Rutgers University–New Brunswick

Rutgers
The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick
Former names
Queen's College
Rutgers College
Rutgers University
Motto Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustra
Motto in English
Sun of righteousness, shine upon the West also.
Type Flagship
Research University
Land-grant
Public
Established November 10, 1766 (1766-11-10)
Endowment $1.009 billion (2015)[1]
Chancellor Debasish Dutta
President Robert L. Barchi
Academic staff
2,080[2]
Administrative staff
5,340[2]
Students 40,720 (2016)
Undergraduates 32,206 (2016)[3]
Postgraduates 8,514 (2016)
Location New Brunswick-Piscataway, New Jersey, U.S.
Campus Urban/Suburban 2,688 acres (10.88 km2)
Alma Mater On the Banks of the Old Raritan
Colors Scarlet[4]     
Athletics NCAA Division IBig Ten
Nickname Scarlet Knights
Mascot Scarlet Knight
Website nb.rutgers.edu

Rutgers University – New Brunswick in New Jersey is the oldest campus of Rutgers University, the others being in Camden and Newark. It is primarily located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. The campus is composed of several smaller campuses: College Avenue, Busch, Livingston, Cook, and Douglass, the latter two sometimes referred to as "Cook/Douglass," as they are adjacent to each other. Rutgers – New Brunswick also includes several buildings in downtown New Brunswick. The New Brunswick campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, including the School of Arts and Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, School of Engineering, the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, the Graduate School, the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, the Graduate School of Education, School of Management and Labor Relations, the Mason Gross School of the Arts, the College of Nursing, the Rutgers Business School and the School of Social Work.

While several student centers, libraries, commercial venues, and dining halls are found on the various campuses, each campus has a unique environment created by the academic departments and facilities it hosts.

History

Campuses

New Jersey Hall houses the economics department at Rutgers

Facilities

The Zimmerli Art Museum on College Avenue

Academics

University rankings
National
U.S. News & World Report[7] 70
Washington Monthly[8] 89[9]

Residence life

Residence halls provide many facilities for students. With over 15,000 resident students, 5 different campuses each with its own identity, 58 residence halls, 4 dining halls and 30-plus food courts/cafés, students can find everything they need right on campus. Despite some over-crowding, students wishing to live on-campus are usually accommodated, with a lottery system for non-incoming freshmen determining the order in which students choose their preferred housing (With the exception of Demarest Hall, which exempts students from the lottery system as long as they are contracted to special interest sections, and BEST (Busch Engineering, Science, and Technology) Hall, which is open only to students from SAS, SOE,and Pharmacy, and exempts them from the lottery if they got into the hall as a freshman). Single, double, and triple-occupancy rooms (in traditional residence halls), apartments housing four students each, and suites housing six (or four, as in BEST Hall) students each are available. Rooms and apartments are single-sex, with the exception of married graduate student housing, which also permit children of students. The other exceptions to this rule are the Livingston Apartments, Demarest Hall, and Rainbow Perspective Special Interest Rooms in New Gibbons. (These, however require special applications to be made) Most floors and buildings are co-ed, with the exception of Douglass Residential College facilities for women. Rooms usually contain beds, desks, chairs, dressers, and a closet for each student. Cable/internet access are also provided, but due to the widespread use of mobile phones, traditional land-line phone service is no longer provided in the halls. Many residence halls include laundries, main lounges with TVs, foosball and ping-pong, floor lounges with sofas, study tables, and kitchenettes, study lounges, and vending machines. Every floor or house has a resident assistant, an upper class student mentor who has received special training and is responsible for handling a number of tasks, such as planning programs and events, monitoring for safety, and documenting policy and procedure violations.

