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Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University), is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States. Rutgers was originally a private university affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church and admitting only male students, but evolved into and is presently a nonsectarian, coeducational public research university that makes no religious demands of its students.
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Encyclopedia
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University), is the largest institution for higher education in the state of New Jersey. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766 and is the eighth-oldest college in the United States. Rutgers was originally a private university affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church and admitting only male students, but evolved into and is presently a nonsectarian, coeducational public research university that makes no religious demands of its students. Rutgers is one of only two colonial colleges that later became public universities. (The other is the College of William and Mary.)
Rutgers was designated The State University of New Jersey by acts of the New Jersey Legislature in 1945 and 1956. The campuses of Rutgers are located in New Brunswick and Piscataway, Newark and Camden. The Newark campus was formerly the University of Newark, which merged into the Rutgers system in 1946, and the Camden campus was created in 1950 from the College of South Jersey. Rutgers is the largest university within New Jersey's state university system, and it was ranked 54th in the world academically in a 2008 survey conducted by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The university offers more than 100 distinct bachelor, 100 master, and 80 doctoral and professional degree programs across 175 academic departments, 29 degree-granting schools and colleges, 16 of which offer graduate programs of study.
History
Shortly after the College of New Jersey (Princeton College) was established in 1746, ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, seeking autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs in the American colonies sought to establish a college to train those who wanted to become ministers within the church. Through several years of effort by Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691–1747) and Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736–1790), later the college's first president, Queen's College was chartered on 10 November 1766. Established as the trustees of Queen's College, in New-Jersey in honor of King George III's Queen-consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818). The charter was signed and the young college was supported by William Franklin (1730–1813), the last Royal Governor of New Jersey and illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. The original charter specified the establishment both of the college, and of an institution called the Queen's College Grammar School, intended to be a preparatory school affiliated and governed by the college. This institution, today the Rutgers Preparatory School, was a part of the college community until 1959.
The original purpose of Queen's College was to "educate the youth in language, liberal, the divinity, and useful arts and sciences" and for the training of future ministers for the Dutch Reformed Church The college admitted its first students in 1771—a single sophomore and a handful of first-year students taught by a lone instructor—and granted its first degree in 1774, to Matthew Leydt. Despite the religious nature of the early college, the first classes were held at a tavern called the Sign of the Red Lion. When the Revolutionary War broke out and taverns were suspected by the British as being hotbeds of rebel activity, the college abandoned the tavern and held classes in private homes.
In its early years, due to a lack of funds, Queen's College was closed for two extended periods. Early trustees considered merging the college with the College of New Jersey, in Princeton (the measure failed by one vote) and later considered relocating to New York City. In 1808, after raising $12,000, the college was temporarily reopened and broke ground on a building of its own, affectionately called "Old Queens" designed by architect John McComb, Jr. The college's third president, the Rev. Ira Condict, laid the cornerstone on April 27, 1809. Shortly after, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, founded in 1784, relocated from Brooklyn, New York, to New Brunswick, and shared facilities with Queen's College (and the Queen's College Grammar School, as all three institutions were then overseen by the Reformed Church in America). During those formative years, all three institutions fit into Old Queens. In 1830, the Queen's College Grammar School moved across the street, and in 1856, the Seminary relocated to a seven-acre (28,000 m2) tract less than one-half mile (800 m) away.
After several years of closure resulting from an economic depression after the War of 1812, Queen's College reopened in 1825 and was renamed Rutgers College in honor of American Revolutionary War hero Colonel Henry Rutgers (1745–1830). According to the Board of Trustees, Colonel Rutgers was honored because he epitomized Christian values, although it should be noted the Colonel was a wealthy bachelor known for his philanthropy. A year after the school was renamed, it received 2 donations from its namesake: a $200 bell still hanging from the cupola of Old Queen's and a $5,000 bond which placed the college on sound financial footing.
Rutgers College became the land-grant college of New Jersey in 1864 under the Morrill Act of 1862, resulting in the establishment of the Rutgers Scientific School, featuring departments of agriculture, engineering, and chemistry. The Rutgers Scientific School would expand over the years to grow into the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (1880) and divide into the College of Engineering (1914) and the College of Agriculture (1921). Rutgers created the New Jersey College for Women in 1918, and the School of Education in 1924. With the development of graduate education, and the continued expansion of the institution, the collection of schools became Rutgers University in 1924. Later, University College (1945) was founded to serve part-time, commuting students and Livingston College (1969) was created by the Rutgers Trustees, ensuring that the interests of ethnically diverse New Jersey students were met.
Rutgers was designated the State University of New Jersey by acts of the New Jersey Legislature in 1945 and 1956. Shortly after, the University of Newark (1935) was merged with Rutgers in 1946, as was the College of South Jersey in 1950, and these two institutions were transformed into Rutgers University's campuses in Newark and Camden. In light of the civil rights and women's movements of the 1960s, Rutgers, along with many of the older American institutions (including Princeton and Yale) became co-educational. On September 10, 1970, after much debate, the Board of Governors voted to admit women into the previously all-male Rutgers College.
