Investing in Science and Technology Education Is Critical to New Jersey’s Future

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and the members of the Assembly Education Committee for this opportunity to share with you a number of observations regarding the current state of higher education in New Jersey and at NJIT.

New Jersey has a rich history of providing ground-breaking leadership in pharmaceutical research and telecommunications innovation and ranks fourth in the nation, per capita, in residents with college degrees. This is the type of workforce needed to maintain a world-class, knowledge-based economy that depends on technological innovation, develops and sustains high-paying jobs, creates wealth, and is one that is sustained through a robust educational system from K-12 through the doctorate.

In spite of the financial challenges, with which we are all too familiar, that the state’s colleges and universities, and their students face every day, I believe my colleagues would agree with me that New Jersey’s higher education institutions have accomplished much and served the state well.

I can of course speak most knowledgeably about NJIT. The average SAT scores for incoming freshmen grew 200 points in a decade, from a combined score of 951 in 1994 to 1152 in 2004. Students are completing their degrees faster; the average time to earn a degree in our engineering, science and technology programs has dropped by nearly half a year to below five years. The university also serves students from all parts of the state, with more than 100 applications coming from Ocean County every year, and nearly as many from Camden County. NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) has been recognized nationally for educating and graduating hundreds of minority engineers at rates equal to or exceeding that of the student body as a whole. These students are economically challenged and may not be as prepared academically as they should be when they come to us. Nonetheless, through hard work, they succeed.

I also want to point to the success we have achieved through our pre-college programs to prepare primary, middle, and high school students for careers in rewarding scientific and technological fields. In the past 23 years, NJIT pre-college programs have served almost 30,000 students and over 2,500 teachers. This includes 4,000 students and 150 teachers in the past year. Survey data indicate that 95 percent of students who participate in our pre-college summer enrichment programs go on to college. Many of these students are minorities – the first in their families to attend college. Yolanda Del Toro, for example, was a pre-college graduate from Newark. She later enrolled in NJIT, graduated, and went on to become an engineer on the Hubble Telescope.

In addition, NJIT also provides an extensive range of educational offerings to individuals who are not currently enrolled in baccalaureate, master's, and PhD-level programs on our Newark campus. For example, almost 200 students are registered at extension sites across New Jersey, most of them in the southern part of the state. NJIT has 31 joint programs and 18 articulation agreements with other New Jersey institutions of higher education and admits more than 400 transfer students every year, the majority from the state’s community colleges. NJIT also works in close cooperation with our academic neighbors, with more than 200 students from Rutgers-Newark currently registered in NJIT science and technology courses.

Research at NJIT is attracting increasing national attention and potential returns to society unimaginable decades ago. One of our young faculty members, Treena Livingston Arinzeh, recently received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for her research showing that stem cells can help patients suffering from spinal cord injuries and bone and cartilage damage and related diseases. The National Science Foundation named her one of the nation’s top 20 young researchers.

Safety and security involves furnishing our state’s first responders and law enforcement officials with the most up-to-date and accurate information about procedures and policies to protect our citizens from counterterrorism threats. NJIT plays a vital role in this through our Continuing Professional Education unit which is serving as the eLearning arm of the New Jersey State Police for the production of online training courses for our State’s troopers.

NJIT also contributes to our economy by running the state’s largest business incubator – a program that helps start-up companies do research, make business plans and develop products.  With a current roster of 56 individual technology companies, more than 75 companies have graduated since the inception of the incubator programs in 1988. These independent companies now hire residents of New Jersey and contribute to the state’s economic vitality.

There are some trends to which we must pay attention if the type of progress mentioned above is to continue, including the rapidly rising cost of tuition and what the competition is accomplishing.  According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Education Department, New Jersey is behind the national average in producing graduates in science and engineering, 166 degrees per 100,000 population compared with 183 nationally. These are the people upon whom high-technology companies – and our economy – depend. Most telling is that the production of advanced science and engineering degrees in New Jersey has declined from 39 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 37 in 2000 compared with an increase nationally from 40 to 43.

In order to continue to make the strides like those mentioned here, higher education should be affordable – and supported sufficiently so that the state’s colleges and universities are able to offer the kind of quality programs that will encourage New Jersey students to attend an institution within the state, rather than to enroll elsewhere, perhaps never to return.

To achieve these ends, K-12 and higher education must work together. They must create and strengthen “partnerships for quality” that will provide the best possible education opportunities and offer the incentive for students to enroll in higher education institutions within the state, thus contributing to New Jersey’s economic competitiveness and the building of a world-class economy for our state.

It is a fact of reality that an excellent product requires a substantial commitment of resources, and our educational system is no exception. Let us collaborate and commit to making the investments required for New Jersey’s vitality and future economic prospects.

Thank you very much.