When Melinda Wenner Moyer, a science journalist for The New York Times, was attempting to report on an unexpected aspect of a vaccine’s efficacy or safety, she found that scientists often didn’t want to talk with her. And when she did get them on the phone, she says, a worrying theme emerged: “Scientists are so terrified of the public’s vaccine hesitancy that they are censoring themselves, playing down undesirable findings and perhaps even avoiding undertaking studies that could show unwanted effects. Those who break these unwritten rules are criticized.”

These are tough days for truth and, particularly, for those truths that are supported by evidence that academic experts provide. It’s a strange new world dominated by intentional misinformation and disinformation campaigns, by deliberate hoaxes, and by the slander of solid, verifiable facts as questionable, even false — not to mention the maligning of individual academics. The constant challenges to truth, and the means to arrive at it through informed and reasoned discourse, exacerbate the trend.

Opinion, Inside Higher Education, December 6, 2018

Earlier in October, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, (D-NJ), another author of the law, pledged to continue battling to safeguard coverage and protection gains achieved through the ACA, while also striving to extend coverage to all New Jerseyans. As of 2017, 8.7 percent of the state’s residents lacked health insurance, down from nearly 14 percent in 2013, before the federal law took effect, according to research by Rutgers professor Joel Cantor, the founder and director of the university’s Center for State Health Policy.

NJSpotlight.com, November 29

Social Security is the single largest program in the federal budget with outlays of one trillion dollars – twenty-five percent of the budget. Social Security is a vital component of the American safety net. Without Social Security many retired and disabled workers – as well as survivors and dependents — would be without an adequate income, and in many cases without any income.

Recently, Social Security spending has attracted headlines because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that obligations now exceed current revenue; that unfunded liabilities were $14 trillion and reductions were necessary to maintain the integrity of the program, and because Social Security was contributing to the overall federal deficit and its mounting debt.

Commentary by Richard Keevey, NorthJersey.com, November 23, 2019

Rutgers faculty share their knowledge and commitment to academic excellence many ways – through teaching, research, mentorship and service beyond the university community. In addition to scholarly talks and publishing in prestigious journals, many also share their expertise through the news media, providing context and expertise to key issues and sharing the results of their research. Every day, Rutgers experts appear in global, national and regional news outlets, lending their voices to current and critical topics ranging from climate change, economic trends, agriculture and politics to the opioid abuse epidemic and other health-related issues.

Among the 50 faculty who emerged as the most cited for their expertise in various media, including television appearances, research noted, attributed quotes, columns and editorials, four were from the Bloustein School. They are:

Joel Cantor, director, Center for State Health Policy; Distinguished Professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Topics in the news: Innovations in health service delivery and the regulation of private health insurance markets
Politifact, The Record, NJ Spotlight

James Hughes, University Professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Topics in the news: Demographics, housing and regional economics
The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, NJ 101.5

William Rodgers, professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Topics in the news: Labor economics and the economics of social problems
CNN, The Washington Post, The Star-Ledger

Stuart Shapiro, professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Topics in the news: Economics, environmental planning and policy and political institutions
Bloomberg, NBC News, The Star-Ledger

Robert Kopp, professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, is also an affiliated professor of the Bloustein School. His topics in the news include sea-level rise and past and future climate change and its impact on the economy, and he has been quoted in Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail.

The complete list of faculty can be found here.

Too few hospitals, ambulatory facilities and health systems have strategies that are robust enough to ensure diversity in their leadership and to establish their position as an employer of choice. Executives and board members may question whether it’s even necessary to create a “strategy.” They say, “We are already diverse. We reflect our community and we receive plenty of praise for our outreach.”

It takes astute leaders to respond, “Every major company needs to have a diversity strategy—not just because it’s the right or popular thing to do—but because they want to be an employer of choice.” A multiyear plan to expand diversity and inclusion is as essential a business priority as implementing financial controls and managing quality improvement. Like all best practices, a successful program requires transparency, data and shared accountability.

Commentary by Stephen Jones, Modern Healthcare, October 24, 2018

“New Jersey residents are among the nation’s best educated and most affluent voters, but they have appeared content over the years to leave politics to local political bosses,” according to the 1974 American Political Almanac, which remains definitive, said Marc Pfeiffer, an expert in New Jersey government. “And the bosses, it turns out, have been the most venal and corrupt political manipulators outside, perhaps, the 1600 and 1700 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue.”

NorthJersey.com, Nov. 1, 2018