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For other meanings of Rutgers, see Rutgers (disambiguation)

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey is the largest institution for higher education in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The university's primary campus is located in the cities of New Brunswick and Piscataway, with two branch campuses in Newark and Camden. Rutgers offers more than 100 distinct bachelor, 100 master, and 80 doctoral and professional degree programs across 29 degree-granting schools and colleges, 16 of which offer graduate programs of study. Rutgers is sometimes referred to as a "Public Ivy".

Rutgers is the eighth-oldest institution of higher learning established in the United States, originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. While originally a Dutch Reformed institution, the university is now non-sectarian and makes no religious demands on its students.

Rutgers was designated the State University of New Jersey by legislative acts in 1945 and 1956. The University of Newark merged with Rutgers in 1946, expanding the school to include the current campus in Newark. The College of South Jersey, which became the Camden campus, merged in 1950.

Rutgers was once widely considered to be Columbia University's sister school until the more recent prestige of the Ivy League disassociated the two. The original names Queen's College (Rutgers) and King's College (Columbia) were intended to reflect this relationship.

About Rutgers University

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). There are seventeen degree granting divisions at 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 and the division of the Rutgers Scientific School into 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.

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.

Along with Army and Navy, Rutgers often played against the schools that would form the Ivy League but did not join the league. Rutgers maintains rivalries with Princeton and Columbia in sports other than football.

Rutgers was designated the State University of New Jersey by legislative acts in 1945 and 1956. Since the 1950s, Rutgers has continued to expand, especially in the area of graduate education. The Graduate School—New Brunswick, and professional schools have been established in such areas as business, management, public policy, social work, 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.

On September 10, 1970, after several years of debate and planning, the Board of Governors voted to admit women into the previously all-male Rutgers College. The transformation from single-sex to coeducational institutions became a trend in many colleges across the United States that had—up to the late 1960's and early 1970's—remained all-male. Today, Douglass College (originally the New Jersey College for Women) remains all-female, while the rest of the institution is coeducational.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (since 1921). In 1989, Rutgers University became a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization comprised of the 62 leading research universities in North America.

Richard Levis McCormick (b. 1947) is the current president of Rutgers University.

Divisions of the New Brunswick/Piscataway Campus

• Cook College
• Douglass College
• Livingston College
• Rutgers College (The original college from which the University evolved.)
• University College–New Brunswick (School for non-traditional students)
• College of Nursing
• Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
• Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy (Only Pharmacy School in New Jersey)
• Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
• Graduate School of Education
• Mason Gross School of the Arts
• Rutgers Business School–New Brunswick
• School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
• School of Engineering
• School of Management and Labor Relations
• School of Social Work

To view divisions at other campuses go to Rutgers-Newark or Rutgers-Camden.

As of July 2005, the Task Force on Undergraduate Education has proposed the merger of Douglass, Livingston, University, and Rutgers Colleges into the Rutgers College of Arts and Sciences as well as other major reforms to various aspects of Undergraduate Education. It is also suspected that the University would use this to systematically raise admissions standards for all undergraduates. The proposal of the task force has likely approval from the Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors, and President McCormick. Students and alumni of Rutgers, University, and Livingston colleges are overwhelmingly in approval of the changes while many students and alumnae of Douglass College are adamantly opposed to the plan as it would eliminate the all-female college. However, since all undergraduates currently take classes together from the unified faculty anyway and the Women's Clubs, Leadership programs, and Female-only housing would remain under the proposal it would appear that the "Save Douglass" pleas will fall on deaf ears.

History and tradition

Early history

Shortly after the creation of The College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1746, ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church sought to establish autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs. At that time, those who wanted to become ministers in within the church had to travel to the Netherlands to be trained and ordained, and many of the affairs of churches in the American colonies were managed from Europe. Thus, the ministers sought to create a governing body known as a classis to give local autonomy to the church in the colonies, and offer opportunities for the education of ministers.

