledged by McCormick; not long ago the boards of governor's approved a $102,000,000 plan to expand the Rutgers football stadium, a plan that still has many faculty & staff up in arms when other improvements are desperately needed elsewhere on campus.Whether I can expect and inflated tuition bill for the Fall 2008 semester has yet to be determined, but rates certainly aren't going to go down.
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All this, including the $102,000,000 stadium expansion, while they talking about cutting one of our library databases, which includes our subscription to Nature. Top research university, indeed. Basically, we're going to end up with a massive construction project that will run over budget for part of the stadium the football team doesn't even use, with the actual scholars begging for articles from tiny colleges that actually care about education. R U screwed? Yes, we are!
But, but, but football brings is so much money! Isn't that the tag line on all these stadium and athletic facility improvements?
Same thing is happening at IU, new athletic facility with tutoring and separate work out facility away from the general one is being built. Looks great but since when is IU a true football power? Basketball, yes sometimes depending on which scandal ridden coach is working there, but not football. They are touting this facility to new recruits - look see you get your own place and don't have to deal with those smarty pants student types.
Hey, I graduated Rutgers back in '05, and it certainly wasn't getting any cheaper then either. When I started my scholarship covered everything, but the longer I was their the more I had to pay out of pocked each semester.
But there is one good thing about it, Rutgers pays its graduate TAs very well compared to some other state universities in the area. (almost 10K to 15K more than my school per year), and is still cheaper than almost all other universities in the state. (Drew is over 40k a year now for undergraduates).