STATE OF THE COLLEGE ADDRESS
February 9, 2011
INTRODUCTION
Thank you all for coming today. The college is actually in a good state, all things
considered. We have many achievements to celebrate at Ramapo and I will highlight just
some of those. I will also describe our budgetary situation as we know it.
REPORT OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION TASK FORCE
First, I will take you through the report of the Higher Education Task Force chaired by
former Governor Tom Kean. Membership on the Task Force included representation
from private business as well as public and private higher education.
Task Force Overview
Membership
 The Honorable Thomas H. Kean, Chair
 Robert E. Campbell, Vice Chairman (Retired), Johnson & Johnson
 Dr. Margaret Howard, Vice President for Administration & University
Relations, Drew University
 John L. McGoldrick, Esq., Chair, Zimmer Holdings, Inc., Executive Vice
President – Retired, Bristol-Myers Squibb
 Dr. George A. Pruitt, President, Thomas Edison State College
Process
 Met with more than 150 people from May to November
 Issued a 9-point questionnaire to college Presidents and Trustees
Recommendations in 6 major categories:
 Financing/Affordability
 Governance
 Mission
 Rutgers University
 UMDNJ and Medical Education
 Workforce Development and Economic Development
3
The Task Force held extensive meetings and I know that they canvassed very broadly. I
had two meetings with them myself. Their recommendations were in six major
categories: Financing and Affordability, Governance, Mission, Rutgers University,
UMDNJ and Medical Education, and Workforce Development and Economic
Development.
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: FINANCING & AFFORDABILITY
This is a direct quote from the report, “After twenty years of declining state funding and
increased tuition, the fortunes of citizens of our state hang in the balance. Student access
to an affordable college education and the economic prosperity of our state are at stake.
New Jersey must decide to change course and provide greater support for higher
education.”
Financing & Affordability
“After twenty years of declining State funding and increased tuition, the fortunes of citizens
of our state hang in the balance.
Student access to an affordable college education and the economic prosperity of our state
are at stake. New Jersey must decide to change course and provide greater support for
higher education.”
Ramapo College: State Support as a Percent of Revenues
4
Now, each year I show you this graph and as you can see, we are running out of space at
the bottom. If you go back to 1997 and look to the top of the chart, 60% of our revenues
came from the state. If you then go to 2011 and look at the bottom of the chart, 24.8% of
our revenue came from the state. You don’t need to extrapolate much further to realize
that we stand to be a public college for a relatively short period—that issue is met front
and center in this report.
Financing & Affordability Recommendations
Tuition
 State should not impose tuition caps
 Institutions should not increase tuition in one year increments that are unreasonably
large compared to previous year increases
Capital Support
 State should immediately issue general obligation bonds (the last bond issue was in
1988)
 Institutions should receive annual capital support
 Restore Higher Education Incentive Funding Program (to attract private philanthropy)
Operating Support
 Provide greater financial support for operating budgets
 Develop and implement a more rational approach to allocating state aid
 The state should fund salary increases that it negotiates for state employees
Student Aid
 Maintain Tuition Aid Grant funding,
 Increase funding to Educational Opportunity Fund
 Transform NJ STARS to promote student choice and mobility
 Improve application process for student assistance
5
I would like to review some of the important recommendations listed. The first
recommendation is to deal with tuition. The report says specifically that the state should
not impose tuition caps, you recall that they did that last year. It is not the feeling that
tuition increases should be unbridled, it is simply that they are the responsibility of the
independent boards of trustees, not of the governor or the legislature. The report does say
that institutions should not increase tuition in one year increments that are unreasonably
large.
With respect to capital support, many of you know that we haven’t had any capital
support since 1988. The report recommends that the state should immediately issue
general obligation bonds. Now, there is a great deal of immediacy in the
recommendations but far less in the responses. I will talk about that later. The report talks
about providing annual capital support and restoring the Higher Education Incentive
Funding Program to attract private philanthropy—largely a matching program that was
very effective when it was in place.
