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Rutgers, The State University of
New Jersey, is one of the
leading universities in the
nation. The university is made
up of 29 degree-granting
divisions; 12 undergraduate
colleges, 11 graduate schools,
and three schools offering both
undergraduate and graduate
degrees. Five are located in
Camden, seven in Newark, and 14
in New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Rutgers has a unique history as
a colonial college, a land-grant
institution, and a state
university. Chartered in 1766 as
Queen's College, the eighth
institution of higher learning
to be founded in the colonies,
the school opened its doors in
New Brunswick in 1771 with a
lone instructor, a single
sophomore, and a handful of
first-year students. During its
early years, the college
developed as a classic liberal
arts institution. In 1825, the
name of the college was changed
to honor a former trustee and
Revolutionary War veteran,
Colonel Henry Rutgers.
Rutgers College became the
land-grant college of New Jersey
in 1864, resulting in the
establishment of the Rutgers
Scientific School, featuring
departments of agriculture,
engineering, and chemistry.
Further expansion in the
sciences came with the founding
of the New Jersey Agricultural
Experiment Station in 1880, the
College of Engineering (now the
School of Engineering) in 1914,
and the College of Agriculture
(now Cook College) in 1921. The
precursors to several other
Rutgers divisions were also
established during this period:
the College of Pharmacy (now the
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy)
in 1892, the New Jersey College
for Women (now Douglass College)
in 1918, and the School of
Education in 1924.
Rutgers College assumed
university status in 1924, and
legislative acts in 1945 and
1956 designated all its
divisions as The State
University of New Jersey. During
these years the university
expanded significantly with the
founding of an evening division
— University College — in 1934
and the addition of the
University of Newark (now
Rutgers–Newark) in 1946 and the
College of South Jersey at
Camden (now Rutgers–Camden) in
1950.
Since the 1950's, Rutgers has
continued to expand, especially
in the area of graduate
education. The Graduate
School—New Brunswick, Graduate
School—Newark, and Graduate
School—Camden each serve their
respective campuses. In
addition, professional schools
have been established in such
areas as management, social
work, criminal justice, applied
and professional psychology, the
fine arts, and communication,
information and library studies.
(A number of these schools offer
undergraduate programs as well.)
Also at the undergraduate level,
Livingston College was founded
in 1969, emphasizing the urban
environment.
The first Summer Session began
in 1913 with one six-week
session. That summer program
offered 47 courses and had an
enrollment of 314 students.
Currently, Summer Session offers
over 1,000 courses to more than
15,000 students on the Camden,
Newark, and New
Brunswick/Piscataway campuses,
off-campus, and abroad.
Today, Rutgers continues to
grow, both in its facilities and
in the variety and depth of its
educational and research
programs. The university's goals
for the future include the
continued provision of the
highest quality education, along
with the increased support of
research and commitment to
public service to meet the needs
of society.
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UNIVERSITY TIMELINE
1766
On November 10, William
Franklin, the last Colonial
governor of New Jersey and
Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate
son, signs the charter that
brings Queen's College into
existence. Established to train
young men for the ministry in
the Dutch Reformed Church, the
new college is named in honor of
Charlotte of Mecklenburg,
consort of King George III.
1771
In May, the Board of Trustees
votes, 10-7, to establish
Queen's College in New
Brunswick. Runner-up:
Hackensack. The first classes
are held in November in a
downtown tavern, the Sign of the
Red Lion, on the corner of
Albany and Neilson streets.
Teaching the college's handful
of students is Frederick
Frelinghuysen, 18-year-old
stepson of the college's
president.
1774
Queen's College holds its first
commencement exercises.
Nineteen-year-old Matthew Leydt
is the entire graduating class.
1776
The college's tutor, John
Taylor, joins the Revolutionary
Army as a captain and is
followed into service by a
number of his students. With
General Howe pursuing Washington
through New Jersey, classes are
held sporadically in private
homes around the New Brunswick
area.
1783
The Political Intelligencer and
New Jersey Adviser, said to be
the first newspaper published
under the auspices of an
American college, begins
publication. The four-page paper
folds two years later.