Prior to 1982, the liberal arts faculties at Rutgers were split among separate residential colleges, which posed significant disparaties between programs at the undergraduate level. In 1982, under president Edward J. Bloustein, the faculties were centralized into one college, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Similarly, in fall 2007, the undergraduate liberal arts student colleges were merged into a School of Arts and Sciences with one set of admissions criteria, curriculum and graduation requirements. Previously there had been several disparate and confusing standards.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine expressed interest in reviving a plan to merge Rutgers University with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), a plan which has received support from Rutgers University president Richard L. McCormick, but is unpopular with alumni.
Organization
Campuses
Rutgers University has three campuses across the state of New Jersey, with its largest campus located mainly in the City of New Brunswick and Piscataway Township, and two smaller campuses in the cities of Newark and Camden. These campuses comprise 27 degree-granting schools and colleges, offering undergraduate, graduate and professional levels of study. The university is centrally administered from New Brunswick, although Chancellors at the Newark and Camden campuses hold significant autonomy for some academic issues.
The New Brunswick-Piscataway Campus (or Rutgers-New Brunswick) is the largest campus of Rutgers; it is the site of the original Rutgers College. It is spread across six municipalities in Middlesex County, New Jersey, chiefly located in the City of New Brunswick and Piscataway Township. It is composed of five smaller campuses. The original and historic College Avenue campus is adjacent to downtown New Brunswick, and includes the seat of the University, Old Queens. On the other side of the city, Douglass Campus and Cook Campus are adjacent and intertwined with each other, and are often referred to as the Cook/Douglass Campus. Cook has extensive farms and woods that reach into North Brunswick and East Brunswick Townships. Separated by the Raritan river are Busch Campus, in Piscataway, and Livingston Campus, also mainly in Piscataway but includes remote sections of land extending into Edison Township and the Borough of Highland Park.
As of the Fall 2007 semester, the New Brunwick-Piscataway campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, including the School of Arts and Sciences, Douglass Residential College, the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, the School of Engineering, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, the Graduate School, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, the Graduate School of Education, the School of Management and Labor Relations, Mason Gross School of the Arts, the College of Nursing, the Rutgers Business School and the School of Social Work. As of 2007, 26,691 undergraduates and 7,701 graduate students (total 34,392) are enrolled at the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus.
The Newark Campus (or Rutgers-Newark), consists of 8 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, including: Newark College of Arts and Sciences, University College, School of Criminal Justice, Graduate School, College of Nursing, Rutgers Business School and Rutgers School of Law - Newark. As of 2007, 6,503 undergraduates and 3,700 graduate students (total 10,203) are enrolled at the Newark campus.
The Camden Campus (or Rutgers-Camden) consists of five undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, including: Camden College of Arts and Sciences, University College, Graduate School, Rutgers School of Business - Camden and Rutgers School of Law - Camden. As of 2006, 3,696 undergraduates and 1,471 graduate students (total 5,165) are enrolled at the Camden campus.
Governance
Governance at Rutgers University rests with a Board of Trustees consisting currently of 59 members and a Board of Governors consisting of 11 members: six appointed by the Governor of New Jersey and five chosen by the Board of Trustees. The trustees constitute chiefly an advisory body to the Board of Governors and are the fiduciary overseers of the property and assets of the University that existed before the institution became the State University of New Jersey in 1945. The initial reluctance of the trustees (still acting as a private corporate body) to cede control of certain business affairs to the state government for direction and oversight caused the state to establish the Board of Governors in 1956. Today, the Board of Governors maintains much of the corporate control of the University.
The members of the Board of Trustees are voted upon by different constituencies or appointed. "Two faculty and two students are elected by the University Senate as nonvoting representatives. The 59 voting members are chosen in the following way as mandated by state law: 28 charter members (of whom at least three shall be women), 20 alumni members nominated by the Nominating Committee of the Board of Trustees, and five public members appointed by the governor of the state with confirmation by the New Jersey State Senate. The six members of the Board of Governors appointed by the governor also serve as members of the Board of Trustees. Of the 28 charter seats, three are reserved for students with full voting rights."
The president of Rutgers University, chosen by and answerable to the Trustees and Governors, sits as an ex-officio member of both governing boards. He, as the chief administrator of the university, is charged with its day-to-day operations. Since 2002, the president of Rutgers University is Richard Levis McCormick (born 1947).
Academics
Profile
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is a leading national research university and is unique as the only university in the nation that is a colonial chartered college (1766), a land-grant institution (1864), and a state university (1945/1956). Rutgers is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (1921), and in 1989, became a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization of the 62 leading research universities in North America.