On the operating side, the report calls for three recommendations. First, it calls upon the
state to provide greater financial support for operating budgets. Second, and my personal
favorite, it calls for the development and implementation of a more rational approach to
allocating state aid. Those of you who are laughing must have been paying attention for
the last five years while I have harped on about this at every single State of the College
Address, but it has gotten worse since I arrived which I hope you won’t take as a
testament to my effectiveness as a lobbyist. The fact is, now there is about a $15 million
differential between what we would receive if we were treated the same way on the
revenue side as The College of New Jersey. Third, the report says the state should fund
salary increases that it negotiates for state employees. Well, we will talk about the budget
gap that we face this year and that budget gap is occasioned by the fact that we have
salary increases to pay that are not centrally funded.
On the student aid side, the report recommends maintaining Tuition Aid Grant funding,
increasing funding to the Educational Opportunity Fund, and transforming NJSTARS to
promote student choice and mobility—which is perhaps code for abolishing it, and
improving the application process for student assistance.
Now, you have to admit that on the operating and capital side under the Financing and
Affordability category, we couldn’t ask for much more in a report. This is exactly what
we in the sector would have written had we been in charge of authoring the report.
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: GOVERNANCE
Let’s turn now to Governance. There was of course a considerable degree of
consternation years ago when UMDNJ ran into trouble and the feeling was that there
wasn’t adequate oversight. Well, what this report emphasizes is that such oversight really
should be the responsibility of the independent Boards of Trustees to run the institutions.
The report has some very concrete recommendations on this front.
Governance Recommendations
 Eliminate Commission on Higher Education
 Identify Secretary of Higher Education and Governor’s Higher
Education Council* (*Authorized in Executive Order #52 signed
on January 4th)
 Colleges should initiate the trustee nomination process
 Pass tool kit bills to reform worker’s compensation, collective
bargaining, and elimination of civil service
 State should pay for any unfunded mandates
 Eliminate policies that hinder competitiveness:
• Caps on state pension contributions
• Local approvals for construction projects
7
First, it recommends eliminating the Commission on Higher Education which has
become so ossified in its deliberations because its staff has been so cut back that it takes
us about five times as long to get approval of a program as you would normally expect.
Second, it seeks to identify a Secretary of Higher Education and the Governor’s Higher
Education Council. We were very concerned, you may recall, when this commission was
established, that it might wind up recommending the recreation of a Department of
Education with a bureaucracy that during its prime had a budget that rivaled the budget of
our College. And so what has been recommended here is the creation of a single position
with a volunteer executive council. And the executive order creating that council has
already been signed.
Third, the report says that colleges should initiate the trustee nomination process. That
would make nominations apolitical, or at least less political.
Fourth, the report recommends passage of the Tool Kit bills to reform workers
compensation, collective bargaining, and the elimination of the civil service classification
in colleges and universities. The workers compensation reform has already been done.
The Tool Kit bill that I think has caused the most controversy is allowing individual
institutions to bargain collectively. What you may not know is that the nine public
colleges in New Jersey, leaving aside the research institutions and the independents and
the community colleges, all of whom bargain separately, the nine publics are the only
group in all of North America who have someone else do the bargaining for them and
then have to deal with whatever is negotiated on their behalf. So, I will tell you and I
have told my union colleagues this, that I am personally in favor of collective bargaining
school by school because I think we can do a better job at reaching agreement about our
particular needs at Ramapo than to have it done centrally for us in Trenton. I think the
proof is in that pudding by looking at what has happened in the past.
Fifth, the report calls upon the state to pay for any unfunded mandates. That would be a
happy change from my standpoint.
Sixth, the report calls for the elimination of policies that hinder competitiveness. Caps on
state pension contributions being one recent example of this, and more seamless approval
of constructions projects being another.
