Molloy participates in town hall, talks overseeing Rutgers' budget
Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) held a town hall featuring Chancellor of Rutgers—New Brunswick Christopher Molloy yesterday at the Student Activities Center.
Molloy said his role is a mixture of executive vice president and dean of the University, while his main duty as chancellor is to manage the $2 billion budget for the New Brunswick campus.
“The main thing I have to do, is manage a $2 billion budget, and the schools that roll up to that budget, and a whole variety of other things. We work closely with the central budgeting office that reports to the president,” Molloy said.
His office works closely with the central budgeting office that reports to University President Robert L. Barchi and the University continues to receive strong support from the state government, Molloy said.
This budget oversight includes what he said was the low pay, and lack of healthcare for part-time lecturers (PTL) is a result of the supply and demand, as well as economic markets, Molloy said.
“I know people, I’ve had colleagues that have been PTLs in the past, and I understand that the amount that people are paid for courses is not something you can live on. If they don’t want to do this, they need to get another job. There are probably other people who can fill the role, so it’s sort of like supply and demand,” Molloy said.
Going forward, the University additionally needs to focus on its career services, Molloy said.
“Regarding the student experience, although we have good work going on in Career Services, I really think that there’s more to do with Career Services, in terms of how they interact with the schools, how they work with the professional schools in terms of providing counseling and opportunity for students to get internships,” Molloy said.
The University also hopes to improve its public prominence, and improve the online interfaces it uses, Molloy said.
“The websites for Rutgers are not good enough. They’ve never been very good. We do crisis management communication, but we don’t talk enough about the great things at this University,” Molloy said.
Molloy also spoke on the importance of the Big Ten conference for the University, in terms of academics and research, as well as for job prospects for graduates. He said that there is a large amount of academic sharing between the schools.
The University needs more out-of-state students, Molloy said, who pay higher tuition in order to keep in-state tuition low, similar to how the University of Michigan operates.
“Quite frankly, we do need some more out-of-state students, that can afford to pay the tuition here, so we can keep the New Jersey tuition low. Schools like the University of Michigan have 45 percent out-of-state students. They pay three times Michigan’s in-state rate,” Molloy said.
Furthermore, the University does not want to continue to grow its class size, despite Fall 2018 being the largest class in the history of the University. Molloy said the New Brunswick campus is almost filled.
Nabil Adam, former vice chancellor for Research and Collaborations at Rutgers University—Newark, was accused of sexual assault in November of 2017, The Daily Targum reported last month. Molloy spoke on potential future actions against him.
“I believe in zero tolerance for sexual harassment and sexual abuse. There needs to be more work and better training at this University about this for faculty, staff and administrators. That being said, with respect to this particular gentleman, this is a personnel matter that I really can’t comment on,” Molloy said.
Molloy also spoke about allowing students to become more involved in the administration of the University.
“We should include students where we can. I think there’s a mandate to try to do that better, and I certainly am open to that mandate. But, administratively, things work at the speed of business. We have to move fast, and it’s not like we can afford to have a 500-person exercise,” Molloy said.
