President's Post

September 23, 2009

The turning leaves around campus do more than contribute to the natural beauty of Ramapo College; they also mark the beginning of the fall semester and the arrival of another cohort of Ramapo students. In this our 40th year, we welcomed the largest freshman class in our history to campus and, in keeping with College tradition, I greeted each of them as they passed through our iconic Arch following First Year Student Assembly.
 
The 939 members of the class of 2013 hail from every county in New Jersey as well as from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Arizona and six foreign countries. They were chosen from more than 5,112 applicants and comprise the top 23% of their high school senior class with a mean combined (Verbal and Mathematical) SAT score of 1,156.
 
A Ramapo education is in great demand, throughout New Jersey and beyond -  a testament to the four decades of educational excellence fostered at Ramapo by scores of dedicated professors, administrators and support staff. This year’s increase of 20 points in the mean SAT  scores of our applicants is a solid indicator that we are recognized as valuing academic excellence and that there is real perceived value not only in a public Liberal Arts Education, but specifically in a Ramapo College education. Our steady climb in the U.S. News and World Report rankings continues as we advanced two positions in the 2010 edition.
 
I look forward to sharing another wonderful year with all of you.

Peter P. Mercer Ph.D
President

President's September 23, 2009 State of the College Address

Colleagues,

The Board of Trustees will meet on August 7 to discuss the recently approved capital improvement fee.

At the June 29 meeting the Board approved a Fiscal Year 2010 increase of 3% in tuition and tuition related fees, an average 4% increase in room and board and a $500 per semester Capital Improvement Fee. The dedicated capital fee is to be used exclusively for capital purposes beginning with deferred maintenance projects such as the Academic Complex roof, the Student Center HVAC system and updating of our science labs. Similar fees are assessed by our sister colleges across New Jersey.

As you know, we have worked in recent years to reduce expenditures while continuing to provide the high quality education for which Ramapo is known. This year, we identified an additional $1.7 million in cuts that include such areas as travel, cleaning, athletics and technology.  This brings our total to $7.3 million in reductions over the past five years.

The decision to raise tuition and fees was not taken lightly and, from the time of the first College open forum on the budget in early February, we worked hard to ensure a transparent, collaborative budget process.

Our situation has been made more challenging by the budget constraints facing the State of New Jersey. Ramapo has not received any capital funding from the State since 1988 and we receive about $750 less per capita in state appropriations than the average state institution.

But we believe that Governor Corzine’s recent signing of economic recovery legislation that allows state colleges and universities to pursue public/private partnerships regarding capital projects may be promising for Ramapo. We are currently reviewing the legislation and we will keep you apprised of the possibilities this new opportunity affords us. In light of this development, I have asked the Board of Trustees to amend the budget by reducing the Capital Improvement Fee by two-thirds so that our total increase in all tuition and fees is held at 6% rather than 12%.

We welcome this opportunity to lessen the financial burden on our students and their families.

Thank you for your support.

Peter P. Mercer Ph.D
President

Class of 2009 - you are about to close one chapter of your life while simultaneously opening another.  But before you close that chapter- let us think back almost four years ago.  All of us, including me, arrived at Ramapo to begin a journey that held out the prospect of change; the prospect that we, and Ramapo, would be different as a result of our time here.

And in your four years at Ramapo change has been omnipresent.  Physically you have seen the opening of the Anisfield School of Business, complemented by the announcement of the additional gift by Dick and Millicent Anisfield to finish the 5th floor, which will be completed this summer; you have witnessed the groundbreaking and near completion of the Sharp Sustainability Education Center and the Salameno Spiritual Center and most recently, the renaming of Oak and Maple Halls to honor our revered Student Affairs administrators, Pam Bischoff and Nancy Mackin on the occasion of their impending retirement. 

Politically, you have seen a change that many of your great grandparents, grandparents and even parents would never thought possible; the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. And individually, the change has been transformational because of what you have become during your tenure at Ramapo College.

Throughout your time at Ramapo you have acquired an education grounded in the liberal arts- the cornerstone upon which you will build your futures.  The ability to think critically and analytically, and to communicate clearly and concisely in solving complex, real world problems are skills that will distinguish a Ramapo class of 2009 graduate.  These are the skills that leaders possess and the skills that a more diverse and interdependent world will need.

And your class has demonstrated that leadership comes in various forms.  From continuing the traditions of Octoberfest to walking all night to raise funds to fight cancer to competing on our athletic fields, you have shown a camaraderie and spirit that is infectious.  For those who have excelled in the classroom, presented papers internationally, served the less fortunate, gained an international perspective or worked full-time to support themselves in order to reach today, we have seen a perseverance and commitment to success that is remarkable.

So, as you turn the Ramapo page and begin that next chapter, I thank you for what you have added to this College and for what you will continue to add as Ramapo College alumni and I offer you and your families my warmest congratulations.

Peter P. Mercer, May 15, 2009

On Thursday, March 26 student trustee Tom Ng and I were invited to testify before the Assembly Budget Committee's public hearing in Trenton.  Below, please find the remarks I delivered to Chair Greenwald, Vice-Chair Schaer and the rest of the Assembly Budget Committee on the impact of this year's proposed budget and the need for reinvestment in public higher education.

REMARKS TO THE ASSEMBLY BUDGET COMMITTEE

March 26, 2009

Dr. Peter P. Mercer, President

Ramapo College of New Jersey

Chair Greenwald and Vice-Chair Schaer and members of the Assembly Budget Committee, good morning and thank you for granting me this opportunity to address you on the Fiscal Year 2010 State Budget.

 I am  now in my fourth year as President of Ramapo College of New Jersey, and I am accompanied this morning by Ramapo’s student trustee Thomas Ng who will be addressing you shortly. Tom grew up in Oradell, is a junior at Ramapo and, as a Presidential Scholar, carries a 3.98 GPA. He is also an accomplished musician, an Eagle Scout and a black belt in Tae Kwan Do. I try to take him with me wherever I go.

At the risk of embarrassing him, Thomas Ng, and the thousands of superb young men and women like him, is the reason I am here. As a college President, I am above all a futurist. Institutionally, this means that I need to be aware of diverse emerging global trends, potential political and social scenarios, market opportunities and risks to be managed. But at a personal level, I get to talk to students and their families and prospective students and their families about what their individual futures may hold. Make the right choices, I want to say to them, and the prospects should be virtually limitless.

Each of you as state legislators is a futurist too, although your canvas is much larger than mine. You must concern yourselves with the future of the State of New Jersey and, in fashioning the Fiscal Year 2010 State Budget, you have some very difficult decisions to make. The budget proposed by our Governor equally reflected some tough choices and it is gratifying to see that the cuts to higher education are less than they might have been. In these times that is the right emphasis – the right choice. And while I welcome any development that holds out the prospect of renewed emphasis on the goal of educating New Jersey students, I confess to a high degree of frustration.

I arrived at Ramapo College as President in 2005. My previous experience at a large Canadian research university included six years as Dean of a Law School and eight years concurrently as General Counsel and as Vice-President Administration and Finance. I am used to the ups and downs of public funding but, I have to tell you, since I arrived in New Jersey it has been mostly ebb and little flow.

I don’t intend to whine about this – I was hired to manage and I will manage the 5% cut proposed for public higher education in 2010. But I was also hired to look to the future and if one accepts that past behavior is the best predictor of the future then that future has a large question mark hanging over it.

 I grew up in fishing villages on the east coast of Canada and my family eventually moved a couple of thousand miles to be near a good university in Ontario. My parents, who were not people of means, did that because they wanted what was best for me and my brothers. I see that impulse as quintessentially American: the idea that individuals can, if given the opportunity, improve their lives and the lives of their families and fellow citizens through education. There is concrete evidence that this promise is increasingly unfulfilled. If one looks at the percentage of the population age 35 to 64 with a college degree, the United States ranks second. However, if one focuses on those whose ages are between 25 and 34, the United States falls to 10^th. This does not happen by accident; it happens as a result of public policy choices.

Let me give you one example. The Governor’s proposed budget would set state appropriation per student at Ramapo College at an amount that is 44% lower than it was in 2000. Together with the other state colleges we have significantly increased enrolment and we have also significantly improved our retention and graduation rates. However there is a limit to what we can do and to what our students and their families can do. Many of my students need to work during the school year to help pay their tuition and fees. That makes it a lot harder for them to graduate in four years.