Rutgers was ranked 39th nationwide and 43rd worldwide in the 2005 Academic Ranking of World Universities by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. According to the Washington Monthly's 2006 rankings, Rutgers ranks 53rd in the United States. The Top American Research Universities an annual statistical report by The Center at the University of Florida ranks Rutgers 39th. In the 2009 U.S. News & World Report ranking of American national universities, Rutgers is ranked 64th. In 2003, the Wall Street Journal conducted a study of the undergraduate institutions that most frequently feed students placements at elite professional and graduate programs, such as Yale and Harvard; Rutgers was ranked 20th in the rankings they compiled for state universities. On a side note, Forbes ranked Rutgers as being the 20th best public university in the United States for "getting rich," as judged by its students' median salaries upon graduation.
Eleven of Rutgers' graduate departments are ranked by the National Research Council in the top 25 among all universities: Philosophy (2nd), Geology Ranked 9th Nationally based on NSF funding 9th ,Geography (13th), Statistics (17th), English (17th), Mathematics (19th), Art History (20th), Physics (20th), History (20th) Comparative Literature (22nd), French (22nd), and Materials Science Engineering (25th).
Both Rutgers School of Law - Newark and Rutgers School of Law - Camden are ranked as Top 100 Law Schools by U.S. News and World Report.
The Rutgers Business School is ranked 39th in the Wall Street Journal's Regional Ranking of Top Business Schools.
The Philosophy Department ranked first in 2002–04 tied with New York University and Princeton University, and second in 2004–06 (NYU was first, Princeton 3rd, Oxford 4th) in the Philosophical Gourmet's biennial report on Philosophy programs in the English-speaking world.
The Division of Global Affairs (DGA) Ph.D. program at Rutgers University-Newark was ranked fifth in the nation in the Benchmarking Academic Excellence survey of Top Universities in Social and Behavioral Sciences Disciplines in the combined category of International Affairs and Development for 2006-07.
According to U.S. News & World Report, in the top 25 among all universities: Food Science (2nd)Library Science (6th), Drama/Theater (12th), Mathematics (16th), English (18th), History (19th, with the subspecialty of African-American History ranked 4th and Women’s History ranked 1st), Applied Mathematics (21st) and Physics (24th). Also in the 2006 U.S. News & World Report ranking of Computer Science Ph.D. programs, Rutgers was ranked 29th.
Admissions and financial aid
U.S. News & World Report considers the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus of Rutgers University to be a "more selective" school in terms of the rigour of its admissions processes. 56% of undergraduate applicants are accepted. In comparison, 62% of applicants to nearby Pennsylvania State University (for the University Park campus) and 47% of applicants to the University of Delaware are accepted. Average scores for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of enrolling students at Rutgers range from 530–630 on the critical reading section, 560–670 for the mathematics section, and 530-640 for the writing section. Admitted applicants to nearby Pennsylvania State University average scores between from 530–640 on the verbal section and 570–680 on the math section; the University of Delaware's student body averages between 550–640 verbal and 560–660 math.
As a state university, Rutgers charges two separate rates for tuition and fees depending on whether an enrolled student is a resident of the State of New Jersey (in-state) or not (out-of-state). The Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning estimates that costs in-state student of attending Rutgers would amount to $18,899 for an undergraduate living on-campus and $22,395 for a graduate student. For an out-of-state student, the costs rise to $26,497 and $27,476 respectively.
Undergraduate students at Rutgers, though a combination of federal (50%), state (22%), university (22%), and private (6%) scholarship, loans, and grants, received $291,956,597 of financial aid in the 2004–2005 academic year. Of 37,429 undergraduate students at Rutgers, 30,398 (or 81.2%) receive financial aid. During the same period, 73.2%, or 9,604 graduate students out of a population of 13,124, received assistance in the total of $121,269,211 in financial aid sourced chiefly from federal (33%) and university (65%) funds.
Faculty
For the August 2005 to May 2006 academic year. Rutgers University had 2,261 full-time and part-time academic faculty members. Among Rutgers notable former professors are John Ciardi, George Hammell Cook, Michael Curtis, Ralph Ellison, Paul Fussell, Robert Trivers, Francis Fergusson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mason W. Gross, Leonid Khachiyan, David Levering Lewis, Roy Lichtenstein, George Segal and Selman Waksman. During his 20 year tenure at Rutgers, David Levering Lewis (born 1936), a professor in the Department of History was twice awarded the Pultizer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1994 and 2001) for both volumes of his biography of W.E.B. DuBois (1868–1963) and was also the winner of the Bancroft and Parkman prizes.
Five Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Rutgers as either faculty or students (Milton Friedman, Toni Morrison, David A. Morse, Heinrich Rohrer and Selman Waksman).
Many members of the faculty at Rutgers have achieved top honors in their disciplines, including Michael R. Douglas, a prominent string theorist and the director of the New High Energy Theory Center and winner of the Sackler Prize in theoretical physics in 2000. Jerry Fodor, Zenon Pylyshyn and Stephen Stich were awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in philosophy and cognitive science.
