NJBIZ

Rutgers study sheds light on how NJ parents used child tax credit

Most low-income parents spent their advance payments of the child tax credit on food, clothing, rent and utilities, according a report by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work in partnership with the New Jersey State Policy Lab released March 16.

The report also finds that nearly half of eligible parents in New Jersey didn’t receive advance payments, which has RCWW Executive Director Debra Lancaster worried that thousands are leaving money on the table as the April 18 tax filing deadline draws nearer.

“The Child Tax Credit lifts families out of poverty,” Lancaster said. “What this research shows is that low-income households in New Jersey are using the money for basic needs like groceries and paying the bills. That’s significant because it means the policy is doing what it’s supposed to do. But it’s also worrisome that so many low-income parents did not receive any payments last year.”

Researchers at the Rutgers Center for Women and Work found that food (34%), clothing (17%), and savings (15%) were the most common uses by low-income parents in New Jersey for the advance payments of the child tax credit. – PIXABAY

Under the American Rescue Plan, the child tax credit expanded from $2,000 per child in 2020 to $3,600 for each child under age 6. For each child ages 6 to 16, it’s increased from $2,000 to $3,000. The American Rescue Plan also enabled parents to receive half the total in monthly payments from July through December.

The Census Bureau surveyed parents to find out how they used the money, and Rutgers researchers analyzed the data to focus on New Jersey families. Researchers found that food (34%), clothing (17%), and savings (15%) were the most common uses; and donations/gifts (1%), tutoring (1%), and recreation (3%) were the least common.

Low-income households were much more likely to spend the money on basic needs, while higher-income households were more likely to save or invest it.

One in four parents with a child under age 5 spent at least some of the money on child care.

“The fact that so many parents of young children used the payments on child care really raises a red flag,” said Sarah Small, postdoctoral researcher in the Rutgers Center for Women and Work and co-author of the report. “Without financial support or vast improvements in the state’s child care infrastructure, many of these families will continue to struggle.”

Though nearly every parent in New Jersey is eligible for the child tax credit, just over half (56%) received advance payments last year. The number was even lower (41%) for parents whose household income is less than $25,000.

Rutgers reported that the low numbers could be due to underreporting, parents opting for a lump sum in 2022 over monthly payments last year, or limited awareness of the credit among low-income New Jerseyans.

“The Child Tax Credit helped lift countless New Jersey families and their children out of poverty, but this program only works when families receive their payments,” said Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action, in a prepared statement. “We urge all eligible New Jersey residents to make use of the free tax preparation services available to them to ensure they receive all the tax credits they are eligible for. We also call on lawmakers to renew the federal Child Tax Credit and establish a similar law at the state level. Putting cash into the hands of working families has been one of the best weapons against economic insecurity.”

Organizations including New Jersey Citizen Action and the United Way of Northern New Jersey are offering free tax preparation for low-income and moderate-income filers. The Internal Revenue Service website can direct residents to free tax prep in their area.

RU taking part in Big Idea Ventures’ Generation Food Rural Partners fund

Big Idea Ventures, an investor in early-stage alternative protein and food technology, is collaborating with several higher education institutions, including Rutgers University, for its Generation Food Rural Partners fund.

Rutgers is one of five new universities added to the list.

“When we designed this investment platform, our goal was to get five universities to collaborate with us. To have secured collaboration commitments from 15 world class research universities is an incredible vote of confidence and a testament to the power of innovation at the university level,” said Tom Mastrobuoni, chief investment officer for Big Idea Ventures.

Innovation Ventures, the technology transfer office within the Rutgers Office for Research, partners with the Rutgers community to encourage deliberate innovation, protect and leverage Rutgers intellectual property, foster collaboration with industry, and enable entrepreneurship. In 2021, Rutgers’ received $907.9 million in funding from federal and state agencies, corporations, and foundations for its research; generated $47 million in licensing revenue; and increased its number of active startups to 87.

The GFRP fund team will evaluate intellectual property developed at Rutgers and other collaborating universities to identify new developments with the strongest commercialization potential. The fund will then invest in new companies formed around research that comes out of the institutions, and the companies will be headquartered in rural communities nearby.

