Rowan University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rowan University

Image:Rowan_logo.png
Motto Eruditio spes mundi ("Education, hope of the world")
Established 1923
Type Public
President Donald J. Farish
Faculty ~650
Undergraduates 8,120
Postgraduates 1,218
Location Glassboro, New Jersey, USA
Campus Suburban, about 200 acres
Athletics 16 NCAA Division III sports teams
Mascot Prof (owl in commencement regalia)
Website www.rowan.edu

Rowan University is a public university located in Glassboro, New Jersey comprising 49 buildings. There is also a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School with the mission to train public school teachers. The land tract originally belonged in part to the family who owned the Whitney Glass Works during the 1800s. It opened with more than 200 young women entering to begin their training. The school became New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro in the 1930s, and later became Glassboro State College in 1958, gaining a national reputation in the fields of reading and special education. Starting in the 1970s, it grew into a multi-purpose institution, adding programs in business, communications, and by the 1990s, engineering. It was renamed Rowan College of New Jersey in 1992 after Henry Rowan and his wife Betty gave $100 million to the school, at the time the largest gift to a public college. It became Rowan University in 1997 when it achieved university status.

Contents

[edit] School

Enrollment at Rowan from the fall semester of 2005 shows 8,120 undergraduates (6,853 full-time, 1,267 part-time), 1,218 graduate students, 59 doctoral students and 89 post-baccelaurate certification candidates. [1] It is divided into a Graduate School and six academic colleges: Business, Communication, Education, Engineering, Fine & Performing Arts, and Liberal Arts & Sciences. A moderately-priced, high-quality institution, Rowan is ranked by US News and World Report in the "Top Tier" of northern regional universities. Kiplinger's named Rowan one of the "100 Best Buys in Public Colleges and Universities" and the Princeton Review included Rowan in "The Best Northeastern Colleges."

[edit] South Jersey Technology Park

A map outlining the new West Campus.
A map outlining the new West Campus.

On April 10, 2006, the school along with private organization, Lincoln Property Company, will break ground as the newest installment of the school's West Campus. The 188 acre site will be reserved for the South Jersey Technology Park which will serve as an establishment for science and technology companies. [2]

[edit] Athletics

A member of the NCAA in Division III, the sports teams at Rowan University have been moderately successful on a national level. The football team is regularly a contender for the national title, having gone to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl five times (1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1993) and the national semifinals in 2005, 2004, 2001, 1997 and 1992. The women's field hockey team won the national championship in 2002 and had a perfect season of 21 wins and no losses. The men's basketball team has made the Division III National Championship Tournament 12 times, winning the national title in 1996. The men's soccer team has made the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament 24 times, resulting in 7 trips to the national semifinals. Rowan men's soccer has won national titles in both 1981 and 1990, finished second in 1979 and 2000, and third in 1980, 1985 and 1998. Rowan hosted the Division III National Championship Tournament Final Four for men's soccer in 2000 and Women's Lacrosse in 2002. Rowan competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

[edit] West campus

On March 20, 2006, President Donald Farish announced a joint venture between the university and Major League Soccer to construct a new athletic complex based around a 20,000 seat soccer-specific stadium on property owned by the campus at the intersection of U.S. Route 322 and New Jersey State Route 55. The stadium itself is planned to be complete for the start of the 2009 MLS season. The project is proposed to be completed with little to no cost to the university or the state of New Jersey. However, critics counter that the Rowan West project is already costing taxpayers almost one million dollars a year in lost ratables (property taxes). The project is to be built on land that was seized through eminent domain. Furthermore, Route 322 and Route 55 would likely require expensive upgrades to handle the large volume of traffic that events at Rowan West would draw.

Oak Hall.
Oak Hall.

However, the future of the project, especially the soccer stadium, is in doubt after budget problems in New Jersey resulted in budget cutbacks, including funding for infrastructure upgrades required to handle increased traffic that would come with an MLS team. [3]

[edit] University student organizations

The facade of Bunce Hall shows both the old and the new names of the school.
The facade of Bunce Hall shows both the old and the new names of the school.

12% of men and 7% of women belong to a fraternity or sorority at Rowan University. There are over 75 University sanctioned student clubs and organizations on campus, underneath the Student Government Association.

National Fraternities:

National Sororities:

Inactive Fraternities: Alpha Phi Delta; Delta Kappa Epsilon; Sigma Phi Epsilon; Zeta Beta Tau Inactive Sororities: Delta Zeta (NPC)

There are a myriad of other Chartered Clubs, all of which report to the Student Government Association including national award-winning programs such as the local PRSSA, and The Student University Programmers (SUP) The University also has the award-winning Rowan Radio, 89.7 WGLS-FM. Rowan University's Student Publications include the weekly newspaper, The Whit, and a periodical humor magazine called Venue.