In the past, due to overcrowding, Rutgers has rented rooms for students in the Franklin Township Crowne Plaza. Shuttle buses provided transportation to campus for these students. Companies like RUliving provide housing catering to the Rutgers/New Brunswick student community since 1992.[10]

Residence halls by campus:

Graduate family housing

Three complexes provide graduate family housing. They are Johnson Apartments, Marvin Apartments, and Nichols Apartments.[13] All three apartment facilities are located in Piscataway Township on Busch Campus.[14][15][16][17]

In 1966 Johnson was built.[14] In 1973 Marvin was built.[15] Nichols was constructed in 1975.[16]

Student life

Newspapers

Greek life

The campus is home to over 80 fraternities and sororities, including African-American, Latino/a, multicultural and Asian-interest. Several organizations maintain houses for their chapters in the area of Union Street (known locally as "Frat Row"), adjacent to the College Avenue Campus. Greek organizations are governed by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

Traditions

The Grease Trucks are a group of truck-based food vendors located on the College Avenue Campus. They serve traditional grill fare, Middle-Eastern specialties, and are especially well known for serving "Fat Sandwiches," a sub roll containing various ingredients such as cheesesteak, burgers, pork roll, chicken fingers, French fries, mozzarella sticks, eggs, bacon, gyro meat, marinara sauce, etc. The Rutgers Grease Trucks were located in a designated lot for nearly two decades until August 2013. Truck owners were forced to relocate due to the construction of a $84 million student apartment complex. Three trucks remain on the College Avenue Campus, while the remaining two were moved to the Cook/Douglass Campus. Now, there is a store opening in the new area on College Avenue called "The Yard".

The Dance Marathon is a student-run organization that consists of a year-long series of fundraisers and culminates with the annual Marathon on April 5–6 in the College Avenue Gym. At the Marathon over 400 dancers pledge to raise funds and remain standing for 32 hours without sleeping. The 'Dancers', along with over 500 volunteers and countless visitors, are entertained by live bands, comedians, prize giveaways, games, sports, a mechanical bull, computer and internet access, various theme hours and much more. Rutgers has held this tradition since 1999 and to date has raised in excess of $1.3 million for the Embrace Kids Foundation. In the seventies the Dance Marathon raised funds for the American Cancer Society. In the Eighties it was the Rutger Cancer Research Association.

RutgersFest was a day-long cultural event staged variously on either Livingston Campus or Busch Campus. It was designed to promote college spirit through student organization participation with activities and entertainment throughout the day, culminating with a free concert and fireworks at night. The event was free to all students and guests and was funded as part of an elected programming fee paid by all students as part tuition. Past musical guests have included: Kanye West, Everclear, Sugar Ray, Guster, Goldfinger, Ludacris, Reel Big Fish, Method Man and Redman, Fuel, Third Eye Blind, Hawthorne Heights, NAS, SR-71, Ok Go, N.E.R.D, Pitbull, and more. The event would feature carnival attractions such as bungee bull, bouncy boxing, moon walk, electronic basketball, a recording studio and more. Attendance for the annual event was about 40,000–50,000, topping out at an estimated 65,000 in 2004 at the event which featured Kanye West and Sugar Ray[18] The event was staged by the Rutgers University Programming Association (RUPA), formerly known as the Rutgers College Programming Committee (RCPC), as a year-end celebration before the start of the final examination period.

During its final year in 2011, the festival was held on Busch Campus. Invited musical guests included Yelawolf, Pitbull, and 3OH!3. Several violent incidents that year lead to the indefinite cancelation of the event. President Richard McCormick, in a letter to the Rutgers community, commented: "The problems that occur following Rutgersfest have grown beyond our capacity to manage them, and the only responsible course of action is to cancel the event."[19]

Bus system

The size of the campus requires the use of mass transit to get students around to the different residential campuses. Bus Service is currently provided by First Transit, and runs all year including breaks and weekends. When the campus transit system is not in service, a smaller point-to-point shuttle called the Knight Mover is provided for student transportation.

Public safety

According to a New Brunswick Crime Rate Report,"the city's violent crime rate for New Brunswick in 2009 was higher than the national violent crime rate average by 75.98% and the city property crime rate in New Brunswick was higher than the national property crime rate average by 12.75%. In 2009 the city violent crime rate in New Brunswick was higher than the violent crime rate in New Jersey by 142.64% and the city property crime rate in New Brunswick was higher than the property crime rate in New Jersey by 64.59%". Projected Crime Incidents for 2012, include 184 incidents for Aggravated Assault, 3 incidents for Arson, 523 incidents for Burglary, 25 incidents for Forcible Rape, 865 incidents for Larceny and Theft, 73 incidents for Motor Vehicle Theft, 5 incidents for Murder and Manslaughter, 132 incidents for Robbery, with 1,791 total incidents including 1,464 for Property Crime and 347 for Violent Crime.[20]

