SGA resolutions address state budget cuts

Earlier this month, TCNJ’s Student Government Association (SGA) passed two resolutions addressing New Jersey’s recent budget cuts affecting higher education. The first resolution called upon the state to reinstate the Outstanding Scholar Recruitment Program (OSRP). The second resolution expresses SGA’s “sincere disapproval” of the state's FY 2009 budget, which presents a 10 percent cut in funding to the institution.

Research shows that college graduates are likely to seek employment in the state where they attend school, and merit scholarships like OSRP play an important role in stemming the loss to other states of top students, who ultimately move into professional positions that fill vital needs and bolster New Jersey’s economy.

Though New Jersey loses a higher percentage of college students than any other state, the OSRP, after its inception in 1997, increased the number of top scholars enrolling in New Jersey colleges and universities by approximately 50 percent. However, drastic budget cuts to higher education in recent years have phased out and eventually eliminated the valuable recruitment program.

The SGA is concerned about the effect that the OSRP cut will have on state schools like TCNJ. The institution’s incoming freshman class average SAT score and class rank significantly increased every year during the program’s eight years in effect. However, this year’s incoming freshman class did not receive OSRP money and, for the first time, the SAT score and class rank decreased moderately.

The resolution not only calls upon the state government to reinstate and fully fund the OSRP, but also to include it as a permanent statute to the budget as recommended by the Institute for Higher Education. This measure would ensure that the OSRP does not get cut in the future.

“The OSRP resolution highlights the success of the program, and how the students, the colleges, and the state all benefited from it,” said SGA Senators Michael Peters (junior, political science/economics) and Sana Fathima (sophomore, seven-year biomedical engineering), who authored both of the resolutions as part of their role as co-chairs of the SGA Lobbying Sub-Committee.

Aside from eliminating the OSRP, recent years have also seen significant budget cuts to higher education as a whole. For instance, TCNJ received a 10.5 percent cut for FY 2007 a slight 4.6 percent increase for FY2008, but face a proposed 10 percent cut for FY 2009. These figures represent a 19.5 percent cut over 3 years when inflation is taken into account.

“We feel that is unacceptable especially considering we already receive less funding per student than almost every other state to begin with,” says Fathima. For instance, before FY 2007, New Jersey spent almost 30 times less on merit aid than Georgia and 10 times less than Louisiana. With this year’s continued budget cuts, the state is likely to fall even further behind.

Budget cuts primarily affect state schools in two important ways, according to Peters. First, in order to make up for the lack of funding, the College is forced to charge students more for tuition, fees, and room and board. Secondly, the College is forced to cut
programs in order to keep the college's budget down.

“As a result, cuts to higher education lead college students in New Jersey to have to pay higher tuition costs for a lower quality education,” said Peters.

The resolution urges the New Jersey Legislature and the Budget Committees of both the Senate and Assembly to reconsider the proposals by Governor Jon Corzine and to pass a budget that is more favorable to institutions of higher education.

Both resolutions passed unanimously on March 5 when the SGA’s general body met on the floor of the Assembly chamber of the NJ statehouse. In addition to sending the resolutions to the governor and state legislators, the SGA has also been meeting periodically with government officials to discuss the fiscal strains and concerns for quality of education presented by budget cuts to higher education.

“I hope that these resolutions will help to start a discussion on these issues, and hopefully, some of this information will cause some of our elected officials to reassess where their priorities should lie,” said Peters.