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Ramapo

THE STAR-LEDGER OP ED
April 8, 2012
President Peter P. Mercer
Ramapo College of New Jersey

NJ Colleges Crumbling Under Cuts

As we set our sights on commencement, less than two months away, I am reminded of the many touching moments of the day: jubilation in our students, pride in the eyes of their parents. Beaming mothers and fathers will recount their son or daughter’s challenges in becoming the first in their family to graduate from college. I am reminded of the value of public higher education.

Annually, New Jersey’s colleges and universities send 37,000 newly minted graduates into the world. They leave behind aging campuses that years of financial disinvestment have left with outdated buildings in need of repair, and significant debt incurred in building and repairing facilities to meet the demand for seats. Twenty-four years have passed since New Jersey last provided general obligation-backed capital funding.

But it appears that this governor and this Legislature are prepared to invest in higher education. I applaud them. No doubt they are following the recommendations of the Governor’s Task Force on Higher Education, which was chaired by former college president and Governor Tom Kean. In it, the task force concludes that New Jersey’s colleges and universities have been underfunded for too long.

“After years of neglect, New Jersey needs to help build academic facilities for a 21st-century education at our colleges and universities, protect existing resources and take the burden for financing these projects off the backs of students,” the panel wrote.

At Ramapo College, and all of our sister institutions, we have spent years trimming our budgets, cutting everything possible without detracting from the stellar yet affordable educations we provide. Students and their families have seen tuition increase at a rate that cannot be sustained. The time has come for New Jersey to deal with this critically important issue.

During the past several years, the New Jersey Association of Colleges and Universities, which represents the nine state colleges, and other higher education entities have proposed a bond referendum that would provide capital funds to repair leaky roofs, rebuild outdated science labs and create hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs across the state as architects, engineers, electricians, plumbers and laborers go to work. The cost is high, but that should not stop the Legislature and Gov. Chris Christie from supporting a fair and equitable capital funding plan that will create jobs and lay the foundation for the hopes and dreams of generations of students to come.

So it will be up to the people of New Jersey to decide the fate of higher education. There are a few facts that they should know:

  • New Jersey ranks among the top five states in the funding it provides for K-12 education, but the situation is exactly the reverse for public higher education, where it ranks in the bottom five. At Ramapo College, less than 25 percent of the operating budget today is provided by the state. A decade ago, the figure was nearly 50 percent.
  • Or, to make the point another way, Ramapo College receives the same amount from the state today that it received in 1994, when there were a third fewer students.
  • There is already a capacity problem as some 36,000 high school graduates leave New Jersey to attend college. Many of them do not return. We can’t afford to allow our public higher education facilities to deteriorate further.
  • The world’s most robust economies, by contrast, are paying particular attention to support for higher education, recognizing the connection between an educated workforce and economic prosperity.

And as our elected officials hammer out what this referendum will look like, we hope they will consider a mechanism that would provide for a revolving fund to make capital funds available regularly. A referendum every quarter-century to support ongoing higher education needs is not a feasible long-term solution.

I believe this referendum should go before the people of New Jersey, who want so much for their children, as soon as possible. They deserve no less.

Ramapo

Other Articles

  • President Peter Philip Mercer, The Star-Ledger OP ED , NJ Colleges Crumbling Under Cuts
    (April 8, 2012) (PDF) (DOC)
  • President Peter Philip Mercer, Bergen Record OP ED , Meeting The Challenge Of Public Higher Education At Ramapo College
    (September 4, 2006) (PDF) (DOC)
  • President Peter Philip Mercer…Forging New Relationships
    (Fall 2005) (PDF) (DOC)
  • Dr. Peter Philip Mercer Appointed President of Ramapo College of New Jersey
    (February 16, 2005) (PDF) (DOC)

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Publications

(1) Books and Monographs

Products Liability in Canada (a monograph in the series Products Liability, authored by Rino Stradiotto, Q.C.; second edition prepared and edited by P.P. Mercer) (New York, Oceana, 1988) 115 pages.

An Introduction to Business Associations in Canada (with R.L. Simmonds) (Toronto: Carswell, 1984) 778 pages.

(2) Chapters in Books

“Informal Administrative Action in Canada” in Contemporary Law: Canadian Reports to the 1994 International Congress of Comparative Law (Montreal: Yvon Blais Inc., 1995) pp. 788-803.

“The Law of Mistake”, Chapter 10 in C. Boyle and D. Percy eds., Contracts: Cases and Commentaries (Toronto: Carswell, 1994)

5th Edition, 1994, pp. 531-598.
4th Edition, 1989, pp. 495-557.
3rd Edition, 1985, pp. 513-576.

