New Jersey has a massive student-migration problem, and College administrators say lack of state funding is to blame.

According to data from the National Center for Education Studies (NCES), New Jesey loses more college students each year than any other state. In fall 2008, just 58 percent of freshmen who had recently graduated from high school remained in New Jersey — over thirty-two thousand of those students left.

A number of explanations, including New Jersey’s proximity to major U.S. cities and a state-wide “identity issue” (discussed in the Philadelphia Inquirer), have been cited to explain the migration pattern. Yet one major reason stands out to Lisa Angeloni, dean of admissions.

“There’s no room,” she said, summarizing the problem.

Without increased funding from the state, she argued, public-school dorms and classrooms will remain too few to accommodate New Jersey students.

“There are no New Jersey colleges that are having a problem enrolling students,” Angeloni said. “We don’t want them to out-migrate, but frankly we have no room for them.”

The Class of 2014 is the largest in the College’s history, at 1,434 —about 60 more students than had been planned for.

“The government has to do something about it … the institutions right now are bursting,” Angeloni said.

President R. Barbara Gitenstein was also critical of the state’s level of commitment to higher education.

“It seems peculiar that a state that is ranked either no. 1 or no. 2 in the nation for expenditure per student in K-12 would also be ranked no. 47 in expenditure per student in higher education,” she said in an e-mail interview. “It is no longer the case that a secondary degree will be adequate for the workforce needs of the state.”

The ultimate challenge of the state, she said, is to prepare “an educated workforce and citizenry,” regardless of its roots. Therefore, recruiting from out-of-state, another relatively weak point for New Jersey, should be a priority as well.

That task falls largely on the shoulders of businesses, but also on New Jersey schools, including the College.

“The underlying problem is the failure of the state to provide either the financial resources or support the institutional flexibility and autonomy to accomplish these goals,” Gitenstein said.

Under the 2011 state budget, passed in June, the College’s base appropriation of public funds has dropped from $34.5 million to $29.32 million, representing a 15 percent reduction, Treasurer Barbara Wineberg said.

Since 2001, net state appropriation as a percentage of the College’s operating budget has fallen from 54% to 28%.

Gitenstein said that the College will remain a destination for New Jersey students looking for an affordable education.

“I do believe that in the Northeast in general, there is a culture that encourages academically competitive students to prefer private education over public education,” Gitenstein said. “However, I believe that the economy might change some of that preference over time and [the College’s] high graduation rate will make [it] a more and more attractive public choice for New Jersey citizens.”

The state’s cancellation of recruitment programs, like the Outstanding Scholar Recruitment Program (OSRP), stopped in 2006, doesn’t help, she said. The Bloustein Distinguished Scholarship, another draw for new students, had its state funding cut this year, Wineberg said.

“While I would welcome the re-establishment of an OSRP-life program, I believe our mission requires that we allocate some of our own resources to step in … to assure that these New Jersey citizens stay in-state for college,” Gitenstein said.

However, Angeloni stressed that physical expansion is not the highest priority for the College, which attracts many of its students with the relative intimacy of its campus.

“I’m not sure our mission is to expand … our mission is to have the best public institution, anywhere in the country, that focuses on the undergraduate students,” she said.

She added that there are state schools, like Montclair State University, that would like to grow, but said that “their missions are completely different.

“The institutions are trying to do what they can, take as many students as they can, but still within the mission of their institutions, and the state has not been financing or keeping up with the population,” she said.