Throughout the 1750s, Dutch ministers joined the effort to create a classis in the colonies, including Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen who travelled on horseback in winter of 1755 to several congregations throughout the northeast to rally ministers and congregations to the cause. Soon after, Frelinghuysen travelled to the Netherlands to appeal to the General Synod, the Dutch Reformed Church's governing council for the creation of the classis. In 1761, the effort having failed, Frelinghuysen set sail for the colonies, but as the vessel approached New York, he mysteriously perished at sea.

After Frelinghuysen's death, Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (later Rutgers' first president), established himself as spokesperson for the cause, and a strong supporter of establishing a college in New Jersey. Hardenbergh, travelled to Europe renewing Frelinghuysen's efforts to gain the Synod's approval, but was also rejected. Much to the Synod's chagrin, however, Hardenburgh returned to the colonies with money for the establishment of a college.

Queen's College

The school now called Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, was chartered on November 10, 1766 as "Queen's College," in honor of King George III's Queen-consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818). The charter was signed and the young college supported by William Franklin (1730–1813), the last Royal Governor of New Jersey and illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). 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 1957.

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—though the university is now non-sectarian and makes no religious demands on its students. It 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. When the American Revolution broke out, the college abandoned the tavern and held classes in private houses, in and near New Brunswick. During its early years, the college developed as a classic liberal arts institution.

In its early years, Queen's College was plagued by a lack of funds. In 1793, with the fledgling college falling on hard times, the board of trustees voted on a resoluton to merge with the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). The measure failed by one vote. The problem did not go away, and in 1795, lacking both funds and tutors, the trustees consider moving the college to New York. Instead, they decide to close, only to reopen in 1808 after the Trustees raised $12,000.

The next year, the College got a building of its own, affectionately called "Old Queen's" (still standing), which is regarded today by architectural experts as one of the nation's finest examples of Federal architecture. University President Ira Condict laid the cornerstone on 27 April 1809. However, continued financial woes would cause the building to wait 14 years for completion. In its early years, Queen's College, the Queen's College Grammar School, and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary shared space in Old Queen's. In 1856, with Old Queen's suffering from overcrowding, the Seminary, moved to a home of its own nearby.

A nationwide economic depression, combined with impending war, forced Queen's College to close down a second time, in 1812. In 1825, Queen's College was reopened, and its name was changed to "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, however, it must be noted that the Colonel had given a gift that finally set the college on secure financial footing. Rutgers, a descendant of an old Dutch family that settled in New Amsterdam (now New York City), gave the fledgling college a $5000 bond and a bell to be placed in the cupola of Old Queen's. The college's early troubles inspired numerous student songs, including an adaptation of the drinking song Down Among the Dead Men with the lyrics "Here's a drink to old Rutgers, loyal men/May she ne'er go down but to rise again."

Rutgers College was renamed Rutgers University in 1924. The institution currently known as Rutgers College is the largest among several Arts and Sciences Colleges at the University.

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.

On May 2, 1866, in the first intercollegiate athletic event at Rutgers, the Rutgers baseball team was humiliated by the Princeton team, 40-2. On November 6, 1869, Rutgers defeated Princeton, six "runs" to four, in the first intercollegiate soccer game ever played in the U.S. and possibly the world (the site, then a field, is now occupied by the College Avenue Gymnasium). The teams were playing by the rules of the Football Association, the London club that formed in 1863 and still promulgates the rules of Association Football (i.e. 'soccer). 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. During the 1870s, games resembling rugby became popular at other American colleges, and Rutgers eventually adopted similar rules. These games developed into what is today known as American football.

An amusing sidenote: the first intercollegiate competition in Ultimate Frisbee was held between Rutgers and Princeton on 6 November 1972—the 103rd anniversary of the first intercollegiate soccer game. Rutgers won six to four.