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: MISSION
We now go to the Mission category where the Task Force put a great deal of emphasis on
mission differentiation, the idea that under autonomy, which the schools have had since
the abolition of the Department of Education, that they have been able to pursue
independent missions, and they have been able to do so successfully. The report says,
“Relative to their resources, (NJ’s nine state colleges) are one of the three best
performing public baccalaureate and master’s sectors for six year graduation rates of
bachelor’s students; and given their resources, they are in the top four states in producing
bachelor’s degrees relative to their student populations.” That is something that we
sometimes forget.
Mission Recommendations

All institutions should undertake a review of their missions
- Ramapo reviewed its mission in 2007 and again in 2010

Princeton University should enhance its role in researching and
recommending solutions to NJ’
NJ’s public policy and educational
issues

The legislature should refrain from micromanaging institutions
“Imposing a tuition cap on the four year public colleges last
year may have been a mistake.”
mistake.” - Governor Christie

The state should charge a fee for out of state institutions seeking
seeking
licensure

More transparency and accountability of teacher education
programs
9
Under mission recommendations, the report makes five suggestions. First, all institutions
should undertake a review of their missions. We have done that. We did it when we
advanced the Strategic Plan in 2007 and we did it recently for Middle States.
Second, the report says that Princeton University should enhance its role in researching
public policy and recommending solutions to NJ’s public policy and educational issues.
Third, it says the legislature should refrain from micromanaging institutions. The
Governor himself said, “Imposing a tuition cap on the four year public colleges last year
may have been a mistake.”
Fourth, the report recommends the state charge a fee for out of state institutions seeking
licensure in New Jersey. Right now the state does not do that and many states do.
Fifth, the report calls for transparency and accountability of teacher education
programs—an issue I honestly don’t quite understand, but it is there.
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
Now we move to the recommendations for Rutgers University. The short form of the
report’s recommendation is that Rutgers has to go from good to great. I happen to think
that this is a fair recommendation but it has to be accompanied, as it is, by a statement
that Rutgers needs to be funded appropriately if it is going to be a great research
university. It is not funded appropriately right now and it has a legitimate right to
complain that its support from the state isn’t adequate to the purpose of becoming a great
research university.
Rutgers University Recommendations

Rutgers should eliminate redundancies in personnel,
utilities, and programming

State should stabilize financial support to Rutgers

Rutgers should merge with University of Medicine
and Dentistry and Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School and School of Public Health

Rutgers should increase the resources it provides to
Rutgers-Newark and evaluate the resources it
provides to Rutgers-Camden
11
The report is a bit pointed in its recommendations though noting that Rutgers should
eliminate redundancies in personnel, utilities, and programming. Among the
recommendations for Rutgers, this one is likely the most controversial…that Rutgers
should merge with the University of Medicine and Dentistry and Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School and School of Public Health. The Governor has indicated that he is not
minded to accept that recommendation on its own, and that he believes that it needs
further study. I will talk about that in a moment.
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: UMDNJ & MEDICAL EDUCATION
The issue of UMDNJ and medical education in New Jersey is an issue that has gone
around the carousel for longer than I have been here by a long shot. The report sums it
up, “New Jersey needs a clear vision of medical training and research for the 21st
century.” I think you will see some action on this but that action is unlikely to take place
until an advisory committee has been convened to do some of this work. The first
recommendation regarding UMDNJ is that it should be fundamentally transformed. It has
a budget of about $1.5 billion and that is a lot of public money to be allocating to a
system that appears to not be working particularly well.
UMDNJ & Medical Education
Recommendations

UMDNJ should be fundamentally transformed

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of
Public Health should merge with Rutgers

Advisory Committee* should be convened to
implement these recommendations (*Authorized in
Executive Order #51 on January 4th)
13
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS: WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
The report notes, “Job projections indicate New Jersey must increase the number of its
college–educated workers.” Well, indeed it must. The Georgetown Center for Labor and
Education indicates that New Jersey, in much the same situation as other states, will have
to dramatically increase the number of college educated graduates if it is going to be able
to ramp up its economy the way it needs to—even to replace those that will be leaving in
the next 20 years.
