When she took her post as Secretary of Higher Education in June 2018, Smith Ellis acted as a cheerleader for Phil Murphy’s higher education agenda. Her department oversaw the governor’s much-campaigned tuition-free community college program, and his push to steer more students towards non-university career paths in trade and vocational schools. And the office oversees the Education Opportunity Fund, which assists low-income college students.
Smith Ellis took on her new job as the governor’s chief policy advisor in late June, and leading up to that, the office under her watch rolled out a litany of guidelines for how universities should operate during the pandemic: Whether they should allow students in their dorms and classrooms, how much teaching and instruction should be done online, how academic research could continue during the pandemic, and how universities should respond to potential outbreaks of the virus.
But that was then, this is now, where COVID-19 has flipped how New Jersey’s public and private colleges and universities do business. And as chief policy advisor for Murphy’s office, she has the governor’s ear for higher education policy. And any time the governor makes a new announcement on higher education as it relates to the pandemic, Smith Ellis is at the dais.
Should the virus rebound and warrant new restrictions, she’ll play a key role in the decisions that come out of 225 W. State St. on whether campuses can stay open.
