By Jarrett Renshaw and Kelly Heyboer/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — In a historic day for higher education in New Jersey, both houses of the state Legislature approved a sweeping overhaul today that will break up and merge parts of three of the state's largest public universities.

Still unsettled, however, was whether Rutgers University’s two governing boards would flex their muscles and block the deal. After days of private meetings with lawmakers, the university’s Board of Governors gathered hastily this morning and offered its lukewarm support on the condition that it retain financial control over the Camden campus.

Within hours, lawmakers added dozens of pages of amendments to satisfy board concerns and put the legislation before the Assembly and Senate for approval — even though no one knew the cost of the plan or how the final details would be received by the 11-member board.

The Assembly was first to vote tonight, approving the overhaul 60-18 without debate. Minutes later the Senate passed the measure 29-9 after about an hour of impassioned comments from both sides of the aisle.

State Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), a co-sponsor of the bill, called the bill "the beginning of taking New Jersey out of 47th in the country and moving it to the top tier of colleges."

One of the people likely to gain the most from the bill’s passage is Norcross’s brother, George Norcross, arguably the most powerful Democrat in New Jersey and chairman of Cooper University Hospital, which is a partner with Rowan in a new medical school in South Jersey.

In the day’s most fiery speech, state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex) intimated that George Norcross was controlling the process for his own advantage. "Maybe this whole thing should be investigated as to the relationship that’s driving this process so rapidly," Rice said.

State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) told colleagues he reluctantly opposed the bill.

Smith said the state was adding a second research university even though it has not adequately financed its current one. "Shouldn’t we try to fund the first one properly," he said.

And complaining that the bill was railroaded, he added: "If I was an regular man or woman in New Jersey, I would be asking whether we are properly considering the reorganization of higher education in New Jersey."

The contentious proposal — called the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act — will have Rutgers take over most of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. In South Jersey, Rutgers-Camden will form a partnership with Rowan University in Glassboro, though the latest round of amendments weakened their ties and preserved Rutgers’ financial control of its Camden campus.

Leading lawmakers darted from one Statehouse meeting to the next as they tried to nail down the final details. Voting was delayed for several hours as the amendments were drafted.

The restructuring — proposed by Gov. Chris Christie, who chose to set a July 1 deadline for the Legislature to act — affects tens of thousands of students, the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and complex changes to how the universities are financed and governed.

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Moments before the legslation was approved, Christie remarked during a call-in program on NJ101.5 FM: "This is going to bring higher education into the 21st century in New Jersey. This is going to make a bigger and stronger Rutgers."

Lawmakers have spent weeks massaging the legislation in an effort to appease university officials and legislators in North, Central and South Jersey who were concerned their regions would lose money or influence in the reshuffling.

Under the plan, Rutgers would take over most pieces of UMDNJ, including its medical schools in Newark and New Brunswick-Piscataway. University Hospital, UMDNJ’s teaching institution in Newark, would become its own entity and partner with a private hospital chain to run operations.

In South Jersey, UMDNJ’s School of Osteopathic Medicine will be turned over to Rowan, which will also enter into a quasi-merger with Rutgers-Camden to offer joint programs.

Yet despite the extensive rewriting of the legislation, and the arm-twisting and deal-making among lawmakers and educators, the best the Board of Governors could offer was a 9-1 vote, with one absention, to endorse the plan "in general."

The 11 members of the board — some participating by way of conference call — spent more than an hour in closed session. When they reconvened in public they approved a carefully-worded two-page resolution encouraging lawmakers to go forward. They said in a statement the takeover of UMDNJ could "elevate Rutgers’ status to among the top 25 most elite research universities in America."

Still, the board insisted that Rutgers retain control of its Camden campus, and that the university needed more time to determine how taking over UMDNJ would affect the state university’s finances.

The board also reminded lawmakers that it and the Board of Trustees had the right under state law to stop any merger they didn’t approve of.

"Under the Rutgers Act of 1956, both boards are required to consent to the changes proposed in the legislation before those changes can take effect," the board of governors said.

There is some disagreement within Rutgers over whether the university’s two boards should sign off on the deal at all, and several members of the more powerful board of governors emphasized their caution.

"We are not by this resolution endorsing legislation we have not read," Gerald Harvey, the board’s vice chairman, said.

The 59 trustees, who have been less enthusiastic about the restructuring, did not participate in today’s meeting, though some were in the audience or listened in.

"We reserve the right to respond after we receive a copy of the legislation and determine whether the concerns our joint committee has expressed to the bill sponsors have been appropriately addressed," the board of trustee’s executive committee said in a statement.

Related coverage:

• Rutgers governing board endorses merger 'in general,' but leaves room to withdraw support in future

• Rutgers governing board is meeting to decide if it will back college restructuring plan

• Braun: Capacity not an issue in Rutgers-Rowan merger

• N.J. Assembly set to vote on revamped merger of Rutgers-Camden, Rowan

• Rutgers Board of Governors wants to keep control of satellite campuses in merger

• Complete coverage of the Rutgers-Rowan merger