According to the report there are two significant obstacles that stand in the way of
accomplishing this: (1) too many New Jersey high school graduates are not prepared for
college level work, and (2) the significant number of well-prepared high school graduates
that leave New Jersey to attend college. We have about 28,000 high school graduates
who leave the state very year. We have the lowest capacity virtually of any of the states.
In North Dakota, there are 70 places for every 100 high school graduates (there are 70
colleges and universities in the state). In New Jersey, there are 15. I am not saying you
can draw a perfect parallel; the point though is that that proportion is vastly out of line. It
is important for us to understand the underpinnings of this recommendation because it
may have implications for the way in which funding increases might be granted and they
might run counter to what it is we are trying to do at Ramapo. As for those students that
are not prepared for college level work, we have to remediate significant numbers of
students who come through our doors in math and reading in particular.
The report has five major recommendations under Workforce and Economic
Development. First, the report says the state should develop a comprehensive
longitudinal data system to track indicators of college readiness. Fair enough.
Second, the report calls for improvement of K-12 alignment. Fair enough.
Here is the recommendation that might be a sleeping giant for us…the report
recommends increasing capacity at state colleges and universities. If the state says that it
is going to put more money into higher education but we are only going to give it to those
who take on more students, then we will have a fork in the road and we will not be able
to do what Yogi Berra said when you encounter one, “Take it.” We will actually have to
choose. Right now our position is that we are not going to expand our undergraduate
enrollment, we have basically peaked. We think we are the right size now. We are though
going to increase our graduate enrollment. If the state came along and offered very
significant financial inducements to us, we might have to rethink that. We might have no
choice. Those mandates might be very pointed indeed. There is no indication that they
will be however.
Fourth, the report calls for increasing out of state enrollments. I kind of like that
recommendation because I think it enriches collegiate life. I don’t think it is a good thing
that the students who come here find that 90% of their colleagues also come from the
state of New Jersey. That is nothing against New Jersey, I would say the same no matter
where I was.
The fifth recommendation is to remove roadblocks to public/private partnerships. Of
course we want to do that and our solar panel project is a good example of it.
So, the Governor said publicly that he supports the report’s recommendations but that it
will take some time to realize them. He said that at the meeting that I attended a week ago
Monday. Given the state of New Jersey’s finances, that is a reasonable statement. If he
said he was going to immediately go out and do everything in the report we would have
to question how in the world he could do that. However, there has to be some tangible
expression of support in the Governor’s February 22 budget address. If there is no direct
reference to public higher education and supporting it in some tangible way then I think
we have the right to be concerned.
RAMAPO ACHIEVEMENTS
Alright, let’s move to some very good things occurring at Ramapo.
At the individual school level, we have to count the Anisfield School of Business’
AACSB accreditation which was earned in December, putting us in the top 5% of
business schools worldwide.
At the individual level, I see Professor Eric Karlin in the audience. Sometimes things
happen serendipitously. When Eric was President of the Faculty Assembly, he would
come and see me every couple of weeks and we would talk about what was happening
and I would always ask him about his research. Eric, I think I was pretty good at feigning
interest in it at the beginning, until you actually got me to the point where I actually
understood something about it. To those of you that don’t know, Eric is a specialist in
mosses. With a colleague from Duke University, he has been researching mosses on the
west coast of the United States, New Zealand, and Europe. One of the things that he
discovered was that these mosses were genetically identical, which is exactly counter to
what one would think. If a plant is so hearty that it could propagate you would have
thought that there would be some biodiversity but it all goes back to one plant. So having
published that, the BBC and its science page picked that up as its item of the day and the
floodgates opened as Eric was soon swamped with inquiries from across the globe. I
share this achievement because this is not an isolated example. We have many colleagues
who labor away in their areas of expertise, involve students in their research, and who
achieve this sort of renown in their own circles. I think it speaks extraordinarily well of
us.