Today, Rutgers University is a member of the Big East Conference, (in football since 1991, all other sports since 1995) a collegiate athletic conference consisting of sixteen colleges and universities in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. The Big East is a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Rutgers is a Division I-A school as sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Rutgers continues to play Princeton and Columbia every year in nearly every sport the schools all compete in with the exception of football.

The Rutgers University Fight Song

R-U, Rah, Rah,

R-U, Rah, Rah,

Whoo-Raa, Whoo-Raa;

Rutgers Rah

Up-Stream Red Team;

Red Team Up-Stream

Rah, Rah,

Rutgers Rah!!

Mascot

The Rutgers University mascot is the Scarlet Knight.

Since its days when the school was officially known as Queen's College, the athletic teams were referred to as the Queensmen. Officially serving as the mascot figure for several football seasons beginning in 1925 was a giant, colorfully felt-covered, costumed representation of an earlier campus symbol, the "Chanticleer." Though a fighting bird of the kind which other colleges have found success, to some it bore the connotation of "chicken." It is also a little-known fact that the New Brunswick-based broadcast station, WCTC, which serves as the flagship station of Rutgers athletics, had its call letters derived from the word "ChanTiCleer." Chanticleer remained as the nickname for some 30 years.

In the early 1950's, in the hope of spurring both the all-around good athletic promise and RU fighting spirit, a campus-wide selection process changed the mascot to that of a knight. By 1955, the Scarlet Knight had officially become the new Rutgers mascot.

Traditions and legacies

Howard Fullerton, a member of the Order of the Bull's Blood, goes down in Rutgers history not only for his penning the alma mater but for allegedly inspiring the theft of a cannon from the campus of Princeton University on 25 April 1875, an event—and the ensuing debate between the two university presidents—reported in nationwide newspapers. The cannon was believed to have belonged to Rutgers when used in battle. Princeton students retaliated by raiding the Rutgers Armory and stealing a few muskets. Eventually the committee appointed by the two colleges recommended the return the stolen items to their owners before the event. When the cannon was returned, Princeton University officials ordered it buried in the ground, encased in cement, with only a few feet of the butt end exposed above ground.

Several Rutgers students attempted to repeat the crime, unsuccessfully, in October 1946, attaching one end of a length of heavy chain to the cannon and the other to their Ford. Surprised by Princeton men and the local constabulatory, they gunned the engine of the Ford so viciously that the car was torn in half. The Rutgers army managed to escape, but with neither the car, nor their prize, the cannon.

To this day, intrepid Rutgers students journey the 20 miles to Princeton University to place their declaration of ownership of the cannon by painting the cannon scarlet red. Unfortunately, like the students who stole the cannon in 1875, they usually paint the wrong cannon, as there are two on Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall at Princeton. Today, a cannon is placed in the ground before Old Queens at Rutgers, memorializing both this event, and alumni in the service who were killed in action. At Commencement, tradition leads undergraduates to break clay pipes over the cannon, symbolizing the breaking of ties with the college, and leaving behind the good times of one's undergraduate years. This symbolism dates back to when pipe-smoking was fashionable among undergraduates, and many college memories were derived from evenings of pipe smoking and revelry with friends.

The bell in the Old Queen's cupola, an 1826 gift of namesake donor Colonel Henry Rutgers, is traditionally used to announce the graduation of classes. It is also rung on special occasions, including those of prized athletic success. Most recently, the bell was rung when the 1999-2000 women's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Final Four in Philadelphia, and when the 1990 men's soccer team reached the championship game of the NCAA Tournament.

