A bill moving through Congress includes a special grant, known in Washington parlance as an earmark, allocating $250,000 so the Wayne university can add Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Turkish to its foreign language program. The lobbyist, Kyle Mulroy, advised WPU to seek the language grant instead of money for core programs such as psychology or marketing because Congress is pouring dollars into national security and the government has said there’s a shortage of “critical language” speakers. Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey all rank among the top 25 biggest public university spenders on federal lobbying, data compiled by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity indicate. Like William Paterson, other New Jersey institutions have molded their earmark requests to the priorities of the day in Washington, and that means going after more defense and homeland security money in recent years. Read More