Rutgers is also home to Melville scholar H. Bruce Franklin, whose academic tenure was revoked by Stanford University for actions that were arguably the exercise of his First Amendment right to free speech. Franklin was a visiting professor at Wesleyan and Yale for a few years, then was offered a tenured post by Rutgers. He now holds an endowed chair at Rutgers.
Furthermore, Rutgers ranks among the top three public AAU institutions in the overall percentage of women faculty.
Libraries and Museums
The Rutgers University library system consists of 26 libraries and centers located on the University's three campuses, housing a collection of over 10.5 million holdings, including 3,522,359 volumes, 4,517,726 microforms, 2,544,126 documents, and subscriptions to 42,875 periodicals, and ranking among the nation's top research libraries. The American Library Association ranks the Rutgers University Library system as the 44th largest library in the United States in terms of volumes held.
The Archibald S. Alexander Library, in New Brunswick, is the oldest and the largest library of the University. It houses several million volumes focusing on an extensive humanities and social science collection. It mainly supports the sort of research done in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies. Alexander Library also maintains a large collection of government documents, which contains United States, New Jersey, foreign, and international government publications. The Library of Science and Medicine on the Busch Campus in Piscataway houses the University's collection in behavioral, biological, earth, and pharmaceutical sciences and engineering. The LSM also serves as a designated depository library for government publication regarding science, and owns a U.S. patent collection and patent search facility. It was officially established as the Library of Science and Medicine in July 1964 although the beginning of the development of a library for science started in 1962. The LSM currently has two administrative structures since it is a joint library serving both Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). UMDNJ, which was briefly known as Rutgers Medical School, separated from Rutgers in 1970. The current character of the LSM is a university science library also serving a medical school. On the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, in addition to Alexander Library, many individual disciplines have their own libraries, including alcohol studies, art history, Chemistry, Mathematical studies, Music, and Physics. Special Collections and University Archives houses the Sinclair New Jersey Collection, manuscript collection, and rare book collection, as well as the University Archives. Although located in the Alexander Library building, Special Collections and University Archives actually comprises a distinct unit unto itself. Also located within the Alexander Library is the East Asian Library which holds a sizable collection of Chinese, Japanese and Korean monographs and periodicals. In Newark, the John Cotton Dana Library, the Institute of Jazz Studies (located within the Dana Library), and the Robeson Library in Camden, serve their respective campuses with a broad collection of volumes.
Rutgers oversees several museums and collections that are open to the public, including the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick, maintains a collection of over 50,000 works of art, focusing on Russian and Soviet art, French 19th-century art and American 19th- and 20th-century art with a concentration on early-20th-century and contemporary prints. The Rutgers University Geology Museum—located in Geology Hall next to the Old Queens Building—features exhibits on geology and anthropology, with an emphasis on the natural history of New Jersey. The largest exhibits include a dinosaur trackway from Towaco, New Jersey; a mastodon from Salem County; and a Ptolomaic era Egyptian mummy. On the Cook Campus, the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture houses an extensive collection of agricultural, scientific and household tools that spans 350 years of New Jersey's history. The bulk of the collection rests on the 8,000-item Wabun C. Krueger Collection of Agricultural, Household, and Scientific Artifacts, and over 30,000 glass negatives and historic photographs. Also located on the Cook Campus is Rutgers Gardens, which features 50 acres (20 hectares) of horticultural, display, and botanical gardens, as well as arboretums.
Research
It was at Rutgers that Selman Waksman (1888–1973) discovered several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, candidin, and others. Waksman, along with graduate student Albert Schatz (1920–2005), discovered streptomycin—a versatile antibiotic that was to be the first applied to cure tuberculosis. For this discovery, Waksman received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1952.
Rutgers continues to be on the frontlines of science and innovation, and has given birth to discoveries and inventions such as water-soluble sustained release polymers, tetraploids, robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, and development of the ceramic tiles for the heat shield on the Space Shuttle. In health related field, Rutgers has the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute (EOHSI).
Rutgers is also home to the RCSB Protein Data bank, 'an information portal to Biological Macromolecular Structures' cohosted with the San Diego Supercomputer Center. This database is the authoritative research tool for bioinformaticists using protein primary, secondary and tertiary structures world wide.'
Rutgers is home to the Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension office, which is run by the Agricultural and Experiment Station with the support of local government. The institution provides research & education to the local farming and agro industrial community in 19 of the 21 counties of the state and educational outreach programs offered through the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Office of Continuing Professional Education.
Student life
Residential life
Rutgers University offers a variety of housing options. On the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, students are given the option of on-campus housing in both traditional dorms or apartments. Despite some overcrowding, most students seeking on-campus housing will be accommodated with a space, yet in 2008/2009 students where placed in a nearby hotel. The hotel situation is expected to grow into 2009/2010 and students are encouraged to look off campus. Many Rutgers students opt to rent apartments or houses off-campus within the city of New Brunswick. Similar setups are to be found in Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden, however a substantial portion of the students on those campuses commute and are enrolled on a part-time basis.