[edit] Admissions

Students entering the University in 2006 had a mean SAT I range between 1,090 and 1,260 and were ranked in the top 21% of their high school classes. [4]

[edit] Famous Events

Hollybush Mansion, site of the Glassboro Summit Conference.
Hollybush Mansion, site of the Glassboro Summit Conference.

The Cold War Glassboro Summit Conference between U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin took place on June 23-25, 1967, in Hollybush Mansion at Glassboro State College. The college was chosen because of its location equidistant between New York City, where Kosygin was making a speech at the U.N., and Washington, D.C.

While not occurring on University grounds, a significant event occurred in 1986 at Glassboro High School (which exists on the outskirts of the campus). Ronald Reagan spoke at the Glassboro High School graduation. [5] This was the only time in American history that a sitting President spoke at a high school graduation ceremony. In the speech, Reagan reflected on the Glassboro Summit Conference and offered an optimistic analysis of the future of the Cold War. The event brought a high level of media attention.

Black Sabbath's first American gig was played at Glassboro State College on October 3, 1970. [6]

In March 2006, Omarosa from the TV show The Apprentice appeared at Rowan to give an hour-long presentation entitled "Being Successful." Roughly 35 minutes into the lecture, a student threw water balloons at her from the third floor. The balloons missed her but Omarosa walked off, cancelling the rest of the presentation.

[edit] Social Climate

Riots took place during Spring Weekend 1986, primarily off campus (though dominated by students) around the Beau Rivage townhomes and the Crossings apartment complex. As a result, Glassboro State College was ranked as the #28 Party School in the nation in the January 1987 issue of Playboy magazine. [7] Coincidentally, in the Greek section of that same issue of Playboy, the Epsilon Eta chapter of Zeta Beta Tau was also named one of the Animal House Contenders. [8]

Though the alcohol-fueled Spring Weekend was cancelled by then-President Herman James (a non-alcoholic version continued for several years), Glassboro State College remained known for its hard partying culture. However in 1988, there began one of the biggest crackdowns in school history. As result of the drinking death of freshman James Callahan at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Herman James decided to make GSC an example for the rest of the State colleges and universities to follow. He invited the NJ Alcoholic Beverage Control commission (ABC) to the school and began shutting down off-campus parties, and placing undercover agents in the local liquor establishments. This prompted Morton Downey, Jr., who was based in Secaucus, NJ, and very popular at the time, to do an untelevised show focusing on the drinking age and the classic argument that an eighteen year old can go off to war and die for their country, but they cannot legally buy and consume a beer. Needless to say, he sided with the student opinion on this issue. The following year, the ABC did not return, and the partying atmosphere that Glassboro State College was known for, returned in earnest and continued into the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Presidency of Donald J. Farish was noted for a continued crackdown on this partying culture which declined alongside a rise in SAT scores and class rank among the incoming freshman classes. The crackdown on the partying culture began in earnest in 2002 with the official banning of kegs for use by Greek letter organizations. [9] In 2006, two Rowan University students were found guilty for serving alcohol to minors that resulted in the death of a 17-year old male at an off campus party, with Rowan promising to follow up with its own penalties. [10] While many look back on the wild past with nostalgia, the more tame University of the 2000s has shown a higher degree of academic aptitude among its students.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.rowan.edu/open/irp/RBSpring06/RBSpring06a.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.sjtechpark.com/about/overview/
  3. ^ http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15418323.htm
  4. ^ 2005-07 Rowan University Fact Sheet
  5. ^ http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/61986e.htm
  6. ^ http://www.black-sabbath.com/tourdates/1971.html
  7. ^ http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/playboy.asp
  8. ^ GLASSBORO STATE: The Zeta Beta Tau boys who like to trash their living quarters were evicted 4 times in 3 years, Playboy Magazine, January 1987. [1]
  9. ^ http://www.thewhitonline.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=cafa34b5-a397-4b3c-aab0-59c62978c0a6
  10. ^ http://www.thewhitonline.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=c81d6b55-8a3b-4618-a48a-79e6653c4a16
  11. ^ Biography of Tia Bella

[edit] External links

New Jersey Athletic Conference
Buffalo State† • Kean • Montclair State • New Jersey • New Jersey City‡ • Ramapo‡ • Richard Stockton‡ • Rowan • Rutgers-Camden‡ • Rutgers-Newark‡ • SUNY Cortland† • Western Connecticut State† • William Paterson
† football-only member  ‡ non-football member


New Jersey state colleges and universities
The College of New Jersey • Kean University • Montclair State University • New Jersey City University • New Jersey Institute of Technology • Ramapo College • Richard Stockton College of New Jersey • Rowan University • Rutgers (New Brunswick-Piscataway, Newark, Camden) • Thomas Edison State College • University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey • William Paterson University
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/o/w/Rowan_University_18e7.html"