By David Madden

CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) - Add the Rowan University Senate to the growing list of opponents to the current effort to reform higher education in New Jersey, an effort now making its way through the state legislature.

The group represents some 1,300 faculty, librarians and professional staff. In a printed statement, they maintained the current bill, which sets up a joint board to oversee operations at Rowan and Rutgers-Camden, would “diminish the autonomy and potential growth of both universities”. Rowan spokesman Joe Cardona.

“It mirrors what the Board of Trustees voted on earlier in the week in that it asks the authors to take a second look at what they wrote and support the idea that Rowan University needs to have its autonomy.”

And that any joint board’s authority be restricted to joint ventures between the two schools. Legislators working on the bill promise changes, prompted by concerns over autonomy and the cost of reorganization, in time for Monday’s scheduled hearing in the Senate Budget Committee.