Madison to consider 'soft billing' for ambulance rides; hears from Drew University president at council meeting
“The support that exists for the forest could put you on the map both with donors and prospective students. You’re ‘The University in the Forest.’ Own it.”
Like many Borough Council meetings over the past 30 months, the Sept. 27 meeting was attended by a number of residents clad in blue and green Friends of the Drew Forest T-shirts. Unlike the previous sessions, however, the president of Drew University was also in attendance.
Drew University President Hilary Link, who has been in the role for about three months, spoke at the meeting after Friends of the Drew Forest members Claire Whitcomb and Christine Hepburn took to the microphone.
Whitcomb and Hepburn continued a streak going back more than two years of Friends members advocating for the threatened forest at council meetings, as the university has sought to have much of the 53-acre forest rezoned and sold to a developer to build multi-family housing.
The borough, with the support of officials such as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, and environmental groups and municipalities from across the region, is seeking to acquire the land from Drew in a conservation sale.
The Morris County Open Space Trust Fund Committee is currently considering Madison's $10 million grant request to go towards the sale, with Booker and Sherrill seeking to acquire an additional $7.5 million in federal funding.
Hepburn, a Hardwick resident who for many years lived directlyadjacent to the forest's Zuck Arboretum, attended the Borough Council meeting to comment on a postcard mailer the university sent in September to all Madison residents. Hepburn balked at the university's statement in the letter that Madison has refused to offer "fair market value" for the forest, among other claims.
"What is a fair market value? It depends on the zoning," Hepburn said. "It boggles my mind that people as intelligent as they must be to work at Drew University don't understand that they are not completely in charge of upzoning their property, as none of us are."
Whitcomb said she, Link, Drew University Provost Jessica Lakin and Friends of the Drew Forest Co-Chair Lydia Chambers recently had a cordial discussion about the forest. She shared some of what she wrote to Link in an email after the meeting.
Calling on the university president to embrace the conservation sale, Whitcomb cited the attention the issue has drawn to Drew University, from major elected officials to nationally renowned environmentalists. None of these people likely knew about Drew's decades-long forest restoration effort until now, she said.
"What can you do with that kind of capital? Turn it into fundraising. By conserving the forest you will have environmental and political allies who have a personal stake in your future," Whitcomb said.
"You'll be the hero who saves a forest and has a dream of a future for a landscape on campus," she continued. "...The support that exists for the forest could put you on the map both with donors and prospective students. You're 'The University in the Forest.' Own it."
Link was the last of the three to speak at the podium during the council meeting. She said she was there to listen, had already met many of the forest advocates in the audience, and was committed to rebuilding Drew's relationship with Madison and the school's visibility in Madison.
She said she looks forward to working with Conley and Borough Administrator Ray Codey "to find a solution that we can all feel positive about.
"I want to say that Drew really does want to save the forest, but I, as the president, am responsible for ensuring that Drew has a viable future. And that is something that we can all come to an agreement on together," she said.
"We have a really long history together, Drew and Madison, and we have a really long future. I'm here to try to rebuild the future and I look forward to doing that with all of you."