Also at the school level, we have a major construction project due to begin this summer
and that is the renovation of G-Wing and the 25,000 square foot build out from that,
which will have a particular effect on the schools of Theoretical and Applied Sciences
and Social Science and Human Services. We believe that project will be completed by
the year 2014 but it might take a little longer than that.
At the college-wide level, I would like to share this graph of graduation rates with you:
I regularly say that our major academic competition in the state is The College of New
Jersey and here I think that is born out. These graduation rates, published by the Star
Ledger, show as you might expect that Princeton University has had the most success in
graduating students within four to six years, followed by Drew University, then the
College of New Jersey, and then us! This is a very significant accomplishment and I
don’t want it to be lost on us. I’d also like to point out that in 2004, 36% of our students
were graduating in four to six years and by 2008, that number increased to 53%. If you
look at Princeton’s rates, it went from 86% to 90%. I joke that people at Princeton and
Harvard don’t like output measures as much as we do, because what are you going to say
if you’re at Princeton or Harvard—“We took a silk purse, and four years later, it is still a
silk purse.” Ramapo actually made tremendous strides relative to the rest of the
institutions and I think it is a lot to be proud of.
I would also like to share the data from the National Association of College and
University Business Officers on the growth of our endowment.
N.J. University/Colleges
Rank FY 2010
Percentage
Endowment
Change from
Funds ($000)
2009
Ramapo College of NJ
810
$9,110
29.5%
Monmouth University
525
$53,309
27.2%
Georgian Court University 584
$40,258
20.7%
Fairleigh Dickinson
693
$23,928
19.2%
College of New Jersey
766
$14,743
18.8%
College of St. Elizabeth
733
$18,276
15.8%
Princeton University
3
$14,391,450
14.1%
Rutgers
105
$603,083
10.7%
Seton Hall University
275
$162,889
10.2%
Princeton Theological
80
$811,101
7.5%
Rider University
557
$46,802
6.3%
Drew University
249
$183,355
6.2%
Stevens Institute of Tech.
316
$133,397
3.9%
Rowan
330
$122,034
3.4%
Here you see that Ramapo’s endowment is the top among the New Jersey institutions
with a 29.5% increase in value from 2009 to 2010. Obviously that is significant; I don’t
want you to get overwhelmed by the actual number. One would of course prefer to be
Princeton University with its $14 billion endowment but, let it be noted that in 2006 our
endowment principle was about $3.3 million. By 2010, it had grown to over $8 million.
That growth is significant and valuable. Many of you in this room have enjoyed the sorts
of small rewards the Foundation is able to provide and the growth in the endowment is
significant as an indicator of the health of the Ramapo College and of the willingness of
our supporters to continue supporting us. I should also mention, since I am used to
comparing us to The College of New Jersey, that their endowment is only $14 million
and they were created in 1855.
THE NATIONAL & STATE PERSPECTIVE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
FUNDING
Now, let’s move to perhaps my favorite graphic of the bunch and look at changes to state
appropriations in higher education from 2005-06 to 2007-08.
Changes in State Appropriation in Higher Education
2005-06 to 2007-08
Between 2005-06 and 2007-08, New Jersey appropriation for higher education decreased by 0.3 percent as
compared to a national average increase of 16.2 percent. This decline places New Jersey last among the 50
states in changes to higher education appropriations over the two-year period and makes the state the only
one in the nation to see an actual reduction in monies allocated to colleges and universities. 19
The purple states here received more than a 15% increase in appropriations during that
period. The orange states received 0-14.9%, and there is one state which is in the
negative…New Jersey. I show this as often as I can, it is deplorable. Another way of
looking at it is that the national average during this time was 16.1% and New Jersey
actually declined. This information is taken right from the report of the Higher Education
Task Force. The Task Force did not shy away from this data.