“The GFRP Fund will ignite research innovation at our partner universities in agriculture, food and protein sciences which will create new companies located in rural America,” said Frank Klemens, managing director of the GFRP Fund at BIV. “Rural America has always been the center for innovation in food and agriculture production and this partnership between these world class Universities and GFRP Fund will create the next generational growth in rural America.”

Bank of America invests in Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund of New Jersey

Bank of America is now an investor in the Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund of New Jersey, which came out of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers Business School-Newark in 2020, the university announced March 4.

BOA came on as an investor in February. Less than 1% of all high growth technology startups are led by Black and Latino entrepreneurs, and few secure pre-seed capital for growth. The mission of the fund is to reverse this trend by institutionalizing the friends and family round of capital raising.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bank of America as an investor in the Black and Latino Investment Fund of New Jersey,” said D. Lyneir Richardson, executive director of CUEED and the founder of the BLAIF, in a prepared statement. “Bank of America’s ongoing efforts to address the persistent gap in access to growth capital for underrepresented founders align with our strategy of investing in exceptional Black and Latino entrepreneurs with exceptional business ideas ready for scale. We look forward to expanding our work.”

Fund managers help entrepreneurs by securing additional capital; providing real-time, situational mentorship; introducing prospective customers, suppliers and other growth resources; and stewarding additional capacity building with larger accelerators.

BOA’s investment in the fund aligns with its $1.25 billion pledge to support racial equality and economic opportunity by addressing issues in minority populations related to health, jobs, education, housing and capital inequality.

“Access to capital remains one of the biggest challenges for minority-owned businesses,” said Alberto Garofalo, president, Bank of America New Jersey. “Working together, we can create the conditions that enable new ideas to flourish, thereby ensuring that the opportunities we want for all of our citizens and the strong economy we want for our community are within our reach.”

The BLAIF accepts applications from entrepreneurs in New Jersey and New York, or from those with ties to the area, on a rolling basis.

Rutgers to offer free, discounted tuition for thousands of students

Rutgers University said it is waiving tuition costs for students whose families earn up to $65,000 a year, and lowering the costs for families that earn up to $100,000 a year.

The new program, called the Scarlet Guarantee, would be available starting in the fall for the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus; it is expected to benefit upwards of 7,600 first- and second-year students, or 20% of the undergraduate student body.

University officials said the program would cost the school $14 million next year.

“These new programs are transformational for our state’s students,” reads a Feb. 21 prepared statement from Francine Conway, the chancellor-provost for the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus.

The program also covers certain expenses like student fees, though room and board is not included.

Rutgers is notorious for having some of the highest tuition costs of any public university in the nation, according to an analysis by USA Today. Tuition for the current academic year clocks in at $15,804, plus $13,402 for room and board, for a total price tag of $29,206 a year.

Tuition for next year has not been set, as that is usually done at a Rutgers Board of Governors meeting in late June.

Worsening Rutgers’ financial woes is its athletics department, which has struggled to break even since its football team joined the Big Ten Conference in 2014, and has frequently depended on bailouts from the university budget, loans and student fees. The school spent nearly $119 million in the prior academic year to prop up the athletics department, and Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway said earlier in February that he doubted the athletics department could ever stay out of the red.

On top of that, Rutgers previously agreed to refund $5 million in student fees as part of a class action lawsuit for charging students mandatory fees while the university transitioned to remote learning in March 2020.

‘Last dollar’ relief

Other colleges such as Stockton University, New Jersey City University and Saint Peter’s University have introduced similar programs to some of their lowest-earning students, who may otherwise be left to scrounge together potentially high-interest student loans to cover costs.

But even with those programs in effect, students are often left with bills for books, housing, food, transportation and other expenses, which could add up to thousands of dollars.

According to Rutgers, the Scarlet Guarantee is designed as a “last dollar” form of financial aid—meaning it only kicks in to cover the gap between state and federal aid, and the remaining balance.

It comes on the heels of a program Gov. Phil Murphy previously rolled out called the Garden State Guarantee. Under it, the state covers the last two years of a four-year bachelor’s degree for certain low-income students.

That program, combined with a community college subsidy, means that the state would essentially cover the entire college costs for some of New Jersey’s lowest-earning students. It provides tuition-free college for families earning up to $65,000 a year, and a sliding scale of state subsidies for anything above that.