At Ramapo College, which was founded only 39 years ago, the decline in operating support has happened over a period when we have made significant capital investment on our own and without state contribution. As you know, there has not been a bond issue in support of capital construction at New Jersey’s public colleges and universities since 1988. In response to overwhelming demand from New Jersey students and their families, Ramapo College has built dormitories and student facilities and transformed itself from a commuter campus to a residential one. In doing so, however, it has accumulated debt whose service cost consumes 13 percent of the operating budget.

We need basic capital improvements at Ramapo – a new roof on our main academic building and refurbishing of our science laboratories for example – and held out some hope that federal stabilization funds might be deployed for such purposes in the manner being discussed in other states, I do not hear similar discussions in New Jersey, which is very much to be lamented.

Higher education – especially public higher education – is vital to the economic and social well being of any modern society. It is particularly important in difficult times to stay focused on that overriding reality. Thank you for listening to me and for your own commitment to advancing the interests of the state of New Jersey and its people.

 

With the Governor’s recent budget announcement, the work of the “Nine Strong for a Stronger New Jersey” campaign is integral to delivering a clear message about the importance of public higher education in New Jersey.  Recently, I sat down with Ramapo Magazine to talk more about the campaign and the future of public higher education in New Jersey.

(This can also be found in the Ramapo College of New Jersey Winter 2009 magazine)

Q:  What is the Nine Strong for a Stronger New Jersey campaign all about and who is its audience?

The Nine Strong piece of the campaign refers to the nine State colleges and universities in New Jersey including Ramapo College, Rowan University, The College of New Jersey, Montclair State University, New Jersey City University, Kean University, Richard Stockton College, William Paterson University and Thomas Edison State College.  Together we account for nearly half of all the students who attend four year institutions of higher education in the State and award 45% of all bachelor’s degrees in the State.

The purpose of the Nine Strong campaign is to advance public higher education as a kitchen table topic around the State.  We need parents, students, alumni and business leaders alike to take a harder look at the prospects for  New Jersey’s economic prosperity.  Specifically, we need those key constituents to initiate discussion with elected officials about public higher education’s importance to the future well-being of the State and its citizens in a knowledge-based economy.

I, along with my other colleagues on the Council, understand the Herculean challenges faced by the State, but cannot continue to accept public higher education’s place at the bottom of the priority list.  It is a fact that economic innovation and productivity are directly linked to the strength of a State’s education system and thus the need for greater priority to be placed on public higher education.

Q:  How can readers of Ramapo Magazine take a more active interest in public higher education and how can they get involved?

An integral piece of the Nine Strong campaign has been the launch of the New Jersey College Promise Action Network. This network is designed to link those interested in the future of higher education with one another to strengthen their voice in the State Legislature.  The College Promise network will provide those constituents I mentioned earlier, and our readers in particular, with a forum to discuss issues and obtain information.  The website, www.NJCollegePromise.com provides templates to draft letters to legislators and further informs visitors on the current state of public higher education. 

Q:  What are issues that NJASCU is confronting?

 The state colleges and universities cannot maintain, much less enhance, campus facilities given high debt loads due to inadequate funding.  The demand by New Jersey high school graduates for full-time freshman spots at our nine institutions exceeds capacity by more than 10,000 annually yet there has been no state support for capital projects since 1988.  This is particularly detrimental to Ramapo given its short history and tremendous growth in enrollment. We desperately need to upgrade our science facilities but cannot assume more debt because we have had to shoulder the cost of increasing capacity and consequently already spend 13% of our operating budget on debt service.  And you will find similar stories at a number of our sister institutions. .And obviously, the volatility of today’s economy continues to send shockwaves through the entire sector of higher education.  Colleges around the State and the country are developing strategies to cope with the effects of tumultuous market conditions and reduction in investment returns.

Q:  Specifically, how is Ramapo positioned to endure these volatile times?

Historically, when the country is in recession, public colleges tend to fare relatively well.  What we are seeing at Ramapo is that price is playing a more significant role in students’ decision making and those that would have otherwise been drawn to expensive independent colleges are seriously looking at Ramapo College.  In fact, an October survey done by MeritAid.com of more than 2,500 prospective college students showed that 57% of prospective students were considering cost as a significant factor.

Operationally, the next few years will continue to be challenging.  As the State revenues are projected to be $1.2 billion short this year, and significantly more next year, we are already beginning to model budgets that anticipate significant deficits.  We will continue to identify ways to reduce expenditures and enhance revenue.  In the next three years, strategically linking budgeting and planning will even in difficult times enable Ramapo to achieve the vision and goals outlined in our strategic plan.

Q:  What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure as Chair of the Presidents’ Council?

I hope that we can continue to work together, and with our colleagues in the other institutions of postsecondary education, to improve the educational opportunities for students in New Jersey.

 

 

 

To all Faculty, Staff and Students:

On Monday, March 2^nd, the presidents of all New Jersey public colleges and universities were informed that the State will impose an in-year budget cut. The State provides quarterly payments to cover a portion of the cost of State negotiated salary increases.  This year, the State will not pay the third quarter installment and it seems unlikely that the funding will be reinstated for the fourth quarter although that will not be decided until June. In total, Ramapo’s direct cut is likely to be $372,000.

Based on our projections of net revenues, we are positioned to handle this cut through salary savings from vacant lines this year.   Next Tuesday, on March 10, the Governor will present his projected budget for fiscal year 2010 which will then enable us to make firm plans culminating in a recommendation to the Board of Trustees.

I will continue to update the campus on our budgetary outlook for next year.  And, as I have said before, I truly believe that if we stay the course and share the burden, we will emerge stronger from these tough economic times.

 

In both the budget presentation and my blog, I have referred to the need to "stay the course." In today's State of the College address, I will expand on what I mean by that.  What does it mean to "stay the course"?

I certainly do not intend to encourage complacency - we won't be able to deal with the challenges before us merely by maintaining the status quo. Instead, by "staying the course", I mean that we must continue to develop and pursue a course of action that will achieve our vision, set forth in the Strategic Plan, to be the "premier public college in the greater New Jersey/New York Metropolitan area providing a high quality education across programs whose curricula are founded on a commitment to the liberal arts."

And pursuit of that course must be bounded by the three goals of the Plan: enhancing academic excellence, investing in the future and enriching college life and community presence.  Let me begin by reviewing specific initiatives that we have achieved in furtherance of these three goals since the Strategic Plan was approved by the Board just over one year ago. I will then refocus on those goals through a different lens; one that appreciates the reality of the financial constraints facing both the college and our students and addresses the question that is, to some degree,  facing all of higher education: can we do a better job of recruiting, retaining and graduating the students we are targeting?

A. SPIF First Go-Round

The hallmark of the approved Strategic Plan is the purposeful integration of planning, budgeting and assessment.  After a year of working towards that integration, it is fair to ask "have we achieved that integration"?  I believe we are well on the way to doing so.  Two weeks ago, the Cabinet and I reviewed the Institutional Effectiveness Committee's recommendations for allocation of the Strategic Priorities Incentive Fund (SPIF) for fiscal year 2009.

And I cannot stress how important this first go-round was to the utility and validity of our planning model. By division, 50% of the SPIF funds went to Academic Affairs, 16% to Institutional Advancement, 19% to Student Affairs and 15% to Administration and Finance.  I thank the Institutional Effectiveness Committee members for their work not only in evaluating the requests, but in reviewing the survey and anecdotal information that informed their recommendations.  Naturally, as with any first-time enterprise, there were some kinks, but I believe that strategic planning and budgeting will continue to evolve and strengthen.  In fact, the IE committee is taking a break from their three day retreat to review FY10 requests, in order to be here for this address.

B. Enhancing Academic Excellence

AACSB Accreditation - In early December we received word that the Anisfield School of Business' progress report was accepted by the Initial Accreditation Committee of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or AACSB..  That Committee determined that Ramapo is ready to proceed with accreditation.  The IAC will appoint a Peer Review Team Chair who will provide consultative assistance as we develop our Self-Evaluation Report (SER).  We remain at least one full year ahead of the usual schedule and I commend Dean Chakrin and all of the members of ASB for their dedication to this crucial accreditation enterprise.