“Group Actions in Civil Procedure in Canada” in Contemporary Law: Canadian Reports to the1990 International Congress of Comparative Law (Montreal: Yvon Blais Inc., 1992) pp. 249-273.

“The Legal Regulation of Broadcasting and Telecommunications in Canada” in T. McPhail and B. McPhail, Mass Communications in Canada (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1989) pp. 353-381.

(3) Articles

M.A. Wilkinson, C. Walker and P. Mercer, “Testing Theory and Debunking Stereotypes: Lawyers’ Views on the Practice of Law” (forthcoming, 2005 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence).

M.A. Wilkinson, C. Walker and P.Mercer, “Do Codes of Ethics Actually Shape Legal Practice?” (2000), 45 McGill Law Journal 645-680.

M.A. Wilkinson, T. Strong and P. Mercer, “Mentor, Mercenary or Melding: An Empirical Inquiry into the Role of the Lawyer”, (1997), 28(2) Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 226-248.

P. Mercer, M.A. Wilkinson and T. Strong, “The Practice of Ethical Precepts: Dissecting Decision-making by Lawyers” (1996), 9(1) Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 141-160.

“Issues Facing Boards of Inquiry Concerning Requests for Disclosure of Particulars, Production of Documents and the Reasonable and Bona Fide Requirement, Qualification or Factor Exceptions Under the Human Rights Code of Ontario” (1993), Canadian Bar Association-Ontario Institute of Continuing Legal Education, pp. IV 1-26.

“Workers’ Compensation and Sections 7 and 15 of the Charter” (1988), 29 Admin. L.R. 157-160.

“Administrative Regulation and the Right to Pursue the Gaining of a Livelihood: Paragraph 6(2)(b) of the Charter” (1987), 20 Admin. L.R. 131-35.

“Recent Developments in Canadian Law: Administrative Law” (1984), 16 Ottawa L. Rev. 645-684.

“The Citizen’s Right to Sue in the Public Interest: The Roman Actio Popularis Revisited” (1983), 21 University of Western Ontario Law Review 89-103.

“Copyright in Musical Works” (1983), 17(3) Canadian Folk Music Bulletin 28-31.

“The Windsor Small Claims Court: An Empirical Study of Plaintiffs and their Attitudes” (with Kai Hildebrandt and Brian McNeely) (1982), 2 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 87-123.

Case and Comment (a general review of the American periodical of the same name) (1981), 5 Canadian Community Law Journal 156-160.

“The Gouriet Case: Public Interest Litigation in Britain and Canada”, [1979] Public Law 214-236.

(4) Comments

Domtar Inc. c. Québec (Commission d’appeal en matiére de lésions professionnelles) (1993), 2 R.A.L. 237-239.

Shiell v. Amok Ltd. (1988), 27 Admin. L.R. 2-4.

Black v. Law Society of Alberta (1987), 20 Admin. L.R. 210-214.

Mia v. Medical Services Commission of British Columbia (1986), 15 Admin. L.R. 268-270.

The Queen in Right of Alberta v. County of Beaver No. 9 (1984), 7 Admin. L.R. 120-122.

Dene Nation v. The Queen (1984), 6 Admin. L.R. 269-271.

Wimpy Western Ltd. v. Director of Standards and Approvals of the Department of theEnvironmental et al. (1984), 3 Admin. L.R. 248-251; (1984), 29 Alta. L.R. (2d) 166-169.

Irving Oil Ltd. v. The Queen (1984), 2 Admin. L.R. 54-57.

(5) Book Reviews

The Judiciary in a Democratic Society (Leonard J. Theberge Ed.) (1981), 59 Canadian Bar Review 460-469.

Z.M. Nedjati and J.E. Trice, English and Continental Systems of Administrative Law (1980), 13 University of Western Ontario Law Review 549-552.

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Ramapo

Research Studies Commissioned and Published by Government

Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario
The Law Governing Employment Drug Testing and Employee Assistance Programs (1991) 234 pages.

Law Reform Commission of Canada
Environmental Mediation Study (1990) 151 pages.

The Ontario Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan: Two Year Review (1989) 97 pages.

The Ontario Motor Vehicle Arbitration Plan: Summary of the Two year Review (1989) 11 pages.

Law Reform Commission of Canada
Environmental Mediation: Project Feasibility Study (1987) 20 pages.

Federal Department of Communications
International Deregulatory Trends in Broadcasting (with Dr. T. L. McPhail) (1986) 230 pages.

Law Reform Commission of Ontario
Incidence and Patterns of Preference (with Dr. Kai Hildebrandt) for the Remedies for Wrongful Intentional Interference with Goods Project (1983), 112 pages plus appendices