1793
With the fledgling college
falling on hard times, the board
of trustees votes on a resoluton
to merge with Princeton. The
measure fails by one vote.
1795
Lacking both funds and tutors,
the trustees consider moving the
college to New York. Instead,
they decide to close.
1807
The trustees raise $12,000 and
reopen the college the next
year.
1809
On April 27, the cornerstone of
the first building--Old
Queen's--is laid by President
Ira Condict. Considered by
experts one of the nation's
finest examples of Federal
period architecture, the
building will take 14 years and
more than twice its projected
budget to complete.
1810
To guide student morals, 104
rules and regulations are
published. Dancing and fencing
schools, billiards, cards, dice,
beer and oyster houses,
firearms, powder, and public
ball alleys are declared taboo.
No student is to "disguise
himself for the purpose of
imposition or amusement," "speak
upon the public stage anything
indecent, profane, or immoral,"
or "employ a barber on the
Lord's day to dress his head or
shave him."
1812
A depressed economy and the War
of 1812 force the college to
close for the second time.
1825
In November, the college
reopens--this time for good.
In December, the trustees rename
the college in honor of Colonel
Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary
War hero and member of President
Philip Milledoler's parish.
Rutgers was honored, said the
trustees, because he epitomized
Christian values. It also may
have helped that he was a
wealthy bachelor known for his
philanthropy.
1826
Rutgers College gets a donation
from its namesake--a $200 bell
that is hung from the cupola of
the Old Queen's building. Later
in the year, the colonel donates
the interest on a $5,000 bond.
1830
Colonel Rutgers dies, leaving a
third of his estate to charity.
Not one penny is earmarked for
Rutgers College.
1831
The Alumni Association of
Rutgers College is formed.
1835
Dually smitten by the charms of
Dot Degran, the daughter of
their landlady, students
Reynolds and Van Vranken
challenge one another to a duel.
When Van Vranken falls to the
ground, bloodied and covered
with gunpowder, Reynolds flees
to Spotswood. Assured by letter
that Van Vranken will recover,
Reynolds returns to campus and
is greeted by a healthy and
gloating Van Vranken. With the
duplicity of the seconds, Van
Vranken had removed the balls
from the pistols and staged his
shooting. Reynolds, however,
gets the last laugh: He is
merely suspended; Van Vranken is
given the boot.
1845
The first Greek letter
fraternity at Rutgers, Delta
Phi, is founded. Both Delta Phi
and Zeta Psi, Rutgers' second
fraternity, are labeled
subversive by the faculty and
are outlawed. The fraternities
go underground and become secret
societies.
1859
Blaming declining enrollment,
inadequate funding, and student
and public apathy on an unruly
faculty, President Theodore
Frelinghuysen fires every
faculty member except George H.
Cook.
1863
The impact of the Civil War is
felt as enrollment at the
college drops to 64. Of the 25
students and 58 alumni who will
fight in the war, 16 are killed.
1864
The state legislature picks the
Rutgers Scientific School over
Princeton University to be the
state land-grant college, a feat
almost wholly attributable to
George H. Cook, who lobbied
ferociously. The Dutch Reformed
Church also severs its last ties
with Rutgers. Both events pave
the way for Rutgers' eventual
role as the state university.
1866
On May 2, in the first
intercollegiate athletic event
in Rutgers history, the Rutgers
baseball team is humiliated by
the Princeton team, 40-2.
1868
The faculty enlists the help of
local boarding-house owner
Justice James S. Nevius to
uncover the culprits who
"exploded" the campus latrine.
Nevius comes up empty-handed.
1869
In a banner year for student
activities, Phi Beta Kappa and
The Scarlet Letter are founded;
the school paper is launched
under the name Targum, which is
period slang for cheat sheet;
and scarlet is adopted as the
school color because no flags of
orange--the first choice--can be
found.
On November 6, Rutgers defeats
Princeton, six "runs" to four,
in the first intercollegiate
football game ever played.