Trivia

• The college first met at a tavern called the Sign of the Red Lion, on what is today the grounds of the Johnson & Johnson corporate headquarters in New Brunswick.
• The College Avenue Gymnasium, built on the site where the first college football game was played, hosted New Jersey's 1947 and 1966 Constitutional Conventions.
• In 1810, a book of 104 rules and regulations were published to guide student down a moral path. Among these rules were prohibitions on dancing and fencing schools, billiards, cards, dice, beer and oyster houses, firearms, powder, and public ball alleys; and further, no student was 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." Ironically, the Rutgers University Dance Marathon is now one of the largest student run philanthropy events in the country; and the Rutgers Fencing team regularly competes with and defeats the nation's top teams such as Duke and NYU.
• In 1879, Mark Twain, the famed American author, accepted an honorary membership into the Philoclean Society at Rutgers, but failed to make the customary monetary contribution.
• In addition to being the "birthplace of college football," Rutgers has given birth to discoveries and innovations such as Cheez Whiz, water-soluble sustained release polymers, Tetraploids, robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, several antibiotics, and developed the ceramic tiles for the heat shield on the Space Shuttle. Currently Rutgers researchers are driving closer and closer to an effective cure for AIDS.
• James Gandolfini, otherwise known as Tony Soprano from the HBO hit show Sopranos attended Rutgers University.
• All of the law school scenes in Rounders were filmed in and around Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey.
• The famous Grease Trucks reside on the Rutgers College campus, just across the street from the main academic area, the Voorhees mall. At the Grease Trucks, one can buy a famous "Fat Sandwich," featuring an outrageous combinations of foodstuffs one would never expect to combine in one sandwich.
• In 2004, MAXIM Magazine proclaimed the "Fat Darrell" to be one of the top sandwiches in the nation. The Fat Darrell was created at Rutgers in 1997 by an innovative undergraduate student by the name of Darrell Butler. The Fat Darrell contains chicken fingers, mozzeralla sticks, french fries, and marinara sauce all on a hoagie roll.
• In 2005, Rutgers accepted a bowl bid to play Arizona State University in the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, AZ; their first bowl since 1978. The only other bowl appearance for the Scarlet Knights was the now defunct Garden State Bowl, held at Giants Stadium, against the aforementioned ASU Sun Devils. They lost 2005's game in a thriller, 45-40, but 5th year head coach Greg Schiano promised to be even better the next season.

Alma Mater

The alma mater of Rutgers University is the song entitled On the Banks of the Old Raritan, written by Howard Fullerton (Class of 1872). The lyrics to the song are, as follows:

I.

My father sent me to old Rutgers,

And resolv'd that I should be a man ;

And so I settled down,

in that noisy college town,

On the banks of the old Raritan.

(Chorus)

On the banks of the old Raritan, my boys ,

where old Rutgers ever more shall stand,

For has she not stood since the time of the flood,

On the banks of the old Raritan.

II.

Then sing aloud to Alma Mater,

And keep the scarlet in the van;

For with her motto high,

Rutgers' name shall never die,

On the banks of the old Raritan.

(Chorus)

*N.B.: The phrase "my boys" in the first line of the chorus was changed in 1990 to "my friends" in light of Rutgers being coeducational since 1970. When the Alma Mater is performed by the Queen's Chorale, an all-women group, they sing "And resolv'd that I should be a man" quickly followed by "or a woman".

See also

• Rutgers Presidents
• Rutgers famous alumni
• Rutgers famous faculty
• Rutgers Student Organizations
• Rutgers Fraternities and Sororities
• Rutgers Gardens
• Rutgers Glee Club
• The Daily Targum

External links

• www.rutgers.edu — Rutgers University website
• www.scarletknights.com — Rutgers Athletics website
• nbp.rutgers.edu — Rutgers-New Brunswick/Piscataway Website
• The Daily Targum — the daily newspaper at Rutgers University, since 1869.
• The Medium — The Entertainment Weekly of Rutgers University.
• Rutgers Alumni Association — Established 1831, fourth oldest alumni group in the Nation.
• "Rutgers Through the Years" Timeline — more on Rutgers history
• WRSU — Rutgers University radio station
• Rutgers Off Campus Housing — RentRU offers Off-Campus apartments advertised for Rutgers Students.

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