The Latest UMDNJ Scandal

Announced with great fanfare three years ago, the high-tech research center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was to be built with $21 million in federal grants and would play an important role in the fight against bioterrorism and deadly infectious diseases.

But almost immediately, a top- ranking university official began trying to move the project out of Newark to Picatinny Arsenal, 30 miles away, as part of a deal that would financially benefit his neighbor.

"Why they did what they did, I don't know," said Bruce C. Vla deck, the university's interim president. "Clearly they put the plans ... on hold while they ran around on all these other wild goose chases. It cost us over a year cer tainly."

The story of the research lab, now three years behind schedule, is detailed in a trove of new documents obtained after a lengthy court battle by The Star-Ledger.

The records paint a picture of a state institution in which high-paid administrators chased state grants they didn't need, built buildings that now seem pointless and em barked on bizarre schemes -- like moving a bioterror lab without telling the officials who funded it.

New Jersey and corruption continue to be perfect together. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is at the heart of a huge scandal in its own right, with the school acting as a breeding ground for corruption and shady dealings. Consider that $110 million was spent on a cancer research center building that now sits empty because no one thought about paying for the operation of the building. This comes at a time when the state is considering spending millions on stem cell research using bond acts. Or that other buildings on campus are being used in a limited fashion.

Or, consider that the state spent millions on a bioterror lab, and then state officials tried moving the location from where the NIH grant put it in Newark to the Picatinny Arsenal. If the lab isn't built on schedule, the state stands to lose millions in grant aid for the project.

None of this is prudent.

None of this is sound fiscal policy.

It's about spreading the money around and no one in the state government thinks of the consequences of the profligate spending. No one.

Not the governor.

Not the legislature.

And most voters have tuned out all the scandals because they think this is all we can or should expect of New Jersey politicians.