Instead of wearing uniforms, the
players stripped off their hats,
coats, and vests and bound their
suspenders around the waistbands
of their trousers. For headgear,
the Rutgers team wound their
scarlet scarves into turbans
atop their heads. The rules,
based more on English rugby than
American football, included
limiting each team to 25 men on
the field at once and banning
throwing or running with the
ball.
1871
An article in Targum complained,
"Many of the men who do not live
on the campus or even near it
are forced to drink directly
from the faucets in Van Nest,
the gymnasium, or Engineering
building. Visitors to the
campus, unless they carry their
own drinking cups, must do the
same or go without drink."
1873
Howard N. Fullerton '74 writes
"On the Banks," the college
song. Kirkpatrick Chapel, which
will also serve as a library and
classroom space for many years,
is dedicated.
1874
A right whale is stranded on the
banks of the Raritan River.
Later, the skeleton is hung from
the ceiling of the geological
hall.
1875
Under cover of darkness, nine
men of the Class of 1877 set out
to steal back the Revolutionary
War-era cannon Princeton had
purportedly stolen from Rutgers
some years before. It takes the
men two hours to drag the
1,088-pound cannon 200 yards to
their horse-drawn wagon and
seven hours to cart it from back
to New Brunswick, where it is
triumphantly unloaded in front
of Old Queen's. Their heroism is
short-lived: They nabbed the
wrong cannon.
1876
An alumnus picks a president: In
the disputed election of 1876,
Supreme Court Justice Joseph P.
Bradley (RC 1836), casts the
deciding vote that makes
Rutherford B. Hayes rather than
Samuel J. Tilden president.
Rutgers begins instruction at
the graduate level.
1879
Mark Twain accepts an honorary
membership into Rutgers'
Philoclean Society, but fails to
make the customary monetary
contribution.
1880
The New Jersey Agricultural
Experiment Station is founded.
1890
Students move into the campus'
first dormitory, Winants Hall.
According to the Scarlet Letter,
Rutgers' official yell is: "Rah!
Rah! Rah! Bow-wow-wow! Rutgers!"
1892
A Rutgers legend is created when
the Princeton football team
breaks the leg of Rutgers'
biggest player, Frank "Pop"
Grant. While being carried from
the field, Pop is claimed to
have mumbled, "I'd die for dear
old Rutgers." The saying, spread
across the country when it was
satirized in the play "High
Button Shoes," became a slogan
for school spirit and the old
college try. Many alumni have
since offered their own
versions, including the alumnus
who swears Pop really said,
"I'll die if somebody doesn't
give me a cigarette."
The College of Pharmacy is
founded.
James Dickson Carr, son of a
Presbyterian minister from
Elizabeth, becomes the first
black to graduate from Rutgers.
Carr will go on to law school
and become an assistant district
attorney for New York City.
1898
Accused by his grandfather of "pay(ing)
too close attention to some
young girls whose acquaintance
he could not afford to cultivate
intimately" and unable to
convince his family of his
innocence, 21-year-old student
Henry Janeway Weston shoots
himself dead in his room.
Kirkpatrick Chapel's most
beautiful stained-glass window
is created by the Tiffany
Studios in his memory.
1899
The alumnus who was almost
president: Garret A. Hobart (RC
1863), Vice President of the
United States, dies in office.
President William McKinley
replaces him with Theodore
Roosevelt, who assumes the
presidency upon McKinley's
assassination.
1901
Professor of Physics Francis C.
Van Dyck (RC 1865) is appointed
the first dean.
1903
Fire strikes New Jersey Hall,.
Most of the Hall's valuable
collection is saved, but the
building is damaged and requires
restoration.
1906
William H. S. Demarest, the only
alumnus to serve as college
president, is inaugurated on
Commencement Day.
James Neilson (RC 1866) donates
land to Rutgers that is now
called--perhaps
unfairly--Voorhees Mall.
1909
Rutgers sends its first Rhodes
scholar to Oxford.