Middle States Accreditation - While ASB has been primarily concerned with AACSB accreditation, most of you on campus have been involved one way or another with our work towards Middle States Accreditation.  T he Middle States Steering Committee and Study Groups are continuing their work on the institutional self-study with draft study reports due to the committee on March 15th. The Steering Committee will be hosting an Open Forum on March 11th to update the College on its progress and the accomplishments and challenges that are emerging from the self study. Details regarding the forum will be in a future Daily Digest.

I am also pleased to announce that Chris Dahl, President of SUNY Geneseo, has accepted the invitation to chair the accreditation review team. I have spoken with him twice in the last month and he is looking forward to being with us. SUNY Geneseo is a COPLAC institution and Chris will do a superb job but we'll have to be well-prepared and we will be.  I ask that you continue to offer your support to Miki Cammarata, Jennefer Mazza and the Steering Committee as we look forward to the site visit later next year.

Master's in Sustainability Studies - I am pleased to announce that on February 13, we initiated the approval for  the Masters in Sustainability Studies program by distributing to all the Presidents of New Jersey Colleges and Universities our program announcement.  As the announcement says, the proposed MA in Sustainability Studies will "teach sustainability literacy and the fundamental methods for sustainability analysis".  The home for the program will be in the newly constructed Sharp Sustainability Education Center. I am personally receiving inquiries about this program already.

Master's in Educational Leadership - At the February Board of Trustees meeting, we will also request approval of the Master's in Educational Leadership program.

The progress of these two programs is significant.  Their development and on-campus approval reflects and reinforces the principles that master's programs must:

1. build on the strength of our undergraduate programs but not dilute them; and
2. they must respond to a societal need

The early responses to these programs are very encouraging.

C. Investing in the Future 

In the life of any college, the quality and complement of full-time faculty is essential to its future. This is particularly so at Ramapo College. Though we have made significant cuts to cope with the reduction in state appropriations, the College has since my arrival remained committed to adding 5 new faculty lines per year.  In the past two years, we have hired over 40 faculty and currently have over 20 open searches for faculty positions.

As you know, on the eve of our 40th anniversary, we are making plans to announce a $40 million comprehensive fundraising campaign.  Recently, Blackbaud consulting completed its screening exercise, which included an in-depth analysis of our donor database.  I, along with Cathy Davey, will be meeting with consultants in the coming weeks to develop our narrative and test our key themes for the campaign.  The potential key themes are to:

• Renovate and upgrade our science facilities
• Name and endow an academic school
• Strategically build our endowment for scholarships
• Strategically enhance and endow academic programs
• Build resources for faculty development and undergraduate research

And I know what some of you are thinking- given this economic climate how could they possibly think it is feasible to pursue such a campaign?  And it is a good question- a question that Cathy and I have posed to many of our loyal donors, alumni, parents and community partners and the response is always the same.  They tell us that we have a great story- one with which people can identify and one that people are willing to support.  And so, unless any external indicators strongly encourage us to abandon our goals, we will press on.

D. Enriching College Life and Community Presence

Internally, we continue to find ways to "close the loop" on suggestions for improvement that you all have made.  We hold quarterly communications meetings where the discussion topics range from the amount of salt in the soup in the cafeteria to potential cost-savings or revenue generating strategies.  Recently, we have undertaken three (3) initiatives in our attempts to follow through on your suggestions. 

First, we created and went live with our Campus Communications website to provide one-stop shopping for all important campus communications..  On that page, you will find the links to our two newest initiatives.

1. Campus Connection- This online communication tool gave a facelift to the former accomplishments page.  Published September through May, the site will continue to provide updates of accomplishments by faculty, staff and students, but it also welcomes and profiles new employees to the College posting their name, unit and an accompanying photo. Campus Connection will also keep readers apprised of promotions, reclassifications and retirements.
2. President's Staff Recognition Program is one that I first introduced at the opening reception Jackie and I held at the Havemeyer House at the beginning of this academic year.  The program is designed to recognize excellence and extraordinary effort by Ramapo College staff employees.  There are two categories:
   1. Staff Leadership - awarded to a Ramapo College staff member who, in that year, assumed a leadership role and successfully effected positive change.  This will be awarded to one employee within each employee classification.
   2. Staff Excellence in Service - Awarded to an individual or recognized group that, in that year, provided exemplary service to college constituents.
   Recipients will be announced at the Annual Picnic in May, with formal presentation at the June Board of Trustees meeting.  Recipient names will be included on the web on the communications page as well as the President's page.  Nominations will be accepted until April 15.  All nominations will be reviewed by the Staff Recognition Program committee co-chaired by Bea Cronin and Christopher Romano.

The Ramapo Diversity Lecture Series also kicked off its programming the last Wednesday in January with the 3rd Annual Diversity Convocation Speaker, Cherrie Moraga.  While the snowstorm may have discouraged a few from attending, the powerful readings of Moraga and the thought provoking question and answer session afterward displayed an engaged campus eager to discuss roles of race, gender and sexuality.This series continues every Wednesday evening and the list of remaining speakers is highly impressive.  I thank Kay Fowler, Ruma Sen and Paula Straille-Costa for their leadership in creating this series and the numerous organizations, led by the Board of Trustees, which support it.

Lastly, we continue to find ways to increase opportunities for local community members to participate in on-campus activities while promoting a campus dedicated to public safety and security.  On January 6th and 7th, Ramapo hosted the Hostile Intruder Training Exercise.  The training welcomed officers from the New Jersey State Police, the Mahwah Police, the Ramsey police, Bergen County police and a number of other law enforcement agencies to Overlook Hall.  During those two days, each police agency ran through real life intruder and hostage simulations.  To me, this sort of exercise exemplifies the third goal of our strategic plan in that we collaborated with police forces from around the State, enabling them to learn the layout of the campus and work with our Public Safety Officers on emergency protocols.  I want to publicly thank Vince Markowski and his officers for hosting the training- I know that I, along with my cabinet who were able to participate as witnesses (and by participate I mean stand in the back safely away from the whizzing dummy bullets) found the exercise eye-opening and highly instructive.

Taking all of this into consideration, I would say that one year on, the Strategic Plan has yielded significant results.  However, if we are to confront the economic challenges (and the multiple other challenges that result from the economic including emotional and psychological effects), our next course of action must  not only be effective, it must be efficient.  And efficiency sometimes has a negative connotation in higher education because it implies introducing business principles and these are often not a good fit. Adopting as a lens Strategic Plan goal 2.1, which states that The College will operate all units efficiently and effectively in administration, communication, practices, and use and provision of human and material resources, let me quickly re-visit the three goals.

a. Efficiency as it relates to Enhancing Academic Excellence

Here, I prefer to look at the question of efficiency as it relates to our students.  As the economy continues to contract and loans become potentially harder to obtain, we need to find ways to reduce the "cost" to our students- both in time and money. We know that tuition and fee increases are unavoidable although we will do our best to contain them. But there are other ways to reduce the net cost of a Ramapo degree.

 Do all of our majors really require four years to graduate, or can we take measures to make it possible for certain students to graduate earlier?  Are the number of credits required for graduation appropriate?  While I do not suggest a one-size-fits all time-to-degree benchmark, these are the sorts of questions we need to ask ourselves.  As state support for higher education diminishes and the strain placed on our students and their families by shouldering that cost increases, we need to continually ask whether we are doing what is best for our students.  I know that these questions weigh heavily on the Provost and I ask that you all participate as we begin to look at these questions more in-depth in the coming months.

b. Efficiency as it relates to Investing in the Future.

When we look at ways to strategically invest in the future, I prefer to use the word responsibility instead of efficiency.  As I previously outlined in my town hall budget addresses, our utility costs for the coming year are projected at $7,000,000.  As the Sharp Sustainability Education Center nears opening, the Masters of Sustainability Studies gears up for its first class and with sustainability as an underlying theme of the Strategic Plan, we must find ways to reduce our utilities costs.  I have proposed a 5% reduction in utilities usage for the coming year and have had many people say to me that is a conservative figure.  And yet, each year our utilities cost continue to increase.  We must find ways individually and as a college to be more responsible.  Turning off all appliances at the end of the workday, shutting off lights when we leave rooms and closing open doors are easy measures we can take.  I will be working with a number of campus leaders on this as the FY10 budget cycle approaches, but I would be happy to hear any thoughts you might have on how we can reduce our costs.

c. Efficiency as it relates to Enriching College Life and Community Presence.