Rutgers University's three campuses are located in the culturally-diverse, redeveloping urban areas (Newark, Camden, and New Brunswick) with convenient access to New York City and Philadelphia by either automobile, Amtrak or New Jersey Transit. US News & World Report ranked Rutgers-Newark the most diverse university campus in the United States. Because the area of Rutgers' New Brunswick-Piscataway campus—which is composed of several constituent colleges and professional schools—is sprawled across six municipalities, the individual campuses are connected by an inter-campus bus system.
Rutgers University is ranked by numerous websites as a "party school." Rutgers ranks 30 on collegehumor.com, as well as an honorable mention by partyschoolnetwork.com. The New Brunswick and Rutgers police frequently issue noise violations to off campus students which average between $350-500, but do not usually target individuals, except when in possession of open containers in public.
Traditions and symbols
The alma mater of Rutgers University is the song entitled On the Banks of the Old Raritan, written by Howard Fullerton (Class of 1874) in 1873. It is often sung at University occasions, including concerts of the Rutgers University Glee Club, at Convocation and Commencement exercises, and especially at the conclusion of athletic events. The university's fight song is The Bells Must Ring, which features the school's spirit chant: "R-U Rah Rah, R-U Rah Rah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah Rutgers Rah! Upstream Red Team, Red Team Upstream, Rah Rah Rutgers Rah!." Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement, convocation, and athletic games are: The Bells Must Ring the Rutgers University fight song.
Scarlet was made the official school color of Rutgers University in 1900. Initially, students sought to make orange the school color, citing Rutgers' Dutch heritage and in reference to the Prince of Orange. The Daily Targum first proposed that scarlet be adopted in May 1869, claiming that it was a striking color and because scarlet ribbon was easily obtained. During the first intercollegiate football game with Princeton on 6 November 1869, the players from Rutgers wore scarlet-colored turbans and handkerchiefs to distinguish them as a team from the Princeton players. Although Rutgers incorporates the colors black and white on their signs, symbols, athletic uniforms as accent colors, scarlet is the one and only color of the university. The current mascot is the Scarlet Knight. In its early days, Rutgers athletes were known as "Queensmen" in reference to the institution's first name, Queen's College. However, in 1925, the mascot was changed to Chanticleer, a fighting rooster from the medieval fable Reynard the Fox (Le Roman de Renart) which was used by Geoffrey Chaucer's in the Canterbury Tales. However, this mascot was often the subject of ridicule because of its association with "being chicken." In 1955, the mascot was changed to the Scarlet Knight after a campus-wide election. The names (and mascots) of the athletic teams at Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden are the "Scarlet Raiders" and the "Scarlet Raptors," respectively.
Rutgers' motto, Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustra (translated as "Sun of righteousness, shine upon the West also") is derived from the motto of the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, which is Sol Iustitiae Illustra Nos (translated as "Sun of Justice, shine upon us"). It is a reference to the biblical texts of Malachi 4:2 and Matthew 13:43. This motto appears in the University's seal (pictured above), which is also derived from that of the University of Utrecht, and depicts a multi-pointed sun.
At Commencement exercises in the Spring, tradition leads undergraduates to break clay pipes over the Class of 1877 Cannon monument in front of Old Queens, symbolizing the breaking of ties with the college, and leaving behind the good times of one's undergraduate years. This symbolic gesture dates back to when pipe-smoking was fashionable among undergraduates, and many college memories were of evenings of pipe smoking and revelry with friends. During commencement exercises, graduating seniors walk in academic procession under the Class of 1902 Memorial Gateway (erected in 1904) on Hamilton Street leading to the Voorhees Mall where the ceremonies are held for Rutgers College. Traditionally, students are warned to avoid walking beneath the gate before commencement over a superstition that one who does will not graduate.
Coat of Arms
The shield of the Rutgers coat of arms appears on the university gonfalon, and is at the head of all processions. The first quarter bears the arms of Nassau, the House of Orange, and recognizes the Dutch founders. The arms in the upper sinister quarter are those of George III combined with Queen Charlotte’s. It was George III who granted the Charter of 1766 to Queen’s College, named in honor of Charlotte of Mecklenburg, King George’s consort. The arms shown on the sinister half are Queen Charlotte’s. The third quarter from the Seal of the State of New Jersey. The fourth quarter is the coat of arms of Colonel Henry Rutgers.
Seal
The University Seal based on that of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands whose motto around a sun is “ Sol iustitiae nos illustra”:“Sun of righteousness, shine upon us”. Rutgers modified the Utrecht seal to read “Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustra”; embracing the Western world, meaning “Sun of righteousness, shine upon the West also.” The boards of governors and trustees approved a revised seal for the University 1997 that includes the words “Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey” and adds the 1766 founding date.
Student organizations and activities
Rutgers University has a student government which controls funding to student groups. The student government is made up of campus councils and professional school councils. Those councils then send representatives to the student assembly as well as the university senate. An example of these campus councils is the University College Council, which represents adult, non-traditional, veterans, part-time, transfer, and commuter students. It also represents students who are part of University College, a degree granting college which was part of Rutgers University (just like Livingston, Douglass, and Cook College) which was merger into the new school of arts and sciences.