1913
Foster Sanford, Rutgers' first
"real" football coach and a
member of the National Football
Hall of Fame, takes the Rutgers
team in hand. He was famed for
his innovations, including the
"hurdle play," in which a
lightweight member of the track
team, suited up in pants with
leather loops, carried the ball
while being hurled over the line
by two halfbacks.
1918
The New Jersey College for
Women--now Douglass
College--opens. Two curricula
are offered: liberal arts and
home economics. The college's
entire library consists of about
a dozen books stacked on the
registrar's desk.
With anti-foreign sentiment
rampant during World War I, a
group of students--goaded by a
speech instructor--tar and
feather a foreign-born student
and parade him down George
Street as a punishment for
declining to buy a war bond.
1919
Paul Robeson, the only black in
his class and the third in
Rutgers' history, gives the
valedictorian address at
commencement. Hailed as perhaps
the greatest college football
player of his time, he had been
hazed so unmercifully his
freshman year that he lost
several fingernails because his
own teammates purposely stomped
his hands during pileups.
Lacking the funds to construct a
proper building, Dean Mabel
Smith Douglass of the College
for Women has a gymnasium built
from packing boxes that were
originally intended to ship
airplane engines to Europe
during World War I.
1921
The College of Agriculture,
later renamed in honor of George
H. Cook, opens.
1922
The traditional rivalry between
the freshman and sophomore
classes gets out of hand when,
at the Cross Keys Inn in Rahway,
the sophomores try to crash the
freshman banquet by battering
the doors down with a
six-foot-long cypress timber.
They are repulsed by jets from
the fire department's hoses, but
townies help mount a new attack
by pelting snowballs molded
around railroad ballast through
the windows. By the end of the
night, the sophs have demolished
the inn, snake-danced their way
through a show at the town's
theatre, made off with
equipment, uniforms, and hats of
the police and firemen, and torn
apart the Rahway rail station.
The next day, the freshman and
sophomore classes contribute $5
a head to pay damages and offer
their apologies to the citizenry
of Rahway.
1923
The Campus News reports that the
holes in the bedroom doors at
the new women's college are
there so the matron can make
sure the girls keep "on the
straight and narrow."
1924
Rutgers College officially
becomes Rutgers University.
1928
The Holland Society of New York
presents Rutgers with the statue
of William the Silent that
stands in Voorhees Mall.
Contrary to campus myth, Willy's
purpose is to symbolize the
University's ties to the Dutch
Reformed Church, not to whistle
at passing virgins.
1930
During a fire at Ballantine
Hall, the University's first
gymnasium, the fire chief's hat
disappears. Repeated pleas for
its return by both the fire
department and the president go
unheeded. In the spring, fire
again strikes; this time, at the
Delta Phi house at 77 Hamilton
Street. While battling the
blaze, the fire chief opens a
closet--and finds his hat
hanging from a peg.
1932
The College Avenue Gymnasium is
built on the site of the first
intercollegiate football game.
Walter Spence, star of Rutgers'
national-power swimming team,
wins a medal in the Olympics,
repeating the feat of teammate
George Kojac, who had won a
medal in the 1928 Olympics.
1933
Citing her failing health, Mabel
Smith Douglass resigns as dean
of the New Jersey College for
Women and retires to her summer
cottage at Lake Placid. Only
weeks later, on September 21,
she takes her boat out for her
daily row on the lake but does
not return. Her empty boat is
found later in the afternoon,
but searchers turn up no trace
of Douglass.
1934
University College opens, with
the goal of making higher
education possible for older and
working students.
1936
Knowing that the train of
presidential candidate Alfred M.
Landon is scheduled to travel
through New Brunswick that night
and suspecting Rutgers' top
officials of being staunch
Republicans, an undergraduate
identifying himself as a Landon
delegate informs President
Robert C. Clothier that Mr.
Landon would be delighted to
meet him and his close
associates at the platform
during a 3 a.m. stopover.
Clothier and his top brass, in
formal attire, gather on the
westbound platform. The train
arrives, but it accelerates so
rapidly through the New
Brunswick station that Clothier
and his band are nearly swept
from the platform--much to the
delight of students gathered on
the opposite side of the track.