Like the state program, the Scarlet Guarantee operates on a sliding scale. Students whose families earn between $65,001 and $80,000 a year in gross income would pay no more than $3,000 a year toward tuition and fees. Students with families earning between $80,001 and $100,000 a year would be responsible for no more than $5,000 a year.

Eligibility is only open to full-time students eligible for in-state tuition who are pursuing a bachelor’s degree, but not a graduate degree. Only the first four years are covered, so students enrolled in a program that might go beyond four years — like pharmacy degrees, which take six years — would still be responsible for those final two years.

Enrollment is automatic for those students who do qualify, the university said. Students are automatically considered based on their income levels once they fill out the annual Free Application for Student Federal Aid. Dreamers — those living in the country illegally — instead have to fill out the New Jersey Alternative Financial Aid application.

A series of online webinars will be hosted throughout March and April to outline more program specifics to eligible students.

Rutgers MBA team wins international case competition

Rutgers MBA students Nicholas Felli, Thomas Parker, Neil Gajjar and Joseph Russomanno with Doug Miller, associate dean for MBA programs (center). The team won first place at the Tepper School of Business International Case Competition at Carnegie Mellon University in February 2022. — Rutgers MBA students Nicholas Felli, Thomas Parker, Neil Gajjar and Joseph Russomanno with Doug Miller, associate dean for MBA programs (center). – RUTGERS

A team of Rutgers MBA students won first place at the Tepper School of Business International Case Competition at Carnegie Mellon University.

According to the Feb. 7 announcement, The Tepper competition centered on a major business issue for the tech sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were asked to identify how competition sponsor Honeywell could better navigate through a period of troubling semi-conductor shortages.

Teams had eight days to prepare for the competition after receiving the prompt. The event involved 25 teams, including students from Tepper, the McDonough School of Business (Georgetown University), Kelley School of Business (Indiana University), Marshall Business School (University of Southern California) and the National University of Singapore.

In its winning presentation, the Rutgers team — comprising Nicholas Felli, Neil Gajjar, Thomas Parker and Joseph Russomanno — explained how Honeywell could improve its relationships with suppliers. The team looked at what other companies were doing in response to semi-conductor shortages, including one major tech company’s move to refocus business operations until the situation eased, the announcement explained.

In their research, the Rutgers students learned how the company had already responded to the shortages by listening to a quarterly earnings call to hear the CEO’s remarks to investors.

“We didn’t want to go up there and offer ideas that the company already had,” said Parker in a prepared statement. “We wanted to know what Honeywell was already doing. That gave us a leg up.”

The Rutgers team earned a first-place prize of $7,500. Students from the University of Southern California won second, and a team from the National University of Singapore won third.

Case competitions are important experiences for MBA students, the statement said, because they require them to apply their classroom knowledge to solve business problems they may encounter in their careers.

Rutgers University–New Brunswick names new art museum director

Rutgers University–New Brunswick named a new director for its Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, the university announced Feb. 3.

Curator, writer, art consultant and nonprofit leader Maura Reilly will begin her new position at the art museum Feb. 15.

Reilly has organized dozens of exhibitions internationally that focus on marginalized artists. She is the founding curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she developed and launched the first exhibition and public programming space in the U.S. devoted entirely to feminist art, according to the announcement. She also organized several landmark exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, including the permanent installation of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party and the Global Feminisms (co-curated with Linda Nochlin).

She has also served as executive director and chief curator of the National Academy of Design and as senior curator at the American Federation of Arts.

“Maura Reilly’s leadership roles at the Brooklyn Museum and with exhibitions internationally, as well as her expertise on global contemporary art and curatorial practice, will make her an excellent leader for the Zimmerli, one of the largest and most distinguished university-based museums nationwide,” Rutgers University–New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway said in a prepared statement. “We are proud to welcome her to Rutgers–New Brunswick.”

Reilly succeeds Donna Gustafson, who was named Zimmerli’s interim director in 2020 following the death of director Thomas Sokolowski. Gustafson will continue as curator of American and Modern Art/Mellon director for academic programs.

“I am passionately committed to the museum’s essential missions of research, teaching and community engagement,” Reilly said in the statement. “I look forward to collaborating with the museum’s talented staff and board leadership on developing a new vision for the museum – one defined by empathy, compassion, mutual respect, and diversity, equity, access and inclusion (DEAI) principles.

