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A student leaves Eberhardt Hall in NJIT in Newark. The university recently won a legal battle with its former alumni association.

(Alex Remnick/The Star-Ledger)



NEWARK — For years, a battle raged behind closed doors at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

On one side was the Alumni Association of New Jersey Institute of Technology, a university-funded group headed by a board of prominent graduates. On the other side was NJIT’s administration, which struggled to work with the alumni leaders.

The two sides — which were supposed to be working together to raise money and host alumni events for the Newark school — feuded over funding, the location of the alumni group’s headquarters, campus expansion plans and more.

By 2008, then-NJIT President Robert Altenkirch had had enough. In an unusual move, the university cut ties with its 80-year-old alumni group and started a new one with new leaders.

But the old alumni group, and its outraged board, would not go quietly and took NJIT to court.

The two sides waged a contentious legal fight and last month the Superior Court Chancery Division issued its long-awaited ruling — in NJIT’s favor.

The alumni association can no longer use NJIT’s trademarks or hand out the school’s alumni and teaching awards, the court ruled in a 46-page decision. The group, which changed its name to New Jersey Tech Alumni Association, must also change its name again.

“Although courts are not normally in the business of naming entities, under the circumstances herein it is unlikely that the parties will reach agreement on a mutually acceptable name for plaintiff,” the Feb. 28 court ruling said. “Therefore, the court declares that any further operation of the plaintiff shall be under the name ‘Independent Alumni of NJIT.’ That name fairly and honestly describes what they are — independent from the university and graduates of NJIT.”

University officials said they are happy with the ruling.

“Though we regret that this matter reached such a point, we are gratified by the fact that NJIT has prevailed in all aspects of the complaint filed by the plaintiff,” said Matthew Golden, a university spokesman. “We always have valued our alumni and the relationship they maintain with NJIT. They are a critical element of NJIT’s history and its future. We will continue to serve the broad interests of our graduates and to embrace the role they play in contributing to the welfare of our university.”

The alumni group’s attorney said he is disappointed.

"We believe the decision is legally and factually flawed. We will consider the decision with the alumni board and will discuss the various issues on which the court was mistaken," said Joseph Cerra, an attorney with Forman, Holt, Eliades & Youngman.

Charles Forman, the law firm's managing member, was president of the Alumni Association of NJIT when the university split with the group in 2008.

At the time, NJIT officials said Forman and the association’s leadership had turned into an “exclusive club” that no longer represented the interests of the majority of the alumni. NJIT formed a new association, also called the Alumni Association of NJIT, to run events and to help with fundraising.

After the split, the former association changed its name to New Jersey Tech Alumni Association. But NJIT officials objected because, they said, the new name was too close to the school’s name and caused confusion among graduates.

Tensions between the two sides escalated in 2002 when Altenkirch, then NJIT’s new president, began to make changes designed to improve relations with the alumni association.

The two sides got into a dispute over the alumni group moving its operations to Eberhardt Hall, NJIT’s iconic building. The alumni group also clashed with university officials over a renovation plan that involved moving the school’s off-campus fraternities. Altenkirch made the decision to split from the alumni group in 2008 and start over with a new organization.

“The tone of the plaintiff’s witness testimony at trial revealed the depths to which the board was personally affronted by Dr. Altenkirch’s views of the proper role of an alumni association. It is obvious that he underestimated their reaction and in hindsight, he exhibited a lack of diplomacy in his early dealings with the board,” the court ruling said. “That, however, does not justify the enmity which followed his efforts to impose the structure and discipline that prior presidents had not seen fit to do.”

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