Rutgers hosts over 700 student organizations, covering a wide range of interests. Among the first student groups was the first college newspaper in the United States of America. The Political Intelligencer and New Jersey Adviser began publication at Queen's College in 1783, and ceased operation in 1785. Continuing this tradition is the university's current college newspaper, The Daily Targum, established in 1869, which is the second-oldest college newspaper currently published in the United States, after The Dartmouth (1843). Both poet Joyce Kilmer and economist Milton Friedman served as editors. Also included are The Medium, Rutgers Entertainment Weekly, Rutgers Centurion, a conservative newspaper, the Rutgers University Glee Club, a male choral singing group established in 1872 (among the oldest in the country), as well as the Rutgers University Debate Union. Governed by the Student Activities Council, and funded by student fees disbursed through student government associations, students can organize groups for practically any political ideology or issue, ethnic or religious affiliation, academic subject, activity, or hobby.
Rutgers University is home to chapters of many Greek organizations, and a significant percentage of the undergraduate student body is active in Greek life. Several fraternities and sororities maintain houses for their chapters in the area of Union Street (known familiarly as "Frat Row") in New Brunswick, within blocks of Rutgers' College Avenue Campus. Chapters of Zeta Psi and Delta Phi organized at Rutgers as early as 1845. There are over 50 fraternities and sororities on the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, ranging from traditional to historically African-American, Hispanic, Multicultural, and Asian interest organizations. Greek organizations are governed by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. Twelve organizations maintain chapters in New Brunswick without sanction by the University's administration.
In the late 1800s, the University banned fraternities because of their unusual hazing practices. This caused them to go underground as secret societies. It also sparked the interest of some students to create their own societies. Cap and Skull, Order of the Bull's Blood, and Order of the Red Lion were all founded at Rutgers before the turn of the century.
Alumni
Since 1774, when the entire graduating class consisted of one student, Matthew Leydt, there have been over 335,000 graduates, or alumni, of Rutgers University. Many alumni remain active through alumni associations—including the Rutgers Alumni Association founded in 1831—annual Reunions and Homecomings, and other events. Rutgers alumni are often known as "Loyal Sons", a term of affection dating from the days when Rutgers offered admission only to men. This term, since the dawn of coeducation has been extended to include Rutgers' "Loyal Daughters."
One of Rutgers' most famous alums was Paul Robeson. Robeson, an African American, won an academic scholarship to Rutgers University. When he went out for the Rutgers University football team, other players beat him up and pulled out his fingernails. He bore the abuse to prove his worth and when he graduated he was a two-time All-American and the school valedictorian, exhorting his classmates to "catch a new vision." Robeson was the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and was the only Black student during his time on campus. Robeson was one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was valedictorian of his graduating class and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society. A noted athlete, Robeson earned fifteen varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was twice named a first-team All-American in (1917 and 1918). Football coach Walter Camp described him as "the greatest to ever trot the gridiron."
Rutgers has graduated three Nobel Laureates, including Selman A. Waksman (A.B. 1915) in Medicine, Milton Friedman (A.B. 1932) in Economics, and David A. Morse (A.B. 1929), Director-General of the International Labour Organization, who won the Peace Prize in 1969. Several alumni have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, including Michael Shaara (A.B. 1951), author of The Killer Angels and other historical fiction, in Fiction (1975), journalist Richard Aregood (B.A. 1965) in editorial writing (1985), and Roy Franklin Nichols (A.B. 1918) in history (1949).
Alumni of Rutgers have had a considerable impact in the arts, including those by two noted modern sculptors, George Segal (M.A. 1963) and Alice Aycock (B.A. 1968). Many notable buildings in Boston (the Copley Plaza Hotel), and New York City including the The Dakota, Plaza Hotel, the Waldorf and Astoria Hotels (demolished in 1929 to make way for the Empire State Building) as well as several of the oldest buildings on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, were designed by architect Henry Janeway Hardenburgh (A.B. 1871). Poet Joyce Kilmer (Class of 1908), attended Rutgers for two years before transferring to Columbia University, was famous for his poem "Trees" and later died in World War I, and Robert Pinsky (B.A. 1962), was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1997. Filmmaker and critic Wheeler Winston Dixon (Ph.D. 1982) has written more than twenty five books on film history, theory and criticism, and his collected films are housed at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Many Rutgers graduates have gone on to careers in public service, including former U.S. Secretary of State and Senator Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1836), former U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary (J.D. 19??), former FBI director Louis Freeh (B.A. 1971), Vice President of the United States Garret A. Hobart (A.B. 1863), and former Representative and Senator Clifford P. Case (A.B. 1925). Among the first students enrolled at Rutgers (when it was Queen's College), Simeon DeWitt (A.B. 1776) became the Surveyor-General for the Continental Army (1776–1783) during the American Revolution and classmate James Schureman (A.B. 1775), served in the Continental Congress and as a United States Senator. Seven Rutgers graduates have served as Governor of New Jersey: Charles C. Stratton (A.B. 1814), William A. Newell (A.B. 1836; A.M. 1839), George C. Ludlow (A.B. 1850, A.M. 1850), Foster M. Voorhees (A.B. 1876, A.M. 1879), A. Harry Moore (J.D. 1922), Richard Hughes (J.D. 1931), and James J. Florio (J.D. 1967). Alumnus Joseph P. Bradley (A.B. 1836) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1870–1891) and cast the tie-breaking vote on the bipartisan commission that decided the contested American presidential election in 1876.
