What happens to UMDNJ under proposed N.J. higher-ed reorganization bill?

A NewsWorks reader asked us what will happen to the programs of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey under the state’s latest higher-education reshuffling proposal. WHYY’s Carolyn Beeler tackled the question.

In South Jersey, the proposed affiliation of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University has dominated coverage of the New Jersey higher-education reshuffling plan.

But a NewsWorks reader wrote to ask us what will happen to the programs of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) under the latest proposal.

WHYY Health and Science reporter Carolyn Beeler tackled the question.

The original higher-education restructuring plan proposed by Gov. Chris Christie’s task force this winter would have left many of UMDNJ’s programs in Newark, under a new name — the New Jersey Health Science University.

But the new proposal, hammered out by a group led by New Jersey Senate Democrats in the past months, divvies up the school’s assets differently.

“The proposal, as it stands now, all of the schools and units of UMDNJ — with the exception of University Hospital in Newark and the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford — would move to Rutgers University,” said UMDNJ spokesman Jeff Tolvin.

Under the bill, schools moved to Rutgers would include UMDNJ’s medical and dental schools, and schools of nursing, public health, and health-related professions.

University Hospital in Newark would become its own entity and partner with a private hospital system.

The School of Osteopathic Medicine would move to Rowan University.

State Sen. Donald Norcross, one of the prime sponsors of the bill, said this plan reflects stakeholder opinions more than the earlier version.

“From its initial introduction, this bill has changed tremendously, reflecting the issues that the stakeholders have brought to us,” said Norcross, D-Camden.

Under the bill, Rowan University would partner with Rutgers-Camden.

The Camden campus would become financially independent from Rutgers in New Brunswick but would retain academic ties to the school.

The bill may come to a vote in the Senate Monday.