It is a little more challenging to identify efficient ways of enriching college life but I urge us to focus on outcomes.  What is the outcome of our students' cumulative experience when they leave Ramapo?  What are their feelings towards Ramapo when they are called during a phone-a-thon or invited to an alumni reunion?  When asked on the graduating senior survey if they would recommend Ramapo to a friend, what do they say? 

CONCLUSION

The state of the College is and should be hopeful, but we must stay the course.

Over the past two weeks, I have hosted two town hall meetings to address budget preparation for the coming year.  As I said, Fiscal Year 2010 will be different from other years but, if we stay the course, Ramapo is well-positioned to emerge stronger from these economic difficulties.  Essential to dealing with any economic crisis is our Strategic Plan whose clear goals are starting to be implemented. This past week, the Cabinet and I reviewed and approved the Institutional Effectiveness Committee’s recommendations for allocation of the Strategic Priorities Incentive Fund (SPIF) for fiscal year 2009.   For a listing of allocations and more information about the Institutional Effectiveness Committee, visit http://ww2.ramapo.edu/effectiveness and select “meeting documents” from the sidebar. 

While this first round of submissions naturally had a few kinks, I am confident that the process will evolve and strengthen as SPIF becomes a cornerstone of our budget planning.  As I indicated during my presentations, for next year’s budget we plan to transfer 2% of the operating budget, approximately $2.5 million, into SPIF to ensure that we increase our own financial and strategic flexibility.  Submissions are currently being made for FY2010 and the Institutional Effectiveness Committee will hold a retreat next week to begin reviewing requests for 2010.

While institutionally we continue to implement strategic measures to cope with the economic uncertainties before us, there is hope that the new federal government and some version of the economic stimulus package will include funds for higher education.  As the package is debated between the House and the Senate, I along with my senior staff, will continue to advocate for the inclusion of infrastructure funding that could help offset the cost of pending capital projects on campus.  This past weekend, I attended the American Council on Education conference in Washington D.C. where college presidents from around the country were briefed on the different versions of the stimulus package and their effects on higher education.  When the debate concludes and President Obama signs the package into law, I will provide a breakdown of its effect on higher education.

 

 President's Blog

Over the past two weeks, I held the first of a series of quarterly meetings designed to enhance communication among the senior administration and College staff.  I met first with the Administrative and Support Staff and a week later with Professional and Managerial Staff.  As mentioned at both meetings, one hope is to do a better job of “closing the loop” in communicating about initiatives taken.  From the feedback received after the first two meetings, we have decided to create a website dedicated to internal communication that will launch in early January 2009.

The website will include: a schedule of quarterly communications meetings, agendas, and actions taken following the meetings.  I also plan to update the site with the agenda and minutes from the Constituent Assembly, which met for the first time last month.  This campus-wide group is not a decision-making body, but rather a venue for vetting ideas and airing broad discussions of college initiatives and issues. 

One particular suggestion that was made following the communications meetings was that we address the way in which we introduce new employees to the College.  Currently, Institutional Advancement, Marketing and Communications, the Office of Human Resources and my office are working on a monthly campus electronic communiqué that will discuss college happenings; particularly new faces and the achievements of our faculty, staff and students.  This initiative, too, will debut in the early winter and include all of those hired since September 2008.

It is particularly important that in this climate of economic instability we communicate effectively with one another. For that reason, I will meet with members of each College each unit by the end of the academic year.  In that meeting, I will provide my view on the current state of affairs and update units on any recent occurrences, but I want these meetings to be more for you.  Let’s see them as opportunities for candid discussion about ways in which we might enhance our operations and move forward together in achieving our vision.

My wife Jackie and I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and look forward to the last month of the semester!

Peter P. Mercer

On September 16^th, I joined my fellow state college presidents and introduced a new public awareness and advocacy campaign titled "Nine Strong For A Stronger New Jersey." The Nine Strong refer to Ramapo and New Jersey's other eight state college and universities including The College of New Jersey, Kean University, Montclair State University, New Jersey City University, Richard Stockton College, Rowan University, Thomas Edison State College and William Paterson University.

President Mercer joins the other New Jersey state college presidents and signs onto the Nine Strong For A Stronger New Jersey campaign.

As economic uncertainty continues to plague the news and discussions at businesses and not-for profit organizations, we know that economic strength is directly linked to the strength of a state's education system.  Last year, our nine institutions awarded almost HALF, 45 %, of all new bachelor's degrees in the State.  In the past twenty five years, we have nearly doubled our enrollment from approximately 65,000 to 100,000.  And yet, the State's FY'09 10% cut in state appropriations hinders our ability to meet the needs of today's New Jersey students.  Currently, the demand by New Jersey high school graduates for full-time, freshman spots at New Jersey state schools exceeds current capacity by more than 10,000 annually.

Thus, the Nine Strong campaign is designed to raise awareness about higher education, to make it a "kitchen table topic" where parents and students, businessmen and teachers discuss the need for a closer look at where higher education falls on the priority list.  The purpose of Nine Strong is to motivate our stakeholders- students, parents, alumni, community leaders- to start talking with state legislators and representatives about what we need to do together as a state to prepare New Jersey for the future.

An integral piece of this campaign is the New Jersey College Promise Action Network, found at www.NJCollegePromise.com.  This network will link those individuals across the state and the country that care greatly about the future of state colleges and universities in New Jersey.  Through the website, they will have access to forums to generate ideas and discussion items and tools to deliver a tangible message to elected officials.  I encourage all of you to visit the site and sign on to the effort.  It is your help that is going to make this campaign effective.

And our Nine Strong institutions realize that we too need to have deliverables.  Since 1984 when the State provided institutions with the autonomy and authority to pursue a new level of excellence, we have striven to respond to the needs of New Jersey students, their families and the growing business community.  And so, on September 16^th, we all signed the following pledge outlining our responsibility in this process and the causes we will pursue.

New Jersey State Colleges and Universities

NINE STRONG PLEDGE

 

As Presidents of New Jersey's nine state colleges and universities, and on behalf of our students, our institutions, and the people of New Jersey, we pledge that we will act with determination and purpose to assure and safeguard access to high quality and affordable public higher educational opportunities in this state.

Together, with partners from every sector of the state, we will organize our broad constituent base to assure the future of our institutions on which the majority of New Jerseyans seeking a four-year college degree will increasingly rely.

Together, we will work to reverse New Jersey's net out-migration of college-age students, thereby stabilizing our populations and producing the high quality workforce necessary to the state's prosperity.

Together, as we have fought victoriously for years to build strong institutions, we will now redouble those efforts, determined that New Jersey's students will have the educational opportunities that they deserve.

Together, we will:

1. With renewed determination, find the state and private resources necessary to extend our commitment to serve more New Jerseyans; keep college affordable; keep more talented students in state; extend and expand academic programs, academic services and distance learning; and graduate more students in fields important to the vitality of the state.
2. Strengthen our commitment to provide residential housing to traditional age students to help stem net out-migration, as well as broaden service to adult students.
3. Ensure that our degree programs permit timely graduation of our students, thereby enabling them to move more rapidly into the workforce.
4. Sustain and continue to enhance our collective rank, now number three nationally, in degree productivity for public and tuition dollars invested.
5. Expand and develop new partnerships with businesses for economic and workforce development.
6. Report on graduates' employment status one year following graduation, as an important measure of our institutions' alignment with workforce and economic development needs.

Together, we are New Jersey's State Colleges and Universities.

Together, we are 95,000 students and 500,000 alumni.

Together, we are New Jersey's future.

Together, we are Nine Strong for a Stronger New Jersey.

In the past few weeks, there has been significant statewide coverage of the debate surrounding the Amethyst Initiative, an initiative led by college presidents and chancellors to call upon elected officials to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and to invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.  As I mentioned in my State of the College address, I believe this is a critically important issue on college campuses and one that presidents and legislators must address together.  As promised, below is my op-ed piece that ran in the Courier News on Sunday, September 21, 2008.  You will also find the Channel 9 News Clip  that again focuses on the debate in New Jersey.