Alumni have founded or headed businesses, including Robert Kriendler (A.B. 1936), owner of the 21 Club in New York City, Leonor F. Loree (A.B. 1877), President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Bernard Marcus (B.S. 1951), Founder of the Home Depot, Ernest Mario (B.S. 1961), former Chief Executive Officer of GlaxoSmithKline, Duncan McMillan (B.S. 1966), co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and Barry Schuler (B.A. 1976), former Chairman and CEO of AmericaOnline (AOL). Marc Milecofsky, aka Marc Ecko, founded the clothing brand Ecko in 1993 and launched a special, limited edition collection that specifically pays homage to the Scarlet Knights, Mary Baglivo (B.A. 1979), Chairman and CEO of the Americas, Saatchi & Saatchi
Graduates of Rutgers have gone on to make advances in medicine, mathematics and science, most notably Nobel Laureate Selman A. Waksman (B.Sc. 1915), but also including Peter C. Schultz (B.S. 1967), co-inventor of fiber optics, geneticist Stanley N. Cohen (B.Sc. 1956) who pioneered in the field of gene splicing, Louis Gluck (B.S. 1930) the "father of neonatology," computer pioneer Nathan M. Newmark (B.S. 1948) who won the National Medal of Science, and Matthew Golombek (B.S. 1976) who was the project scientist in charge of NASA's Pathfinder mission to Mars.
Rutgers alumni have entertained Americans on the silver screen as well as the small screen, including most notably James Gandolfini (B.A. 1983), known for his role on The Sopranos, and Oswald "Ozzie" Nelson (B.A. 1927), fondly remembered for The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Film star Asia Carrera (B.A. 1996) became the most famous adult actress of her generation. The Food Network has rocketed Chef and Restaurateur Mario Batali (B.A. 1982) into America's homes. Other notable thespian alumni include Avery Brooks (B.A. 1973) (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Alan Semok (B.A. 1975) (Shining Time Station, K.I.D.S.-TV), Kristin Davis (B.F.A. 1987), (Sex and the City), and Calista Flockhart (B.F.A. 1988) (The Birdcage, Ally McBeal).
In athletics, graduates of Rutgers have won Olympic gold medals, been inducted into sports halls of fame, and led numerous teams as general managers and coaches including Major League Baseball manager Jeff Torborg (B.A. 1963), Eddie Jordan (B.A. 1977), coach of the Washington Wizards, Sonny Werblin (A.B. 1932), founder of the New York Jets, and David Stern (B.A. 1963), Commissioner of the National Basketball Association. Recently, more Rutgers football players have made an impact in the National Football League, with running back Ray Rice (Baltimore Ravens) becoming the first Scarlet Knight to enter the NFL Draft early. Other notable players include Brian Leonard (St. Louis Rams), Shaun O'Hara (New York Giants), L.J. Smith (Philadelphia Eagles), Clark Harris (Houston Texans), Nate Jones (Miami Dolphins), Eric Foster (Indianapolis Colts), Jeremy Zuttah (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Pedro Sosa (Miami Dolphins).
Yasser Latif Hamdani, Pakistani writer, lawyer, and constitutional scholar is also a Rutgers alumnus.
Quincy Magoo (degree and class unknown), a lovable cartoon character from the 1950s and 1960s, was among the proudest of Rutgers' "Loyal Sons."
Athletics
Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included Yale University, Columbia University and long-time rival, Princeton University (then called The College of New Jersey). The four schools met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan on 19 October 1873 to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate competition, and particularly to codify the new game of football. Though invited, Harvard chose not to attend. In the early years of intercollegiate athletics, the circle of schools that participated in these athletic events were located solely in the American Northeast. However, by the turn of the century, colleges and universities across the United States began to participate.
In 1864, rowing became the first organized sport at Rutgers. Six mile races were held on the Raritan River among six-oared boats. In 1870, Rutgers held its first intercollegiate competition, against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard, the then top-ranked amateur crew of the time. Since the start in 1864, Rutgers has built a strong crew program consisting of heavyweight and lightweight men. Women’s crew was added to the program in 1974. Men's crew was recently discontinued as a varsity sport at Rutgers, though it continues as a strong club program.