The Task Force also did not shy away from focusing on debt to operating revenue. If
you’re ever feeling inferior, in this category, we are number one. Our debt to operating
revenues is at the top of the pack.
New Jersey Public Institutions:
Debt to Revenue Comparison
21
Notice that others have high ratios as well. Some do not. If you look at the Ohio systems,
the Michigan systems, or the national median, you have to conclude that obviously in
most of these systems there is support for capital funding. Well, there hasn’t been support
for capital funding in New Jersey so we have done it on our own hook. But again, I
emphasize to you that the majority of our debt is supported by a direct revenue stream,
actually more than 70% of it, because we used the money to build residences and the
residences of course have a stream of revenue. That is why when you look at the credit
ratings, our rating is the same virtually as everyone else’s.
The A1 rating that Montclair, NJIT and William Paterson have is slightly higher than
ours, but our A2 rating ranks comparably to the College of New Jersey, Richard Stockton
College, and others. Why would that be? Because we made the case to Moody’s and
Standard & Poor’s that our debt is supported by a direct stream of revenue and
furthermore the debt we are intending to accrue in order to expand G-Wing was going to
be supported by a direct revenue stream itself. That stream is the capital improvement
fee.
THE BUDGET GAP
Let me know talk a little bit about the budget gap. Many of you will ask why are we
going out and borrowing another $54 million when we have to fill a gap of $6 million in
our operating budget. Well the answer to that is that we have been filling gaps in the
operating budget for years, that reality cannot stop us from progressing as a college. And,
the renovations to G wing, particularly, to our labs, are so badly needed that we really
have no choice.
More to the point, because we were able to satisfy the bond rating agencies in the past
with evidence of a dedicated stream of revenue, we in effect created that again. Two
years ago we instituted a capital improvement fee. Some other colleges had it, Montclair
and William Paterson for example. Our initial plan which had been sanctioned by the
departments of government was to impose a $1000 fee for each full time student. We
ended up negotiating doing that over three years. The fact is that by Board policy, the
proceeds of the Capital Improvement Fee may be used only for capital purposes. Once
fully implemented, which will be the case this coming year, it will generate about $5
million in revenue.
The total cost of the new borrowing of $54 million, principle and interest, given the fact
that the Foundation is helping defray some of the interest costs and taking into account
what we have been able to set off from our reserves, will be about $4.5 million annually.
So, we have a buffer. We will also have about $500,000 per year that can be used for
deferred maintenance purposes. Let me be clear, we will have enough money from the
dedicated capital improvement fee to be able to point to it and say, “We are not going to
make any incursions on the operating budget in order to fund this debt.”
Now, how are we going to bridge the budget gap? A $6 million budget gap is relatively
easy to create when you don’t get any central funding for salary increases and those have
come home to roost. We also have significant inflation costs in things like utilities. No
fair for guessing correctly on what has happened to our snow removal budget this year
for example. We have about $4,000 left in a $600,000 snow removal budget which is
enough to buy shovels for everyone in this room.
So, what are we going to do? We will increase revenues. There will be an increase in
tuition and fees-- we don’t know precisely what that will be yet. There will also be an
increase in residence costs. We are looking at increasing food costs in our cafeterias; they
are relatively low in comparison to our competitors. I don’t like doing it, but we have to
be realistic.
We also have to cut expenses. We will not have as much money to dedicate to strategic
planning as we have in the past. And a part of cutting expenses, but, a part only, is a
reduction in salary costs. I don’t want anybody to be under the illusion that somehow we
think that $6 million is going to be made up by cutting salaries or that even a majority of
that would be made up by cutting salaries. It will not. And you will recall in the
documents that have been sent electronically, the four ways we propose to potentially
reduce salary costs: first via attrition, second via the possibility of voluntary contributions
by way of furlough, third via the reduction in employment contract periods from 12
months to 10 months, and fourth, and only as a last resort, via layoffs. There are too
many uncontrolled variables right now for me to know how likely a prospect that is. We
don’t yet know what our appropriations will be from the state. We don’t yet know if the
state will cut us indirectly. We don’t yet know what sort of tuition and fee increase we
could need to offset that and whether the Board of Trustees would approve it. We are
meeting with the Board on February 16 to discuss that.