THE REAL PROBLEMS OF COLLEGE DRINKING

 Peter P. Mercer

VIDEO - Ramapo in the Media: Channel 9 News report aired September 11 reviewing the Amethyst Initiative in support of lowering the drinking age. Ramapo President Peter Mercer commented on why he does not support the initiative.

As a college president, I have many reasons to be concerned about the consumption of alcohol by my students. Perhaps the most clear-cut reasons are legal. Students who consume alcohol under the age of 21 are breaking State law. Furthermore, even those who are of legal drinking age might cause civil liability to accrue to the college if they drink to excess and cause harm to themselves or others. 

However, the most important issues surrounding excessive and underage student drinking are, for me and my fellow presidents, not legal.  Of much greater concern are the potential adverse consequences to the students themselves. Nationally almost 2,000 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from unintentional injuries in which alcohol was a factor. Additional hundreds of thousands of students are injured; many of them seriously. These deaths and injuries are avoidable.

Every empirical study I have seen in 25 years of studying the issue in Canada and the United States confirms that there is a direct relationship between the legal drinking age and the incidence of alcohol-related death and injury. For that reason, I would not support any reduction in the legal drinking age. This was one of the alternatives posited by the Amethyst Initiative as a way of combating underage and binge drinking. It is unfortunate that the drinking age has attracted the most attention, especially since it seems doubtful that lowering the drinking age would lead to any appreciable amelioration of the most serious consequences.

In the first place, patterns of high-risk drinking behavior are already typically well-established before students arrive at college. Findings from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, published in the Journal of American College Health (Volume 50, No.5, 223-236), state that in 2001, 43.6% of underage college students were classified as binge drinkers, meaning consumption of at least five drinks in a row for men or four drinks in a row for women during the two weeks before completion of the study questionnaire. The vast majority of these began drinking in high school and, increasingly, underage drinking and binge drinking are regularly occurring as low as the eighth grade or earlier.

 The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse has found that the reported first use of alcohol went from age 17 ½ in 1965 to 14 in 2003. Research further shows that the earlier students begin consuming alcohol, the more likely they will engage in behavior harmful to themselves and others.

Clearly this problem is as wide-ranging as the adverse consequences it brings about. Unsafe sexual practices, sexual abuse, health problems, drunk driving, property damage, vandalism, assault and alcohol dependence can all be added to the list. And then there is the often less visible but very real matter of academic consequences. In the 1980’s I reviewed thousands of files from students applying to Canadian law schools. Hundreds of those revealed a similar pattern: poor grades in the freshman year, a modest GPA increase in the sophomore year and then substantial improvement in the junior and senior years. Usually no explanation would be given for this other than a vague reference to “problems of adjustment.”  Requests for a more detailed explanation typically yielded a rueful account of how the first year and a half of college were spent in a beery fog before reality intervened. Sadly too late for those whose grades, averaged over four years, were uncompetitive for law school or graduate school and who had to lower their expectations as a result. What a waste of human capital, individually sad but cumulatively tragic.

How do we as a society deal with this? Senate President Codey has asked New Jersey’s Colleges to provide details of their alcohol policies. It is a fair request and one to which we should be glad to respond given the extensive policy frameworks, policing regimens, educational programs and health intervention measures we have developed. More importantly, it holds out the opportunity to frame the discussion properly.

Why are so many – but by no means all- college students acculturated to abusing alcohol? It can’t just be about “adjustment” and new-found freedom since many of our students are sophisticated and experienced in ways that previous generations were not. We also need to go further and ask why alcohol abuse has been matched by a similar abuse of prescription pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives.  And why are these drugs so accessible?

I and my fellow presidents look forward to making progress in answering these questions.

Welcome Back Ramapo College! This past week was filled with welcome-back receptions, greeting those who are new to the campus, catching up with those who are returning and checking in with those who were here throughout the summer.

Monday September 1^st- Freshman Move-In Day

Finally, the waiting was over and the calm of July and August was replaced by the crackling energy of Labor Day morning as cars lined up Route 202 to drop-off and move in the Ramapo College Class of 2012.  Accompanied by my niece's dog Whistler, I walked the campus visiting the residence halls and speaking with parents and students as they unloaded televisions, ipod docking stations, five years' worth of clothing and boxes of pre-college life photos into their new rooms.  The compelling mix of excitement and anxiety that radiates both from our students and their families marks the unofficial beginning of the 2008-2009 academic year. 

As I addressed the incoming freshman class and then shook their hands as they proceeded through the Ramapo arch, I considered how the group was thus transformed from a data set into the 887 strong Class of 2012 which will leave its mark on Ramapo College.  I want to offer a special thank you to the Offices of First -Year Experience, Residence Life, Facilities, Housekeeping, Public Safety, Student Affairs, Enrollment Management and Admissions for organizing, setting up, and executing a wonderful Move-In experience and First Year Assembly.

(To see my remarks to the Class of 2012, click here.)

Tuesday September 2^nd - Upperclassman Move-In Day

On Tuesday, the current of energy initiated by the freshmen tripled as the sophomores, juniors and seniors returned to campus.  The change in attitude and priorities among students who have already lived in a residence hall is quite noticeable.  Arranging a room and unloading the car gave way to greeting old roommates, classmates and friends to compare summers and share expectations for the upcoming year.  In a day rounded out by the Annual Roadrunner Picnic and a visit from the cast of The Real World, all four Ramapo classes congregated and shared their first night as a campus. 

Wednesday September 3^rd - Welcome Back Faculty Reception

On Wednesday, Jackie and I hosted a reception at the Havemeyer House to welcome the faculty back to campus and celebrate the first day of classes.  More than 70 faculty members attended, both new and returning, and it was a pleasure to see them and talk about the coming year. I was particularly impressed by the buoyancy of the faculty and their sense of optimism as they look toward the future, an optimism that I share.

 

 

 

Thursday September 4^th - Welcome Back Staff Reception

For the first time, Jackie and I also hosted a reception for all of the Ramapo staff whose efforts are so essential to the college's operation.  This reception also provided me the opportunity to introduce a new Staff Awards Program, an idea that stemmed from the six sessions Dr. Anne Kearns facilitated in the spring of last year.  These awards will not only recognize the leadership and exemplary service of our staff, but will also affirm a culture that places high value on employee effort and achievement.  These awards will be implemented for the 2008-2009 Academic Year and will be presented at the June Board of Trustees meeting.  We will also create plaques inscribed with winners' names, which will hang in a highly visible spot on campus.  While I am still working with the unit directors to develop the mechanism by which the recipients will be selected, I announced the following awards:

1. The Staff Leadership Award (One will be awarded to each classification of employee - Manager, Professional Unionized Staff and Other Unionized Staff):

Awarded to a Ramapo College staff member who, in that academic year, has assumed a leadership role and successfully effected positive change.

2. The Staff Excellence in Service Award:

Awarded to an individual or group who, in that academic year, provided exemplary customer service.

 

 

 

As July comes to a close and the State budget is finalized, it is not unusual to see increased press surrounding New Jersey public higher education.  Typically, focus is on how much each institution has raised tuition and the implications for both the taxpayers and students of New Jersey colleges.  This year, there is a renewed focus on cost and transparency in higher education spending. I recently authored an op-ed piece, published in the Bergen Record on Thursday, July 24, explaining Ramapo’s tuition increase while noting the implementation of efficiencies Ramapo has adopted over the past five years.  Below find the article that can also be found at http://www.northjersey.com/education/educationnews/25841509.html

Ramapo hurdling obstacles to meeting student needs.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

BY PETER MERCER

In the past 11 years, the percentage of the Ramapo budget funded by the state has fallen from 50 percent to 27 percent.

I WANT to explain the circumstances dictating the decision to increase Ramapo College's tuition, and what we have done at Ramapo to cut administrative costs and ensure academic quality.

We all respect the Herculean challenges presented to the Legislature by this year's budget and the achievements realized. However, state funding for Ramapo is now below 2000 levels. Our annual operating budget is $127 million. Within that total, the amount that Ramapo will receive from the state is down 7.2 percent from last year. In the past 11 years, the percentage of the operating budget funded by the state has fallen from 50 percent to 27 percent.

