The year N.J. colleges upped the competition

A storm was brewing last January.

As a massive blizzard barreled toward New Jersey, college administrators were preparing for a vote that would pit two-year against four-year schools: Should two community colleges be allowed to confer nursing bachelor's degrees?

Some saw the proposal as narrow and relatively harmless: Just one degree, just two colleges.

Others called it an attack on the very nature of higher education in New Jersey.

"It's going to open up a whole unnecessary debate that in my opinion is going to ultimately undermine the integrity of higher education as we define it in this country," the president of Rowan University said in the days leading up to the vote.

The four-year college presidents narrowly won a "no" vote, though the final decision on the nursing bachelor's was left to the state. The debate exposed a rift between four-year and community colleges. In the months following, colleges began to compete more openly and aggressively.

"It wasn't until 2016 that it seemed to be bursting at the seams … whether it's the affordability issue, whether it's the enrollment issue," Harvey Kesselman, president of Stockton University, said last week.

Dueling pressures of rising costs and unstable state funding have pushed colleges to raise tuition or increase enrollment; a shrinking regional high school graduate population has led colleges to expand recruitment; the rise of bachelor's degrees as a prerequisite for many industries has prompted community colleges to look beyond associate's degrees.

"Status quo is the enemy," said Fred Keating, president of Rowan College at Gloucester County, the community college there. "So if you want to hold on and put your seat belt on and try to ride this out, I don't see any variable that tells me it's going away, this storm we're in. So good luck."

The competition could benefit some students, at least in the short run.

The community colleges in Gloucester and Burlington Counties have partnered with Rowan to create smoother transitions for students to go from associate's to bachelor's programs.

The schools say those programs will be cheaper and allow a seamless path for those students.

But the approach taken by Rowan College at Burlington County — restricting on-campus recruitment by schools other than Rowan — has angered top college administrators across the state, including those at other community colleges. Those tensions have led to a very public fight over the role of different colleges.

"We need to revisit the system of higher education in New Jersey to determine what are the missions of the various sectors," said Kesselman, who wants to see a committee formed with the goal of creating a higher education master plan.

"The apparent chaos is not the fault of any single institution," he said. "It's fundamental — the only outcome that can occur when there is a lack of a plan."

Even within sectors, colleges are competing more directly than ever before.

In May, Camden County College froze its tuition for the 2016-17 year, with its president saying it needed to keep costs low in part to compete with the lower costs of neighboring community colleges.

Asked whether freezing tuition could be a viable competitive strategy for the long term, president Donald A. Borden said it would be only if his school attracts enough enrollment to make up for the increased costs.

That may be no easy task. Community college enrollment is particularly sensitive to changes in the economy and demographics, over which colleges have no control.

Four-year colleges to some degree have always competed for students and funding. Now, responding to enrollment and financial pressures, they are recruiting in new places and specializing in certain disciplines, creating new rivalries.

Stockton has begun marketing in North Jersey in recent years, and recruitment is beginning to stretch into other states. Rivalries have already affected decision-making: A report on Stockton's attempt to build a campus on the former Showboat casino site said the president at the time was driven in part by not wanting Rowan to be the first to build in Atlantic City.

Kesselman is critical of the current piecemeal way schools have responded to the changing landscape — "That's not the way to do it, because what it does is it causes hard feelings … and two, it's done in a haphazard way."

He wants a new commission to be formed, like the "Kean Commission" that in 2010 released the Report of the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education. He said he hopes a master plan would outline clear missions for the different schools and revamp funding formulas.

It's unclear how likely that is to happen. Unless and until it does, the pressures will continue to mount, and colleges will continue to compete.

Kesselman would rather see New Jersey schools work together to reverse the longtime "brain drain" that sees tens of thousands of high school graduates leave the state for college.

"It's much more important that we try to keep as many New Jersey students within the state rather than grabbing from this one to give to that one," he said. "What are we doing to stem the out-migration? I haven't seen that happen yet."

Keating, who recently chaired a state commission on college affordability, agrees with Kesselman. Without some sort of real intervention — which he isn't sure will happen — the future looks more competitive than ever.

He continues to believe the pressures will push some colleges into closing, merging, or dramatically diminishing in size. In the last six months, he said, he's joined a growing group of college presidents in New Jersey who believe they need to run their schools as though state funding will disappear.

"I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know, to be honest with you," Keating said. "I think we're moving closer to the edge — and whatever that cliff is, we're getting closer to it. A lot of it's going to be how the state recovers, the leadership of the state, the financial capability of the state.

"But I'm not holding my breath."

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