“It is an exciting moment for 21st-century art museums,” she continued, “and the Zimmerli is poised to lead the way amongst its university museum peers in the effort towards creating more equitable museum and campus experiences where everybody feels not only welcome, but also recognized.”

Reilly earned her master’s and Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Among her many accomplishments, she has taught art history and museum studies at institutions in the U.S. and Australia, including Arizona State University, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Queensland College of Arts and Tufts University.

Rutgers names inaugural director of addiction research center

Danielle Dick has been appointed inaugural director of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center at the Rutgers Brain Health Institute, the school announced Jan. 18.

Dick, an internationally recognized expert on genetic and environmental influences on human behavior, will be a tenured professor in the department of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

She most recently directed a research institute on behavioral and emotional health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. There, she was the Distinguished Commonwealth Professor of Psychology and Human and Molecular Genetics.

Upon joining Rutgers this month, her responsibilities will include leveraging the multidisciplinary expertise among scientists and clinicians across the universityto advance understanding of, and develop new treatments for, drug addiction.

The RuARC will be the only comprehensive addiction center in New Jersey to integrate approaches including precision medicine research, treatment and care of individuals and families coping with addiction, public policy innovation and reform aimed at preventing drug use and at more effective avenues for individuals with substance use disorders to obtain treatment, according to an announcement on Dick’s appointment.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Dick join us to lead this important initiative,” said Gary Aston-Jones, director of the Brain Health Institute, in a prepared statement. “Addiction is an international health problem that calls for cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary research to understand its biological and psychological causes, and create new approaches for treating patients. Dr. Dick has extensive and broad-based scientific expertise, as well as outstanding leadership skills. She will facilitate cross-fertilization among many different fields of research that will lead to discovery of answers to this long-standing health problem.”

In her research, Dick focuses on characterizing genetic contributions to substance use disorders and applying basic, etiological research findings to inform prevention and intervention. Projects include identifying genes involved in substance use and related behavioral health challenges; characterizing the risk associated with identified genes, across development and in conjunction with the environment; and translating basic research findings into improved prevention and intervention.

She’s led and contributed to more than 20 grants from the National Institutes of Health, with grant funding totaling over $30 million. Her more than 350 published peer-reviewed studies cover areas including child development, addiction, mental health, genetics and human behavior, and has won numerous national and international awards for her work.

Dick’s first book The Child Code: Understanding Your Child’s Unique Nature for Happier, More Effective Parenting was published by Penguin Random House, and she frequently speaks to parents, families, and school groups about the causes of substance use disorders, and how to prevent or address problems in children and family members.

Rutgers, Soli Organic partner on agriculture projects

Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences launched a partnership with Soli Organic Inc., a Virginia-based controlled environment agriculture company that delivers USDA certified organic produce to more than 20,000 retailers.

Rutgers and Soli Organic will work together to select and advance the next generation of commercial organic, indoor-grown produce over the next five years. According to an announcement, Soli Organic and Rutgers experts will use state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation to analyze produce-seed genetics and identify and further optimize flavor, aroma, nutrition and yield traits for indoor cultivation.

The partners will also explore opportunities to bring to market new types of produce that, while not feasible for commercial organic outdoor cultivation, may offer ideal flavor, nutrition and yield characteristics and can be grown organically indoors.

“Soli Organic is relentless in our pursuit of technologies and partnerships that support our vision to offer our retailer partners and consumers nationwide a variety of nutrient-dense, differentiated fresh products in a manner that maximizes profitability while minimizing environmental impact,” said Tessa Pocock, chief science officer of Soli Organic, in a prepared statement.

“Our cost advantage is rooted in superior unit economics tied to growing science and operational know-how – our ‘grow-how.’ The deep expertise and insights offered by … the team at Rutgers University will help us further enhance this cost advantage over time,” she said.

James Simon, director of the Rutgers New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program, said that of the over 400,000 plant species on the planet, humans consume less than 100.

“We have not even scratched the surface of the different flavors and textures of plants,” he said. “What will be key to a sustainable future is identifying plants that offer consumers the highest nutrient density combined with flavor, texture and ‘shelf appeal’ and the lowest possible environmental impact.”

Simon said that their partnership is made with the intention of bringing products from breeding concept to produce aisles in the next five years.

