NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - The 1800s-era grandfather clock outside the president's office on Rutgers University's main campus is working again after a much-needed tune-up from the office's new occupant - Robert L. Barchi.

He's not only the new president of the 58,000-student university, but he also makes and repairs clocks, a hobby since 1970. "That's how I unwind," he said, wincing at his own pun.

But Barchi, who a week ago officially became the 20th president of New Jersey's flagship state university, won't have time to wind down soon. In a news conference and interview Tuesday, he outlined an ambitious agenda.

The top item on the list is something he inherited - implementing a vast higher-education overhaul, enacted last month, that, like the clock, has many moving parts, including a new partnership between Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University.

While Rutgers University needs to better understand the financial ramifications of the restructuring, Barchi said, it will not cause a tuition increase - though that doesn't mean there won't be tuition hikes. His objective, he said, will be to keep tuition "absolutely under control."

Tuition varies by school and program, but a typical full-time in-state student in the arts and sciences at New Brunswick will pay $13,073 this year in tuition and mandatory fees.

He also pledged to address spending on sports, which has drawn controversy on campus in recent years.

Barchi, 65, formerly president of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said he would focus on creating a strategic plan for Rutgers' future - hiring key leadership personnel, fund-raising, looking for efficiencies in the budget, and better marketing the university's image, especially outside the state.

Perhaps most important, his first year will be spent preparing to implement the state's higher-education restructuring plan, under which Rutgers is slated to absorb parts of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, including the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The university's two governing boards have yet to formally sign off on the plan that the legislature passed and that Gov. Christie signed after months of controversy, though prominent members of the two bodies have expressed approval.

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New Rutgers president Barchi glad Camden campus staying part of school