New Jersey’s budget situation could cost the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey an opportunity to polish its tarnished image. The Star-Ledger, a newspaper in Newark, reported today that the health-sciences university—which has been the subject of a federal investigation into waste, fraud, and abuse—has dropped plans for a $2.5-million marketing campaign after Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s office questioned the timing of the advertising blitz amid layoffs and program cuts at the institution.

According to The Star-Ledger, an aide to the governor argued that the ads would seem inappropriate at a time when the university faces a $25.5-million budget deficit. On Tuesday the university’s Board of Trustees approved the layoff of 100 employees, cuts in programs, and a delay in the opening of a new center for cancer research and treatment.

The university’s woes are due, in part, to spending cuts of $125-million to $150-million imposed on higher education as a result of a statewide budget shortfall (The Chronicle, July 10). However, the institution was also experiencing financial problems before the state cutbacks. A federal monitor looking into allegations of sweetheart deals, financial mismanagement, and possible criminal misconduct at the university last week said the cost of waste and fraud could top $243-million (The Chronicle, July 21).

It’d take a lot more than $2.5-million in ads to offset that kind of bad publicity.