Over the past year, state-negotiated salary increases and tuition waiver programs for seniors, members of the National Guard, the unemployed and the NJ STARS program have all increased so that unfunded mandates total $1.5 million.

To close our budget gap and maintain our commitment to high-quality academic programs and support services, we needed to increase our tuition – even after identifying spending cuts of $1.5 million. Over the past four years, we have instituted efficiencies, created new revenue streams and cut spending by $5.6 million.

Last year, Ramapo's 4.9 percent tuition-and-fees increase was the smallest of any state college or university. This year the Board of Trustees approved the administration's recommendation of an 8 percent tuition increase and a 5 percent room-and-board increase. The decision was not taken lightly. No cuts were made to classes, programs or professors. All cutbacks have been made on the administrative side.

Cost-saving measures

The cuts include: eliminating and deferring staff hiring; eliminating repair and renovation funds; across-the-board unit budget cuts; eliminating the use of temp agencies; reducing the use of adjunct faculty; suspension of salary range adjustments for unionized faculty and staff; reduction of overtime, telephone, gasoline, printing, postage and advertising costs; elimination of employee training; and reduction of commencement costs.

State funding may be down, but demand for a Ramapo education is up because our management of the fiscal challenges has safeguarded our ability to provide a first-rate education. First-time freshman enrollment is up 31 percent from 2002; our one-year retention rates are up 4.9 percent from 2000. And although we have built five new residence halls in the past five years, we have a waiting list for student housing.

Ramapo College is ranked among the top five public master's-degree institutions in the Northeast region in this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings of colleges and universities. In February, Kiplinger's magazine named Ramapo College among the top 100 public colleges and universities.

Mindful that we must increase revenues while cutting costs, Ramapo College recently launched a Center for Innovative and Professional Learning, which supports postgraduate professional education, workforce development and alternative learning. In the fall, we will introduce a refurbished Adult Learners Program, offering the opportunity to complete a degree, pursue a new one or enroll in specific courses for career advancement.

At the same time, our Division of Institutional Advancement continues to grow Ramapo's endowment and the scholarships it funds. Last year, Ramapo was the only public liberal arts college in the country to receive the Circle of Excellence Award in educational fund raising from the Council for the Support and Advancement of Education. Net assets of the Ramapo College Foundation have grown by 130 percent over the past five years, and last year alone, the foundation's endowment grew by 49 percent to $6.5 million.

Our recently approved strategic plan makes accountability a priority. A new approach to planning and budgeting will ensure that expenditures and initiatives align with the plan's goals. All college units are developing complementary plans that assess their needs, determine strategic priorities, set goals and measure results - all to ensure that sound planning drives our budget.

Ramapo College is committed to providing the best education at the best value for New Jersey's families.

Peter Mercer is president of Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah.

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:

As you are probably aware, on Monday Governor Jon Corzine signed the 2009 New Jersey State budget. I thought it important to brief you on what this $32.9 billion budget, which includes $600 million in spending cuts, means for our College.

Our 2008 projected operating budget was $122 million; our 2009 approved operating budget is $127 million. Our 2008 State appropriation was $20,468,000; our 2009 State appropriation is $19,194,000. This appropriation projection provides State funding at below 2000 funding levels.

Our Board of Trustees prudently approved a Fiscal Year 2009 increase of 8% in tuition and fees and a 5% increase in room and board. The decision to raise tuition and fees was not taken lightly. If you recall, last year ours was the lowest increase in tuition and fees statewide at 4.9%. To close the budget gap this year, and maintain our commitment to academic excellence and support services, we needed to increase our tuition significantly even after identifying spending cuts of $1.5 million. Over the past four years we have instituted efficiencies, created new streams of revenue, and cut spending by $5.6 million.

However, I want to assure you that in all of our planning we have remained true to the commitment I made to you in February. At the last State of the College address, I vowed that we would establish strategic initiatives for this academic year and find funds to pursue them. I am pleased that, after making difficult cuts in some areas and enhancing revenues in others, we have reserved $2.1 million for Strategic Priority Incentive Funding (SPIF). In consultation with the Board of Trustees, including two additional special meetings, we identified the following as among the initiatives that SPIF funding could support:

• Five additional faculty lines.

• Increases in Equal Opportunity Fund scholarships.

• A reserve fund for anticipated capital projects

• More than $1 million for additional SPIF initiatives identified in forthcoming unit plans

The SPIF allocations will be made after the September 30 deadline for all units to submit their three-year plans. Details will follow about this process.

I appreciate your patience as we make substantial and sometimes painful adjustments in a continuously challenging budgeting and planning cycle.

Finally, I am particularly grateful to Chair Walton and the other members of the Board of Trustees for the time, effort, consideration and guidance they continue to provide.

Thank you,

Peter P. Mercer
President

On June 2^nd, 2008, Ramapo College broke ground on the Salameno Spiritual Center- an event that marked the realization of Professor Anthony Padovano's vision, supported by many like-minded private donors led by Larry and Theresa Salameno.  I outlined the role of spirituality in higher education and what I perceive will be the impact of the Center at Ramapo College in my remarks which can be found here.  To best capture the essence of the groundbreaking, below I have posted the closing remarks from our distinguished Professor of Literature, Dr. Anthony Padovano, whose vision truly inspired the creation of the Salameno Spiritual Center at Ramapo College.

President Peter Mercer and Mrs. Jackie Mercer and Lawrence and Theresa Salameno at the groundbreaking of the Salameno Spiritual Center

 

Remarks:  June 2, 2008

Groundbreaking Salameno Spiritual Center

Dr. Anthony T. Padovano

 

            This College is set on hallowed ground.  It was a gathering place for native Americans who named it Mahwah, “meeting place.” 

            On this land, the Continental Army under George Washington, joined with General Rochambeau, August 26, 1781, and marched south to Yorktown, Virginia.  On September 30 and thereafter the new nation defeated British forces and transformed a revolution into a republic.

            Over the next century, Dutch farmers built homes here, African Americans came in bondage, are buried nearby and, at long last, were emancipated.  The English arrived and the new Americans.  Business leaders made this area a summer respite, a region of lavish and bucolic felicity.  Catholic and Protestant Churches flourished, Jewish Synagogues, a Hindu Temple.

            One year short of forty years ago, the State of New Jersey created what would be called Ramapo College, named after the Dutch word for the mountains nearby.  In 1971, the College opened its doors and this year held its fiftieth commencement.

            Twelve of us (nine faculty, three staff) are still here, founders, and we remember the empty field of dreams which, by and by, became this beautiful campus and this elegant College.

Dr. Anthony Padovano delivers closing remarks at the groundbreaking of the Salameno Spiritual Center

            In 2001, at the dawn of a new millennium, the idea for a Spiritual Center was generated.  In 2009, on the fortieth anniversary of the College, it will be completed and dedicated.

           The concept for such a center was possible because, as the new millennium arrived, the human family preferred to think in intercultural, international, global categories.  In this era, the United Nations, the European Union, instant world-wide communication, and interreligious connectedness emerged.  From all of this, a Spiritual Center was fashioned, part of an age that believed planetary peace and harmony were not impossible.  Such a Center contained and expressed that vision.  This would be a place for radical and intensive inclusivity. The mission of Ramapo College, the dynamism of a world without impassable boundaries and this Spiritual Center fit together.

            We are the heirs and vanguard of all this.  From our midst, key players emerged to make this Spiritual Center happen.  Allow me to limit myself to one trustee, one donor and one College official.  The Reverend Dr. Vernon C. Walton, trustee chair, a Protestant pastor and the Salameno family, Catholics, supported this dream with indispensable and remarkably generous assistance. 

            If the trustees demurred in the risky endeavor of establishing a Spiritual Center at a public institution, if the Salameno family did not lend their trust and resources to this project, we would not be here today at this ceremony.

            The College official essential to the forward movement of the Center was Dr. Peter P. Mercer, a Canadian, who became the leader of an American College.  People of vision crossed boundaries and joined hands to build not a wall but a bridge to the future, on our behalf, and for the sake of all our children and grandchildren.  A world such as this is the kind of world we and they want.

