Garden State Abandons Minority Doctoral Program: ...In the future, the challenge of financing doctoral study will be harder for minority students aspiring to follow Lopez and the other MAC fellows into academia: The state Legislature defunded the program in the 2011 budget. No new fellows were named for this academic year, although the last ones can complete their Ph.D.s.
“The defunding was the result of the continuing state fiscal situation,” says Dr. Glenn Lang, acting executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. “The program was not singled out but was part of larger statewide budget cuts. The current budget only supports the seven remaining doctoral fellows.”
Lopez and other former fellows say they were surprised and dismayed at the cutback, which was announced in September. The chairman of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, state Sen. Ronald Rice of Newark, says he too was unaware that the Legislature has only provided appropriations to wind down the program.