RU requiring students, employees to get COVID booster for spring semester

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Rutgers University is requiring its students and employees to get the COVID-19 booster shot before they can return to campus this spring.

The requirements from New Jersey’s largest university are the latest among COVID-related mandates and delayed openings that the state’s higher education institutions are implementing amid a surge of the omicron variant and holiday-related positive cases.

“The data and the science surrounding the surge in COVID-19 cases, and the dramatic spread of the omicron variant, require that we adapt to the evolving situation without sacrificing our goal of returning to a campus experience that is robust, rewarding, and safe,” Antonio Calcado, Rutgers’ executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a Rutgers-wide letter on Jan. 4.

Total hospitalizations from COVID-19 have risen beyond the winter wave from a year ago, with 5,155 COVID-19 patients as of Jan. 3–the highest since May 2021. At the outset of the pandemic, New Jersey’s 71 hospitals saw more than 8,000 patients in April 2020. This year, state health officials anticipate a mid-January peak of between 6,000 and 9,000 patients.

Antonio M. Calcado, Executive vice president for Strategic Planning and Operations and chief operating officer, Rutgers University — Calcado

Daily cases in the latter half of December shattered records from day to day, with nearly 21,000 cases logged as of Jan. 3, and in several instances nearly 30,000 daily cases.

Calcado said the new restrictions are meant to “manage the impact of this virus” at Rutgers. The university plans to reopen the campus to in-person operations on Jan. 31, which includes dining centers and classes. Remote learning for the spring semester will remain in place until Jan. 30. Rutgers initially planned to reopen its campus on Jan. 16 and Jan. 17.

Any eligible students – those who got their second Moderna or Pfizer shot at least six months ago or their single Johnson & Johnson shot at least two months ago – have until then to get the booster and upload their proof on the university’s online vaccine portal.

Students currently residing on campus are “strongly encouraged” to upload that data by Jan. 15, Calcado added. The announcement does not indicate accommodations for students who do not get the vaccine or abide by the testing and vaccine requirements, but notes that there are religious and medical exemptions.

Attendees for any on-campus events, such as athletics, need to produce a negative test result from within the past 72 hours, or proof of full vaccination. University employees will also have to get the booster, but Calcado did not disclose a deadline in the letter.

According to state health data, more than 6.2 million people in New Jersey are fully vaccinated, while nearly 2.3 million boosters and third doses have been administered in the state. Most hospitalized patients are not vaccinated, but the omicron variant can infect vaccinated individuals with minor symptoms.

In addition to Rutgers, other major New Jersey universities have enacted their own sweeping restrictions and short-term closures.

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken is also requiring its students to get the booster shot. Felician and Kean universities, as well as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, are beginning their semesters remotely, while Princeton University is staggering its campus reopening for the spring semester later this month.

Students at the Ivy League school in Central Jersey have to register for a return date and get a negative test as soon as they arrive. And they’re bound to travel restrictions that will keep them close to the Princeton University campus, barring them from leaving Mercer County or the nearby Plainsboro campus in Middlesex County “except in extraordinary circumstances.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

RU names first vice chancellor for population health

The field of population health aims to improve the health of the entire population, including outcomes of groups of individuals with chronic conditions, while lowering health care costs overall. And for the first time, Rutgers University has appointed a vice chancellor to lead the area of study.

On Nov. 17, the school announced Ethan Halm will join in January 2022 to oversee initiatives that will examine and offer solutions to prevent disease and to manage populations with chronic illnesses.

At Rutgers, Halm will lead the Rutgers-RWJBarnabas Health Consortium of Population Health. As deputy chief population health officer for the system, his duties will include building those efforts across Rutgers Health, RWJBarnabas and University Hospital in Newark.

A professor of Internal Medicine and Population and Data Sciences, Halm has been with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for 13 years as chief for the Division of General Internal Medicine and director of the Program in Outcomes and Health Services Research.

Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences — Strom

“Dr. Halm’s role will ensure Rutgers and its clinical partners will better understand the health challenges facing our state and then position the health care system to deliver higher quality, evidence-based treatments to improve healthcare outcomes on a population level,” said Brian Strom, the chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and executive vice president for Rutgers Health Affairs.