It does lead us to the question, “Why continue hiring and why continue with renovations
to G-Wing?” It is because we must do so to maintain our vitality as a liberal arts college.
CONCLUSION
I want to conclude by just reflecting a bit on that. Any of you who read Newsweek
magazine might have seen in April of last year the title “The Death of the Liberal Arts.”
Now, by the time a popular magazine gets to a title like that, usually the tide has reversed,
and I mean that quite seriously. There are already signs of the tide of public opinion
reversing. But, there are some harrowing statistics as well. A professor at Michigan State
for example reported that in 1990 there were 212 liberal arts colleges in the country, and
by the year 2000 that number had dropped to 136. I don’t know whether that is true, I
assume it is. I have no reason to quibble with it. It is a bit harrowing to think of but I am
not worried about it and I will tell you why.
First, I am not worried about it because the danger of abandoning the liberal arts remains
the same. If you place your emphasis on vocational and career training, then that
deemphasizes critical thinking skills, the ability to write, analyze and synthesize
information—all the things that make you potentially nimble in an economic crisis.
Second, post-secondary education is definitely overwhelmingly occupational. It is
occupational at Ramapo College too. That is different from being vocational.
Occupational means that the liberal arts trains students appropriately for graduate and
professional degrees which are indeed oriented for preparing them for careers. There is
nothing wrong with students coming to Ramapo College and saying, “I want you to show
me what occupation I am likely be able to enter.” Similarly, our students should be
asking, “What is it about the education and training I am going to receive here that is
going to enable me to participate in the workforce and society?” We answer these
questions regularly, recognizing that much, if not most of the vocational training, is
actually provided by the business entity itself. I will give you some examples of
that…the CEO of JP Morgan Chase has an undergraduate degree in psychology, the CEO
of IBM has an undergraduate degree in history, and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary
of State, has an undergraduate degree in political science.
It is often the case that people who study in the liberal arts move on to quintessentially
vocational or skills-applied careers and indeed we should celebrate that. Anthony
Carnevale recently wrote, focusing on the complaint you hear that so many taxi drivers
have PhD’s, “Many workers are just passing through low-wage, low-skill jobs as part of
their natural career progression and are not indicative of career long effects of college
degrees…There are many more brain surgeons who used to be cashiers than there are
cashiers who used to be brain surgeons.” I’ll accept that assertion on faith, I really don’t
need an empirical foundation on that.
I’d like to share with you a quote from NJBIZ magazine. When NJBIZ expresses these
sentiments you know that the tide has turned against this view that somehow a liberal arts
education is dispensable. The magazine noted, “We cannot grow new programs at the
expense of a broad liberal arts education. History, economics and philosophy prepare our
students for a range of professional and personal challenges, not least in developing vital
skills in oral and written communication and information analysis, organizational and
research abilities, and information and project management skills. This more traditional
model remains essential for helping students achieve their full potential in education
beyond a four year degree: in professional programs, law, business, and the medical field- and in graduate programs that lead to a range of careers.”
To conclude with an excerpt of an interview with Richard Arum, the author of
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, the book that is all the rage
in the talk circuit now, Arum said, “The environment that kids face has changed. They're
going into an increasingly globalized economic system. Even if you have subject-specific
skills, the labor market is so uncertain that people are increasingly moving from job to
job as adults. You need to have developed these higher order skills: critical thinking,
complex reasoning and the ability to communicate in writing. If you haven't, you're going
to be at a lifelong disadvantage in the economy. Equally or more troubling, if you're
graduating large numbers of kids that have not developed critical thinking and complex
reasoning, how are they going to function as democratic citizens?”
I think the state of our college is sound and I would be happy to take any questions.