To ensure that faculty research
is published, Rutgers University
Press is founded.
1945
Rutgers is declared the state
university by the legislature.
With the end of World War II,
President Clothier announces
that the University "will
accommodate all qualified
veterans...for whom it is
possible to provide." The influx
of GIs swells enrollment from
750 in September 1945 to 4,200
in September 1947 and sets the
stage for an explosive expansion
in facilities.
To improve the "moral tone" of
members, the administration
places housemothers in all
fraternity houses.
1946
In October, a contingent of
Rutgers men slip onto the
Princeton campus and again try
to steal the famed cannon. This
attempt is even more disastrous
than the first. They attach one
end of a length of heavy chain
to the cannon and the other to
their Ford. Surprised by
Princeton men and the
constabulatory, they gun the
engine of the Ford so viciously
that the car is torn in half.
The Rutgers army manages to
escape, but with neither car nor
cannon.
Rutgers University and the
University of Newark merge.
1950
Rutgers merges with the College
of South Jersey and its School
of Law to create the Camden
campus.
1952
Prof. Selman Waksman (RC'15),
director of Rutgers' Institute
for Microbiology, wins the Nobel
Prize in medicine for research
which led to the discovery of
streptomycin—the first
antibiotic effective against
tuberculosis.
1956
Rutgers and the State enter into
a compact (the "Rutgers law of
1956," NJSA 18A:65-1 et seq)
whereby Rutgers becomes the
state university and an
instrumentality of the State of
New Jersey. The Board of
Governors, with 6 of its 11
members appointed by the
Governor with the advice and
consent of the Senate, and 5 of
its members appointed by the
Board of Trustees, is created to
manage the University.
1958
Angered by the state's lack of
financial support, 700 students
from all three campuses march on
Trenton in Rutgers' first
organized student protest.
1959
New Jersey voters approve the
first of three higher education
bonds. The bonds, along with
federal funds, give the
University more than $200
million for an unprecedented
program of capital expansion.
1961
John Bateman coaches the
football team to its first
undefeated season in history.
The University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey--Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School is
founded under a less unwieldy
name, Rutgers Medical School.
1963
Three decades after her
disappearance, the
well-preserved body of Mabel
Smith Douglass is discovered in
the depths of Lake Placid.
Despite the likelihood of
suicide, the coroner declares
her death accidental.
1964
The federal government gives
Rutgers the 540 acres that
served as the Army's Camp
Kilmer. Five years later the
site becomes Livingston College.
1965
Rutgers historian Eugene
Genovese causes a national
uproar when he speaks out
against the Vietnam War. Despite
political pressure, President
Mason W. Gross refuses to
dismiss him.
1969
In February, members of the
Black Organization of Students
barricade themselves in Conklin
Hall, the main classroom
building on the Newark campus.
The administration responds by
canceling classes for three days
to hold symposia on black issues
and by promising to increase the
number of black students,
faculty, and staff. The takeover
marks the beginning of a wave of
black protests that spread to
all three campuses.
1971
Wealthy investor Charles L.
Busch dies and unexpectedly
leaves Rutgers $10 million for
biological research. In return,
the University Heights campus is
renamed in Busch's honor.
Edward J. Bloustein becomes
president upon the retirement of
Mason W. Gross.
1972
Rutgers College becomes
coeducational.
1976
Mason Gross School of the Arts
is founded for instruction in
the visual and performing arts.
It was a banner year for Rutgers
Athletics with both football and
men's basketball teams going
undefeated.
1980
Reorganization merges the New
Brunswick faculties in a unified
Faculty of Arts & Sciences.
1981
A blueprint for developing
Rutgers into a major public
research university is approved
by the Board of Governors.
1985
On April 12, students chain the
doors of the College Avenue
Student Center shut and conduct
a month-long takeover in protest
of the University's South
African investment policy.
Scores of students camp outside
the building day and night,
including eight who begin a
hunger strike. In October, the
University votes to completely
divest all holdings in companies
doing business with South
Africa.