            For the next century and beyond, Ramapo College students will come here in joy and hope, with prayers and songs, in grief at times, for celebrations and contemplation, to reflect on what it means to be human and on how privileged we are to have human hearts and human spirits.  For this reason and by their presence, this will become sacred ground.

            One day when the earth itself burns away, we have been assured, only love will remain.  For love, as Dante once observed, is the energy which moves all life and all the stars.  This is poetry.  It is also concrete and realistic.  For each of us knows that love is the most valuable experience of our lives and, indeed, gives our lives the only experience worth remembering.

I am pleased to announce that Ramapo College has been selected as the winner of the 2008 New Jersey Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award for the Medium Non-Profit Organization category. The following is an excerpt from the letter I received from Dr. Valerie Brooks-Klein, the Chair of the Healthy Workplace Committee:

“The selection of Ramapo College is a reflection of your commitment to the progress, wellness, and success of all employees through employee communication and involvement, employee/family support services, healthy and safety programs and committees.  It is evident that your institution’s approach to employee growth, development, and advancement is outstanding.  We are excited that your institution recognizes the value of psychologically healthy programs and policies and advocates for them.  That commitment places you among some of the finest and most successful organizations in the state of New Jersey.”

This marks the second time that Ramapo has received this honor. This sort of accolade is all the more important when most of us are trying to keep our heads above water during the final push towards graduation.  Add to that the constant press surrounding the possibility of further cuts to the State budget and a casual observer might assume that working in higher education these days is mere drudgery.  Yet, at Ramapo we have much to celebrate with a myriad of opportunities to foster a tight knit and personal environment in which not only our students, but our faculty and staff can thrive.  I encourage you to read through the dossier that was submitted in support of our application and which can be found here. 

I would especially like to thank all those who contributed to our application, especially Debbie Lukascko, Gina Mayer Costa, Judith Jeney, Steve Roma, Bea Cronin, Dorothy Echols Tobe and my assistant, Christopher Romano, who chaired the committee.

Spring Break is an important marker in collegiate life; it offers the opportunity to "catch-up" after midterms while looking ahead in preparation for the weeks leading up to finals and graduation. Though for our active student body, Spring Break might be more about catching one's breath than catching up. While much of my recent State of the College address focused on initiatives of individual schools and the administration, the past few weeks have seen a tremendous amount of student activity and activism on campus. And it is especially during Spring Break, with the absence of energy on campus, that I am reminded of the vibrancy of students.

Pine vs. Linden Hall Energy Conservation

As I have mentioned several times, a compelling factor in my decision to sign the AACU Presidents Climate Commitment was that I was challenged by the students to do so. And in turn, I have encouraged them to lead the way in implementing conservation practices into student life at Ramapo. Paul Corragio, the Chair of the Student Sustainability Coalition and a representative on the Presidents Climate Commitment Task Force, initiated a competition between Pine and Linden Halls to see which could reduce energy consumption the most. This competition lasted the entire month of February. Dean Mackin informs me that Pine Hall won, decreasing their energy consumption by 29.96%. Linden Hall decreased consumption by an impressive 16.15%. The essential value of this competition is that students banded together to raise awareness about sustainability and actually practice it. 

Higher Education Awareness Week

Sticking with the theme of decreases, as you all know, two weeks ago the Governor released his proposed budget, including a 10.8% decrease in state appropriations to Ramapo. To spread awareness about the effect of the budget cuts on the student population, the SGA, along with Student Trustee Bloom and the Garden State Student Alliance, organized a week-long information session that included a yellow-card campaign to reach legislators. I would like to thank Steve Bloom for his budget presentation to the student community, which explained how a smaller investment by the State will affect Ramapo College and public higher education in New Jersey. The following day, Student Government President Steve Cucchiara delivered the first State of the Student Address, describing the budget scenario, his four year experience at Ramapo and his vision for the future. Both student leaders reminded students how important it is to vote and be active in their support of higher education. This sort of work needs to continue because student voices resonate with legislators. Higher Ed week secured over 1000 yellow-cards to distribute to legislators calling for accessible and affordable education and the need for increased support.

Alternative Spring Break

 This Spring Break, we have a total of 36 students who have dedicated their break time to serving others. We have 12 students in Appalachia repairing ramps for the elderly, 12 students in New Orleans rebuilding houses and visiting Southern University and 12 students who are a part of the Mexico/Texas border exchange. What a splendid example for all of us.

 

For the most recent updates on campus initiatives, I encourage you to visit the speeches section of my webpage and review the State of the College address delivered earlier this month.

State Budget Announcement

As we expected, the Governor's proposed budget does not spare public higher education. Our direct appropriations have been cut by an additional 11 % although the effective cut is considerably greater because required salary increases are largely underfunded, some benefit costs will have to be absorbed by the College and other expense items, such as utilities, are increasing substantially. There was also once again no provision for capital funding for such projects as roof replacement.

The budget picture may not be clear until the end of June but the general themes are unlikely to change even as the legislators add their own views to the mix. There is no money in the coffers. We are therefore left to our own devices for raising additional revenue, which we are doing, and reducing expenditures, which we have done. Since 2003 we have been increasing faculty lines at the rate of 5 per year. This commitment will have to be curtailed or even eliminated and all non-faculty positions vacated through attrition will only be filled where it is essential to do so. Cuts in programs will be proposed.

We have already reduced expenditures by millions of dollars in the past two years while raising tuition by 8% and 4.9% respectively in those years. Last year's 4.9% increase was the lowest among all New Jersey's public colleges and Ramapo now charges $1,200 less per student in tuition than the College of New Jersey. This amounts to a relative revenue shortfall of almost $ 7 million.

The administration will not propose trying to make up that difference but we are modeling on the basis of a tuition increase because there is virtually no choice but to do so if we are to fulfill our mission.

I will be providing more information over the coming weeks. Thank you.

President Peter P. Mercer

My wife Jackie and I would like to wish all of the Ramapo College community a happy and healthy New Year!

The end of the semester provided a great opportunity to reflect on the College's final successes of 2007 as well as the opportunities that will commence on the 1^st of the New Year.

To our students, faculty and staff, let me first say congratulations on the completion of another semester.  Each year, I am amazed by the rate at which the semesters pass and attribute that to the multitude of events and programs that enable our campus community to flourish intellectually, culturally and socially.

While Finals (either taking them, grading them or processing final grades) may have consumed much of your time, the closing days of the semester were filled with events that will continue to enhance and advance both the mission and the vision of the College.

Approval of the Strategic Plan

On December 10^th, the Board of Trustees voted to approve the updated Strategic Plan that can be found on the web at http://www.ramapo.edu/administration/presidenthome/strategicplan.html.  More on the implications of the strategic plan in my next post.

Strategic Enrollment Management Team (SEM Team)

Complementing the approval of the Strategic Plan has been the creation of the SEM Team, a group coordinated by our Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management, Ricardo Ortegon.  The SEM team is a cross-cutting cleavage of the College, comprised of representatives from numerous departments and offices that will inform and develop the Enrollment Management Plan.  The SEM team is a larger advisory body that guides the work of four working committees: the Planning Committee, the Marketing/Recruitment/Admissions committee, the Retention/Persistence/Graduation committee, and the Scholarship committee.  Ricardo has charged these committees to analyze existing data and policies in each of these areas, compare Ramapo trends with national trends and make recommendations on how those areas of Enrollment Management can enhance the mission of the College.  Lastly, the last three committees will present their recommendations to the SEM Planning Committee, which is charged with the writing of the Enrollment Management Plan and presenting it to Cabinet for final approval by the end of May.  I would like to thank Ricardo for all the work he has done thus far as these meetings which have conjured up great excitement among the members.  I encourage you to attend the two sessions Ricardo will be hosting for the entire Ramapo community on strategic enrollment management:

Ramapo College Strategic Enrollment Management Presentation
Laurel Hall Theatre
1:00pm -2:00pm
Monday, February 11th
Wednesday, Feburary 13th

Sustainability Task Force

As promised in my last post, on Wednesday December 19^th, I charged the Sustainability Task Force, chaired by Dr. Emma Rainforth, to develop and implement an institutional action plan for Ramapo College to move toward becoming climate neutral.  Joe Porrovechio delivered a presentation on various aspects of climate neutrality and campus “greenness”.  In the coming weeks, Task Force member Stephen Schur will be developing a website for the work of the committee, which will keep the campus community updated on our progress towards climate neutrality.  I will provide that web address in my next post.

