Stop Rutgers University from disinvesting in Newark health care. Protect Newark Accords.

New Jersey residents must act quickly to stop Rutgers University’s violation of the 1968 Newark Agreements and plans to merge Newark New Jersey’s Medical and Dental Schools with the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick.

Newark residents and North Jersey communities rely on health care services of University Hospital.

It is the teaching hospital for Newark’s medical and dental school and part of the Newark University Hospital Complex.

Newark University Hospital, a direct result of the Newark Agreements,  is specifically charged with providing medical care to Newark and neighboring neighboring North Jersey communities. The medical and dental schools formed the backbone of health care in New Jersey’s largest city, and North Jersey.  

The Newark Agreements served to develop, create and establish University Hospital, the State of New Jersey’s first and only public hospital. It is also designated as a Level I Trauma Center.

The Agreements recognized the need for continuing comprehensive health services, and medical and dental education for Newark and surrounding communities. It also serves as an “economic engine” for sustainability for the Newark community through employment and construction opportunities for  its residents.  

Rutgers is trying to ram this plan through in violation of the Newark Agreements and against the opposition of communities in Newark and neighboring North Jersey communities. The merger would allow Rutgers to continue to siphon these critically needed resources out of Newark, leaving North Jersey residents with fewer options and worsening health care disparities. We need the Legislature to stand up to protect health care, employment and economic opportunities!

What’s At Stake

  • Newark for generations has experienced greater health issues and disease burden. Residents suffer from higher rates of asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and complications from childbirth. Yet this merger would worsen such health issues by making it easier for Rutgers to take doctors, nurses and other personnel and health resources out of Newark.  The merger would lessen employment and economic opportunities that serve as the economic engine to sustain Newark and neighboring communities.

  • Rutgers rammed this merger plan through its Board of Governors without considering the community it was supposed to serve — and gave residents only a few days’ notice before a vote. And after the merger was announced, it created a “community integration” task force that did not have a single Newark community member on it.

  • Newark and neighboring communities overwhelmingly opposed the merger. The Rutgers community is deeply opposed to the merger. Community organizations and others testified against the merger. Two-thirds of respondents in a Newark faculty survey opposed the move, and the University Senate has also passed a resolution calling on the administration to protect New Jersey Medical School.

    Mayor Ras Baraka has raised serious equity concerns, and Newark’s delegation to the state Legislature called on Rutgers to keep the two schools separate.

  • For years, Rutgers has failed to make needed investments in Newark health care while prioritizing its New Brunswick campus, which since 2018 has received 95% of mission support funds from its affiliation with Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health.

    While Rutgers claims that the merger will benefit Newark, it comes with no promises of additional resources for the community. Instead, multi-million dollar projects that would transform health care services, teaching and access for Newark continue to sit on the drawing board.  Resources continue to be diverted to Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health in New Brunswick at the expense of Newark and the surrounding communities.

Learn How the Proposed Merger Affects:

Community

Students

Faculty

Additional Resources

Coalition Letter

Take Action Now

While Rutgers is claiming that this merger is a done deal, we still have time to protect health care in Newark!

The merger process will take years to complete. A simple bill passed by the Legislature would stop this merger in its tracks and protect University Hospital and preserve the health care needs of North Jersey families.

It’s time for the Legislature to act!