I have resided in NYC, New Orleans, Atlanta, DC and Florida. And I have never seen how a flagship university being so disregarded, mistreated and antagonized by the State government than RU. For Trenton, RU is as much of NJ as the Empire State Building, or loathed as if it was a rival school (mostly for its independence and autonomy).....and of course, RU has also contributed to this gap by either being submissive or doing a bad lobbying job. There are also other factors, including the NJ's preference to eat its own, and perennial perception of seeing the grass greener elsewhere.
Nonetheless, I had an opportunity to chat with someone very much connected to Trenton politics. This guy has a nice network at the legislative and governor/executive level (NYU grad by the way), and he shared with me a couple of opinions and observation he holds regarding NJ politics and RU. These observations stem largely by the events that unfolded during the RU Camden fiasco.
Prior to the Merger attempt (and even today but a much lesser extent), NJ politicians did not perceive RU to have any significant impact, weight or force in NJ politics. RU was perceived as to fragmented, incompetent, and more importantly it lacked popular support or political wherewithal for pretty much anything. Cristie, and Norcross never expected any push or backfire from their attempt to take over Camden...in fact, they thought that it was going to happen with relatively no major issues, and that to some extent local folks would embrace such move. God knows how people had been "greased up" for this move. But this guy tells me that something amazing and unexpected happened....an broad based number of folks, from all different income groups, ethnicities and NJ regions flooded politicians with objections, oppositions and warnings of either voting against them or worst stopping political contributions. A South Jersey Democrat, I was told, got a call from one his bigger contributors and told him that the contributor was going to stop being one if the Democrat continued to support any attempts to strip RU Camden from RU. A North NJ Republican got a call from an influential ethnic chamber of commerce with demands to stop Norcross' move. Even the Governor got a handful of calls from influential players that the Governor never thought were associated with RU or would stand up to it. Despite all of the above, bills were passed to proceed with this take over attempt....however, from what I gather, most legislators voted in favor knowing that legally speaking this matter would go nowhere, and that the governor was not going to endorse or fund any legal action against RU. In other words, a lot of legislators pleased Norcross but at the same time limited such endorsement substantially. And while to some extent, RU had a rare victory against Trenton, the very fact that Norcross and its gang was able to mount an attack speaks loudly as to how vulnerable RU is to Trenton. Nonetheless, even today a couple of legislators felt the sting of RU's bite a bit. These handful of politician may be a bit more hesitant to act against RU than before. Sadly, precluding attacks against RU is not the same as getting Trenton support for RU...and there is a lot of work to be done. I have a couple of more notes, but I got to go now.
Nonetheless, I had an opportunity to chat with someone very much connected to Trenton politics. This guy has a nice network at the legislative and governor/executive level (NYU grad by the way), and he shared with me a couple of opinions and observation he holds regarding NJ politics and RU. These observations stem largely by the events that unfolded during the RU Camden fiasco.
Prior to the Merger attempt (and even today but a much lesser extent), NJ politicians did not perceive RU to have any significant impact, weight or force in NJ politics. RU was perceived as to fragmented, incompetent, and more importantly it lacked popular support or political wherewithal for pretty much anything. Cristie, and Norcross never expected any push or backfire from their attempt to take over Camden...in fact, they thought that it was going to happen with relatively no major issues, and that to some extent local folks would embrace such move. God knows how people had been "greased up" for this move. But this guy tells me that something amazing and unexpected happened....an broad based number of folks, from all different income groups, ethnicities and NJ regions flooded politicians with objections, oppositions and warnings of either voting against them or worst stopping political contributions. A South Jersey Democrat, I was told, got a call from one his bigger contributors and told him that the contributor was going to stop being one if the Democrat continued to support any attempts to strip RU Camden from RU. A North NJ Republican got a call from an influential ethnic chamber of commerce with demands to stop Norcross' move. Even the Governor got a handful of calls from influential players that the Governor never thought were associated with RU or would stand up to it. Despite all of the above, bills were passed to proceed with this take over attempt....however, from what I gather, most legislators voted in favor knowing that legally speaking this matter would go nowhere, and that the governor was not going to endorse or fund any legal action against RU. In other words, a lot of legislators pleased Norcross but at the same time limited such endorsement substantially. And while to some extent, RU had a rare victory against Trenton, the very fact that Norcross and its gang was able to mount an attack speaks loudly as to how vulnerable RU is to Trenton. Nonetheless, even today a couple of legislators felt the sting of RU's bite a bit. These handful of politician may be a bit more hesitant to act against RU than before. Sadly, precluding attacks against RU is not the same as getting Trenton support for RU...and there is a lot of work to be done. I have a couple of more notes, but I got to go now.