The first intercollegiate athletic event at Rutgers was a baseball game on 2 May 1866 against Princeton in which they suffered a 40-2 loss. Rutgers University is often referred to as The Birthplace of College Football as the first intercollegiate football game was held on College Field between Rutgers and Princeton on 6 November 1869 in New Brunswick, New Jersey on a plot of ground where the present-day College Avenue Gymnasium now stands. Rutgers won the game, with a score of 6 runs to Princeton's 4. According to Parke Davis, the 1869 Rutgers football team shared the national title with Princeton. (This game is believed to have been closer to soccer than to modern American football.)
Since 1866, Rutgers remained unaffiliated with any formal athletic conference and was classified as "independent". From 1946 to 1951, the university was a member of the Middle Three Conference, and from 1958 to 1961, was a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference. In 1978, Rutgers became a member of the Atlantic 10 conference. In 1991, it joined the Big East Conference for football. All sports programs at Rutgers subsequently became affiliated with the Big East in 1995.
The first intercollegiate competition in Ultimate Frisbee (now called simply "Ultimate") was held between students from Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1972 to mark the one hundred third anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers won 29–27.
The Rutgers Men's Basketball Team was among the "Final Four" and ended the 1976 season ranked fourth in the United States, after an 86–70 loss against the University of Michigan in the semifinals, and a 106–92 loss against UCLA in the consolation round of the 1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.
Since 1991, Rutgers is a member of the Big East Conference, a collegiate athletic conference consisting of 16 colleges and universities from the East Coast and Midwestern regions of the United States. The Big East Conference is a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Rutgers currently fields 27 intercollegiate sports programs and is a Division I school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden campuses compete within NCAA Division III. Rutgers fields thirty teams in NCAA Division I sanctioned sports, including Football, Baseball, Basketball, Crew, Cross Country, Fencing, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Track and Field, Swimming and Diving, Wrestling, Volleyball.
Since joining the Big East, the Scarlet Knights have won five Big East Conference tournament titles: men's soccer (1997), men's track & field (2005), baseball (2000, 2007), women's basketball (2007). Several other teams have won regular season titles but failed to win the conference's championship tournament.
Most recently, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' football team has achieved success on the gridiron after several years of losing seasons, being invited to the Insight Bowl on 27 December 2005 in which they lost 45 to 40 against Arizona State University. This was Rutgers' first bowl appearance since the 16 December 1978 loss against Arizona State, 34–18, at the Garden State Bowl.
The 2006 football season also saw Rutgers being ranked within the Top 25 teams in major college football polls. After the 9 November 2006 victory over the #3 ranked, undefeated Louisville Cardinals, Rutgers jumped up to seventh in the AP Poll, eighth in the USA Today/Coaches poll, seventh in the Harris Interactive Poll, and sixth in the Bowl Championship Series rankings. These were Rutgers' highest rankings in the football polls since they were ranked fifteenth in 1961. Rutgers ended the season 11–2 after winning the inaugural Texas Bowl on 28 December 2006, defeating the Wildcats of Kansas State University by a score of 37–10 and finishing the season ranked twelfth in the final Associated Press poll of sportswriters, the team's highest season-ending ranking.
Under Head Coach C. Vivian Stringer, the Women's Basketball program is among the elite programs in the country as they remain consistently ranked in the Top 25, consistently making the NCAA Women's Championship Tournament, and sometimes winning the Big East regular season championship. In 2006-2007, Rutgers won their first ever Big East Conference Tournament Championship. The program has been highly competitive since its inception, winning the 1982 AIAW National Championship, reaching the 2000 Final Four, and reaching the Final Four and national championship game in 2007.
Rutgers maintains athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. The university has a historic rivalry with Princeton University and Columbia University (formerly King's College) originating from the early days of college football. While they maintain this rivalry in other sports, neither of them have met in football since 1980. Rutgers has a basketball rivalry with Seton Hall University, and has developed a growing three-way rivalry with the University of Connecticut and Syracuse University, both fellow Big East Conference members.
With the fall 2007 semester, six of Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway's NCAA Division I Olympic sports will become club teams, including men's swimming and diving, men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, men's tennis, and men's and women's fencing.
World Record
On April 10, 2008, students at Rutgers University broke the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Ninja Turtles." 786 members of the University community gathered at the recreation center in Piscataway, NJ to accomplish this feat.
Points of interest
See also
Books and printed materials
- Demarest, William Henry Steele. History of Rutgers College: 1776–1924. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers College, 1924). (No ISBN)
- History of Rutgers College: or an account of the union of Rutgers College, and the Theological Seminary of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church. Prepared and published at the request of several trustees of the College, by a trustee. (New York: Anderson & Smith, 1833). (No ISBN)
- Lukac, George J. (ed.), Aloud to Alma Mater. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1966), 70–73. (No ISBN)
- McCormick, Richard P. Rutgers: a Bicentennial History. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966). ISBN 0-8135-0521-6
- Schmidt, George P. Princeton and Rutgers: The Two Colonial Colleges of New Jersey. (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1964). (No ISBN)
External links
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