According to Rutgers, Halm focuses his research on improving cancer screening and chronic disease management; clinical prediction model using electronic health records data; the impact of patient, provider, system and community factors on the quality and outcomes of care; and interventions that create care based in evidence, focused on patients and that is equitable and cost-conscious.

“I am very excited to join the Rutgers and RWJBarnabas Health leadership teams to help advance the population health agenda across all aspects of our clinical care, research, education and community engagement activities,” said Halm. “By doing so, we can improve health and reduce disparities in the populations and communities we serve and be a state and national leader in this emerging field.”

Jersey Mike’s gets naming rights to Rutgers Athletics arena

Rutgers Athletics and Jersey Mike’s Subs inked a multi-year naming rights agreement for the home of the Rutgers basketball team, the university announced Nov. 3.

The newly named Jersey Mike’s Arena is home to nationally-recognized programs in men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball. It will also host future concerts and events.

“Jersey Mike’s is the perfect partner for Rutgers Athletics,” said Rutgers Director of Athletics Pat Hobbs. “Our New Jersey brand extends beyond our borders; it is a state of mind that speaks to our core values of grit and the pursuit of excellence. Jersey Mike’s is an organization also engaged in the relentless pursuit of excellence, so what better partner for the State University of New Jersey?”t

Rutgers and Jersey Mike’s are both New Jersey brands, born and bred, and both have experienced growth and success in recent years.

Rutgers men’s basketball earned its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years and got a first-round win; and women’s basketball continues to add NCAA Tournament berths to its historic record, advancing to its 26th postseason, including 17th consecutive under the direction of Hall of Fame head coach C. Vivian Stringer.

In the same time frame, Jersey Mike’s has grown and now ranks seventh on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500. This was the company’s third year on the top 10 list. Jersey Mike’s was originally a sole storefront in Point Pleasant when then 17-year-old employee Peter Cancro purchased it in 1975. He’s since grown the brand into a national franchise, with more than 2,000 locations nationwide.

Through the partnership, Jersey Mike’s will get significant brand exposure through signage in and around the arena, including exterior stadium signage, scoreboard signage, campus directional signage and logo placement on the court. The sub sandwich chain will also receive promotion through a variety of print, digital, radio and television assets.

Additionally, the brand will have national exposure through live television broadcasts of nearly all home men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and volleyball matches; and for many of the Scarlet Knights’ sporting events that are streamed online, the Jersey Mike’s brand will be visible.

Van Wagner represented Jersey Mike’s in the negotiations.

Rutgers Climate Action Plan eyes carbon neutrality by 2040

In his second address to the University Senate on Sept. 24, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway announced the school’s commitment to a Climate Action Plan and the formation of the Office of Climate Action that will lead the efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

Jonathan Holloway, president, Rutgers University. — Holloway

“Achieving these imperative goals will involve everyone in our university community and every aspect – from the day-to-day operations of the institution and our approach to facilities, policy and financial decision-making to Rutgers’ cutting-edge teaching, clinical services and research. Our success will also depend on our continued commitment to and strong relationships with our local communities, and the everyday actions of each one of us,” Holloway said.

The climate action plan was developed by the President’s Task Force on Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience, a university-wide committee co-chaired by Rutgers climate scientist Bob Kopp and supply chain sustainability expert Kevin Lyons.

The Office of Climate Action will be co-directed by Kopp and Lyons along with Angela Oberg, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and administrative director of the president’s task force, serving as associate director. The office will be housed in the Office of University Strategy.

The plan – the culmination of 21 months of effort – outlines a strategy that will guide Rutgers through the next three decades.

The Climate Action effort will aim to achieve key milestones, including:

Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions associated with the university’s grid electricity purchases, reducing carbon dioxide emissions from on-campus fossil fuel consumption by 20% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with commuting, travel and the supply chain by 30% by 2030.
Eliminating emissions from on-campus fossil fuel combustion and becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
Becoming carbon negative – ensuring Rutgers removes more greenhouse gases than it emits into the atmosphere – by the university’s 275th anniversary in 2041.

“By making climate action – both within the university and more broadly – a key strategic priority, Rutgers has the opportunity to scale our efforts and join research and teaching to national, state and community climate action,” said Kopp.

Select Region or Brand

Upcoming Event

Tag: Rutgers