On March 2012, the Daily Targum published an article, City Activists Seek Answers to Street Violence, regarding the increase in street violence in New Brunswick, "In an attempt to stop local street violence, residents are teaming up with New Brunswick authorities to make the city streets safer through various efforts. David Harris, executive director of the Greater New Brunswick Daycare Council, said community leaders and activists in New Brunswick are exploring different ways to combat criminal activity".[21]

However, the crime rate in New Brunswick for 2012 is expected to be lower than in 2009. Based on data from 11 years, New Brunswick crime statistics report an overall downward trend in crime. But, compared to statistics from previous years, while property crime is decreasing, violent crime is increasing.[20]

Athletic heritage

The Rutgers College football team in 1882.

Rutgers University is 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 on a plot of ground behind where the present-day College Avenue Gymnasium now stands. Rutgers won the game, by the score of 6 to Princeton's 4.[22]

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. During the following century, Rutgers built a strong men's crew program consisting of both heavyweight and lightweight teams. A women’s crew team was added in 1974. In the fall of 2007, men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, along with men's swimming and diving, men's tennis, and men's and women's fencing were cut as NCAA Division I sports by the university administration. The university claimed these changes were due to budget cuts, while others said it was a politically motivated move used to protest funding changes by the state. The university currently has no plans to restore these sports.

See also

Footnotes

  1. "Rutgers’ Endowment". rutgers.edu.
  2. 1 2 "2010–2011 Factbook" (PDF). Rutgers University. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  3. "Rutgers Factbook". Rutgers University. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  4. Colors | Visual Identity System
  5. Locations - Rutgers Student Health
  6. Locations - Rutgers Student Health
  7. "Best Colleges 2017: National Universities Rankings". U.S. News & World Report. September 12, 2016.
  8. "2016 Rankings - National Universities". Washington Monthly. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
  9. "2014 National Universities Rankings". Washington Monthly. n.d. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  10. Premium Off-Campus Housing Near Rutgers University, New Brunswick - RU Living
  11. Rutgers Housing and Campus Life: Frelinghuysen Hall
  12. "Frelinghuysen Hall". University Maps. Rutgers University.
  13. "Graduate Family Housing." Rutgers – New Brunswick. Retrieved on October 6, 2011.
  14. 1 2 "Johnson Apartments." Rutgers – New Brunswick. Retrieved on October 6, 2011. "171 Davidson Road Piscataway NJ, 08854"
  15. 1 2 "Marvin Apartments." Rutgers – New Brunswick. Retrieved on October 6, 2011. "611 Marvin Lane Piscataway NJ, 08854"
  16. 1 2 "Nichols Apartments." Rutgers – New Brunswick. Retrieved on October 6, 2011. "194 DAVIDSON ROAD Piscataway NJ, 08854-8063"
  17. "Russell Apartments." Rutgers – New Brunswick. Retrieved on October 6, 2011. "158 Bevier Road Piscataway NJ, 08854"
  18. April 2011 "Rutgers to permanently cancel annual Rutgersfest concert" Check |url= value (help).
  19. McCormick, Richard L. "In Regard to RutgersFest". Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  20. 1 2 New Brunswick Crime Statistics: New Jersey (NJ) – CityRating.com. (n.d.). Best Places To Live – CityRating.com. Retrieved June 26, 2012, from http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/new-jersey/new-brunswick.html
  21. Conte, R. (2012, March 6). City activists seek answers to street violence – The Daily Targum: Metro: . The Daily Targum: Serving the Rutgers community since 1869. Retrieved June 26, 2012, from http://www.dailytargum.com/news/metro/city-activists-seek-answers-to-street-violence/article_9835b20e-6736-11e1-8132-001a4bcf6878.html
  22. NFL History at the National Football League website, accessed 10 September 2006.

Coordinates: 40°30′07″N 74°26′53″W / 40.501824°N 74.448123°W / 40.501824; -74.448123

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