President’s Remarks at Governor’s Economic Stimulus Act Press Conference

Governor, welcome to New Jersey’s second largest university. I would like to recognize and welcome my distinguished colleague, President Dawood Farahi of Kean University.

We are standing in front of Bohn Hall, which was built 37 years ago to ease the enormous demand for housing on campus back in the 1970’s.  Bohn was designed to house 588 students.  This coming fall it will be housing 703 students.  In other words, the building will be at 120% of capacity.  Student study lounges have been turned into rooms, and 339 students will be living in triples.

This situation is repeated in the other residence halls across this campus and other campuses in the state.  This fall, Montclair State will have close to 18,000 students, coming from every county in New Jersey.  Of those 18,000 students, we will be able to house only about 3,600 students, and that is with 888 of those students in triples and 320 of them in hotels. 

This is a problem, but it is a problem that arises from a very good circumstance.  New Jersey has wonderful institutions of higher education, and, increasingly, New Jersey students want to study at their own state colleges and universities.  Annual applications to New Jersey’s state colleges and universities have increased by over 15,000 since 2001, but unfortunately New Jersey ranks 50^th in nation in the number of public college seats it can provide to its high school graduates.  As a result, we experience a net loss of over 29,000 students a year to other states, with all the negative economic and long-term workforce implications that has.

That is why the New Jersey Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 is so critical to our state, and that is why I and my colleagues are so incredibly grateful to Governor Corzine, Senate President Codey, Speaker Roberts, Senators Lesniak and Whelan, and Assemblyman Coutinho for their support and their efforts in securing this legislation.

Using the forward-looking and creative methodologies made possible by the Stimulus Act, Montclair State University will immediately partner with a private developer to provide a minimum of 1,200 beds on campus, with associated dining service and parking opportunities.  That project will create an initial investment of private funds in the range of $120 to $135 million, will generate about 400,000 GSF of facilities urgently needed by New Jersey students, and will, at the same time, create work for New Jersey businesses and will create approximately 600 to 800 direct jobs for New Jersey workers in all of the construction trades and building maintenance fields.

And that’s just the first project at one university.  The Governor just signed the legislation on Monday, but we have already begun to explore other potential opportunities using public/private partnerships, including a $64 million project to completely replace the University’s aging energy plant and infrastructure to create a state-of-the-art new green infrastructure that will serve Montclair State’s expanded facilities into the future, permit substantial savings of energy costs and contribute to the State’s green initiatives.  Additional housing, dining, parking, and even certain academic facilities are also in planning.

Add to that the similar projects being planned and developed at New Jersey’s other great colleges and universities:  My colleague President Dawood Farahi from Kean University has begun planning for a new Design Center at Kean University that, building on a public/private partnership, would provide incubator spaces for business start-ups, retail space, and critically needed space for Kean University’s programs in interior, industrial and graphic design.  And that’s just the first of several projects on Kean’s list.  Project planning, all made possible by the Stimulus Act, is also underway at New Jersey City University, at Stockton State College, and at Rowan University.

From the perspective of the state’s colleges and universities, the college portion of this legislation is all about the students.  Student enrollments have grown in New Jersey, and we want them to grow.  We want more of our bright, creative, energetic young people to stay in New Jersey for their college education, to attend one of New Jersey’s great colleges or universities, and to contribute their skills and talents to the state’s workforce.  Our students need, our students deserve, the kind of modern facilities that make a first-rate education possible.  The Stimulus Act is a hugely important step toward making that possible. 

Let me take you back for a moment to the early 1930’s and the Great Depression – a period of economic hardship, unemployment, and declining state appropriations – and, in the midst of it all, a vision, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.  Well that New Deal reached even Montclair State, deploying skilled New Jersey workers needing employment to this campus where they built our great 2,000-seat Amphitheater, still used and beloved by students more than seventy years later.  They also built Montclair State’s School of Conservation in Sussex County, which is still running as the largest University-based school of conservation in the country. 

My point is this, when we have a vision for the future, when we build for the future, the good we do multiplies across the generations.  Today, with the Economic Stimulus Act we have again invested in the future.  I am absolutely certain that in the decades to come, those who follow us will see the accomplishment made possible by this Stimulus Act of 2009, and they will stand as we stand today and say, Governor Jon Corzine did the right thing.