1989
President Edward J. Bloustein's
goal of making Rutgers one of
the nation's premier
universities is realized as
Rutgers is invited to join the
prestigious Association of
American Universities. Ten
months later, on December 9, Dr.
Bloustein suffers a fatal heart
attack while on a business trip
to the Bahamas.
1990
Rutgers confers its 250,000th
degree.
1991
Francis L. Lawrence is
inaugurated as Rutgers' 18th
president.
Rutgers celebrates 225th
anniversary of its founding.
1992
Rutgers establishes Learning
Resource Centers to provide peer
tutors for students in all
subjects.
1993
Two Rutgers students, Randal
Pinkett and Dana Brown, are
named Rhodes Scholars.
David Levering Lewis, Martin
Luther King, Jr. professor of
history, receives a Pulitzer
Prize for his W.E.B. Du Bois
biography.
1994
12-year old Hannes Sarkuni is
the youngest matriculated
student ever enrolled at
Rutgers.
$28.9 million Rutgers Stadium in
Piscataway dedicated.
Advanced technology centers,
established with support form NJ
Commission on Science and
Technology, celebrate their 10th
anniversary.
1995
Rutgers Board of Governors
approves A New Vision for
Excellence, the university
strategic plan designed to guide
the university as it prepares to
enter the next century.
President Lawrence and the Board
of Governors approve a
multicultural blueprint aimed at
improving the student life
environment at Rutgers.
1996
Dr. James Flanagan, vice
president for research and
director of the Center for
Computer Aids for Industrial
Productivity, receives the
nation's highest scientific
honor, the National Medal of
Science from President Clinton.
Prof. Emeritus George Walker, a
classical composer and pianist,
was honored with the 1996
Pulitzer in music for his
14-minute composition for voice
and orchestra, "Lilacs," based
on a Walt Whitman poem. It was
the first Pulitzer for the
Rutgers Newark campus and the
first given to an
African-American for music.
1997
The Outstanding Scholars
Recruitment Program, offering
merit scholarships, is
established by Rutgers and the
state of New Jersey to encourage
New Jersey's most outstanding
high school students to continue
their education in the state.
President Lawrence is appointed
chair of the Subcommittee on the
Learning Society if the Kellogg
Commission in the Future of
State and Land-Grant
Universities.
Wise Young is named director of
the Center for Collaborative
Neuroscience and head researcher
on the Spinal Cord Injury
Project.
President Bill Clinton asks
Professor Dorothy Strickland for
assistance with development of a
Voluntary National Test in
Fourth-Grade Reading.
1998
The RUNet 2000 initiative is
formally approved by Rutgers
Board of Governors.
The International Executive MBA
program broadens to offer
classes in Beijing and
Singapore.
The Research Collaboratory for
Structural Bioinformatics
receives $10 million for Protein
Data Bank.
1999
The Douglass Project for Rutgers
Women in Math, Science, and
Engineering receives the 1999
Presidential Award for
Excellence in Science,
Mathematics, and Engineering
Mentoring from President Bill
Clinton.
Mathematician Felix Browder
receives the National Medal of
Science, the nation's highest
scientific honor.
An innovative artificial hand is
developed.
Charlotte Bunch receives the
Eleanor Roosevelt Award for
Human Rights.
2000
The Rutgers University
Television Network (RU-TV)
begins operation.
Rutgers becomes one of the first
research institutions to connect
to Internet2, the next
generation of the Internet.
The Rutgers Women's Basketball
Team makes the 2000 NCAA Final
Four.
2001
Historian David Levering Lewis
wins his second Pulitzer Prize.
The university launches The
Rutgers Campaign with a $500
million goal.
The Rutgers–Camden Community
Park and Campbell's Field
baseball stadium open on the
Camden waterfront.
2002
Ceremonies mark the anniversary
of the September 11 terrorist
attacks.
Leadership transition and
presidential search conclude.
Pharmacy school is renamed in
honor of Ernest Mario.
2003
Richard L. McCormick is named as
the 19th president of the
university.
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