Despite widespread opposition among students, alumni, and New Jersey taxpayers, the Rutgers University Board of Governors showed their contempt for the constituency they represent by voting through the $102 million plan to expand Rutgers Stadium, even before the money has been raised to fund the work. This, the largest single capital expenditure in university history, will begin without even the funds required to pay for it.

This idiotic and desperate act gambles the financial future of our university on the success of our football team for the next 30 years. That's right. Thirty. In the words of Rutgers economics professor Norman Glickman: "The real dilemma -- and the risk to taxpayers of New Jersey -- occurs if Rutgers doesn't sell enough of those tickets, and the stadium expansion isn't self-financing. Then, the losses will come out of academics to pay off the debt. Rutgers denies that there is any substantial risk. Rutgers is wrong."

This "gamble and hope" scheme that is the stadium expansion was rushed through in haste and secrecy, with the figures and plans hidden from the university community until the very end. President McCormick made no mention of the project in his annual speech to the university community in September, and the existence of the project was only acknowledged by the administration after blueprints were leaked to local newspapers. Before the project has even begun, it has consumed $5 million dollars - three million more than authorized. In a university still reeling from the budget cutbacks of 2006, this flagrant waste of money is unconscionable.

In these regards, the entire project represents a hubristic arrogance from the President and Board of Governors that is truly breathtaking. They have planned and plotted to ignore and marginalize the very community which they are elected to represent.

Stop the Stadium Expansion exists to give students, alumni, faculty, and friends of Rutgers University a common voice in opposing both this monumental waste of money and the scurrilous means by which the project was railroaded through. In the coming weeks and months, we shall further seek to pressure the administration of our university into reversing its appalling spending priorities.

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Despite widespread opposition among students, alumni, and New Jersey taxpayers, the Rutgers University Board of Governors showed their contempt for the constituency they represent by voting through the $102 million plan to expand Rutgers Stadium, even before the money has been raised to fund the work. This, the largest single capital expenditure in university history, will begin without even the funds required to pay for it.

This idiotic and desperate act gambles the financial future of our... (read more)