A New Foundation Chair

Tom McGurn, an executive with BMW of North America, has retired as Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Governors. Tom has been a member of the Board of Governors since 1996. During his tenure as chair of the Board of Governors, Tom strengthened committees by creating the position of chair-elect, and linked the strategic goals of the Foundation with those of the College's. He was most interested in working more closely with the Board of Trustees to ensure the Foundation's ability to support the highest priorities for the College. His leadership as chair of the Distinguished Citizens Dinner committee saw unprecedented growth in the proceeds from the event, the Foundation's largest fund-raiser. Tom also served on the Institutional Advancement Marketing and Communications Advisory Committee, and on search committees for a number of positions. We will miss Tom and his wife, Carolyn. They have been such wonderful friends and generous supporters of the College as well as many other not for profits in the community.

Robert T. Tillsley has assumed the role of Foundation Chair after already serving 15 years on the Foundation.  Robert is the President of National Services for McBride Corporate Real Estate, a company he has been involved with since 1988.  In our initial meetings, Robert has shown great energy for continuing to align the goals of the Foundation with those of the College’s strategic plan and strengthening the relationship with the Board of Trustees.  Cathy Davey and I are very excited for this opportunity to work with Robert as we continue progressing towards a campaign feasibility study.

Internationalizing Our Campus

Jackie and I will be visiting the cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Shanghai and Hong Kong during the first three weeks of January.

Despite the situation in neighboring Pakistan, I am looking forward very much to spending time with our students in India.  In addition to participating in classes at the Ashram, I will also be visiting the University of Mumbai and speaking at the Indian Institute for Management in Bangalore.

In China, I will be the guest of Shanghai Normal University and will be discussing broadening our cooperative agreement.  In Hong Kong, I also have extensive meetings arranged with both the City University and the Chinese University.

Acting President

I am away from campus until the first day of classes, January 22^nd. Provost Beth Barnett is serving as acting president in my absence.  If you need immediate assistance from the President’s Office, contact my assistants Christopher Romano at cromano@ramapo.edu or Pat Kozakiewicz at pkozakie@ramapo.edu.

 

 

I hope that you all had a very happy and restful Thanksgiving and have returned to campus determined to finish the semester in full stride.  Over the Thanksgiving break, I attended the American Association of State Colleges and Universities annual conference.  The conference focused on accountability and in the coming weeks, the Provost and I, along with the Cabinet, will be discussing some of the national initiatives regarding accountability and the use of institutional data.

Updates:

Fire in Linden Hall

Right before Thanksgiving, a fire occurred in the Linden Hall laundry room.  The State is still investigating the exact cause. Thanks to our Security Staff for their exemplary work in fighting the fire initially using extinguishers and for evacuating the building promptly. I speak for the entire College in expressing gratitude for their dedication to the well being of our students.

Alert Me Now

As of December 3^rd, 2,132 College members have signed up for the Emergency Alert System.  I strongly urge anyone who has not signed up to do so, as this will be our primary means of communication in case of emergency. Alert Me Now will not be used in the case of snow closings or delayed openings.  Ramapo will continue to operate its weather-closing hotline as well post information on our website.  Units may wish to create phone chains as another means of information.

Campus Happenings:

WWW.RAMAPO.EDU’S News and Media Page Wins CASE Award

It is a pleasure to announce that Ramapo’s News and Media webpage has been chosen by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for a District II award.  This marks the third consecutive year that Ramapo has achieved this distinction.  Congratulations to Stephen Schur and the Marketing and Communications Staff for their accomplishment!

AASCU Presidents’ Climate Commitment

On Friday, November 30^th at the opening of the Green meets Green conference, I signed the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Presidents Climate Commitment.  This commitment is a national initiative by the AASCU to actively engage campuses in reversing the trends of global warming by achieving climate neutrality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Echoing my remarks at the groundbreaking for our new Sustainability Education Center, sustainability and environmental awareness are  integral not only to Ramapo’s history, but to its future. 

With the groundbreaking of our new Sustainability Education Center, the pending approval of our Strategic Plan embodying sustainability as a fundamental principle, and the signing of this commitment, Ramapo continues to dedicate itself to teaching and research on the environment and to promoting a more sustainable campus.   Shortly, I will be convening a task force to initiate the research outlined in the commitment and develop an action plan. More about that in my next post.

 

Welcome to the first edition of the President's Post.  The initial concept for a presidential newsletter of sorts arose as a result of thinking about ways to increase communication.  And, since the notion of a fireside chat has been replaced by podcasts, streaming videos and on-line chatrooms, I have decided to venture into a realm whose name seems to me reminiscent of bad science fiction: blogging.  The purpose of these President’s Posts, which I will update regularly, is to relate news of campus happenings, local and statewide initiatives and institutional issues.  Each posting will also feature a calendar section, which will alert you to particular events, sessions and meetings in the coming weeks. 

Let me briefly share with you my hopes for this Post:

• To serve as a communications tool.  As I have mentioned to various groups on campus and in the State of the College address, while I expect to spend more time away from campus this year, I want the College to know what I am doing.
• Accountability.  As the Provost and Academic Affairs continue to work with Faculty groups on assessment, it is my responsibility to give you my views on how particular projects and pursuits are advancing the mission of the College.
• To avoid misperceptions through discussion and clarification.

Updates:

 Strategic Plan

The final draft of the Strategic Plan was submitted to the Board of Trustees for its review on October1, 2007.  The final draft of the Strategic Plan can be found at http://www.ramapo.edu/about/president/strategicplan.html or on my internal president’s page.

Alert Me Now

In light of the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Delaware State University, Ramapo College has implemented the Alert Me Now, Emergency Alert System.  Alert Me Now is a new emergency notification system for Ramapo College to enhance emergency communication on campus.  Alert Me Now will enable students to be the first to know about emergencies on campus including closings, delays or dangerous incidents.  Alert Me Now enables each student to identify up to ten contact points to which information may be disseminated including: text messages, voice mail, emergency contact numbers, residence hall numbers, home phone numbers, etc. This system will only be used in emergencies and not as a medium for routine campus announcements or advertisements.  We strongly urge you to sign up for this system and encourage all those you know at the college to do the same.

Campus Happenings:

Sustainability Education Center

On Monday, October 22^nd, 2007 we were joined by The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the Sustainability Education Center Groundbreaking ceremony.  What a beautiful day it was!  The Sustainability Center will be 1,787 gsf in area and house a “smart” classroom, a greenhouse, a display gallery, an office, and support spaces.  The Center will demonstrate the concept of green building by making the best use of natural daylight and natural ventilation, using recycled and environmentally-friendly materials, reducing water consumption through fixture choice and collection of rainwater for irrigation, and provide a super-insulated building “envelope” to reducing heating and cooling loads.  As noted in the draft Strategic Plan, sustainability in all its forms will continue to be an integral component of our long-term planning and vision.

Senator Sarlo and Senator Lesniak Visit Ramapo College

On Wednesday, October 24^th, I hosted a closed meeting with Senator Paul Sarlo of Woodridge and Senator Ray Lesniak of Union at the Havemeyer House for the purpose of acquainting the Senators with Ramapo College and its funding situation. Several members of the Board of Trustees and  the Vice Presidents joined me in this meeting, presenting their units’ most recent accomplishments and visions for the future.  The meeting was an important first step in the sort of relationship building I will be engaging in over the next few months.  I will be following up with both Senators to schedule individual meetings where we can more thoroughly discuss public higher education in New Jersey, particularly how Ramapo College of New Jersey can receive its “fair” share of appropriations.

Upcoming Events
Monday, November 5th: BSU Honoring Black Ancestors Vigil
Wednesday, November 7th: Meeting with the Faculty Assembly
Thursday, November 8th: Admissions Open House for Prospective Students
Thursday, November 8th: NYC Alumni Event|
Tuesday, November 13th: NJASCU Meeting (Trenton)
Wednesday, November 14th: Founder's Day
Thursday, November 15th: Administrative and Support Staff Communications Meeting (Friends Hall)