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Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
land-grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
consisting of three campuses in
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was affiliated with the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...
. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, the second-oldest in New Jersey (after
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
), and one of nine
colonial colleges The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education founded in the Thirteen Colonies, predating the United States. As the only American universities old enough to have alumni that participated in the American Revolution and the Foundi ...
that were chartered before the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
.Stoeckel, Althea
"Presidents, professors, and politics: the colonial colleges and the American revolution"
, ''Conspectus of History'' (1976) 1(3):45–56.
In 1825, Queen's College was renamed Rutgers College in honor of Colonel
Henry Rutgers Henry Rutgers (October 7, 1745 – February 17, 1830) was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City. Rutgers University was named after him, and he donated a bond which placed the college on sound financial f ...
, whose substantial gift to the school had stabilized its finances during a period of uncertainty. For most of its existence, Rutgers was a
private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...
. It has evolved into a
coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
public research university since being designated the State University of New Jersey by the state's legislature in 1945 and 1956.State of New Jersey. New Jersey Statutes Annotated 18A:65–1 et seq. enacted by P.L. 1945, ch. 49, p. 115; P.L. 1956, ch. 61. Rutgers has several distinct campuses. Since colonial times, its historic core has been located along College Avenue in
New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Rutgers University–New Brunswick Rutgers University–New Brunswick is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in New Brunswick and Piscataway. It is the oldest campu ...
also includes the landscaped campus of
Douglass College Douglass Residential College is a non-degree-granting program established in 2007 and open to Rutgers undergraduates at any of the degree-granting schools of Rutgers University-New Brunswick. It replaced the liberal arts degree-granting Douglas ...
, a women's college that was traditionally paired with Rutgers. It also comprises the campus of
Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) is a constituent school of Rutgers University's New Brunswick-Piscataway campus. Formerly known as Cook College—which was named for George Hammell Cook, a professor at Rutgers in ...
, which includes the College Farm and Rutgers Gardens, as well as both the Busch and Livingston campuses in Piscataway. Apart from the main campus at New Brunswick, campuses at
Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Rutgers, fo ...
,
Rutgers University–Camden Rutgers University–Camden is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Camden, New Jersey. Founded in 1926 as the South Jersey Law ...
, and
Rutgers Health Rutgers Health is the umbrella group for Rutgers University's medical schools, medical research and clinical healthcare units. It was established in 2013 as Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences after parts of the University of Medicine and ...
complete the university's main footprint. The university has additional facilities throughout the state, including oceanographic research facilities at the
Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...
. Rutgers is a
land-grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
,
sea-grant The National Sea Grant College Program is a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a national network of 34 university-based Sea Grant programs involved in scientific re ...
, and space-grant university, as well as the largest university in the state. Instruction is offered by 9,000 faculty members in 175 academic departments to over 45,000 undergraduate students and more than 20,000 graduate and professional students. The university is accredited by the
Middle States Commission on Higher Education The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, abbreviated as MSCHE and legally incorporated as the Mid-Atlantic Region Commission on Higher Education, is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evalua ...
and is a member of the
Association of American Universities The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of predominantly American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 69 public and private ...
Association of American Universitie
Association of American Universities
Retrieved August 6, 2006
and the
Universities Research Association The Universities Research Association (URA) is a non-profit association of more than 90 research universities, primarily but not exclusively in the United States. It has members also in Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1965 ...
.


History


18th century

Two decades after the College of New Jersey, which is now
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, was established in 1746 by the New Light Presbyterians,
ministers Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
of the
Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...
, seeking autonomy in ecclesiastical affairs in the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...
, sought to establish a college to train those who wanted to become
ministers Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
within the church.And then there was Rutgers...
in ''The Daily Targum'' November 8, 2002. Retrieved August 12, 2006.
A Historical Sketch of Rutgers University
by Thomas J. Frusciano, University Archivist. Retrieved August 12, 2006.
Through several years of effort by
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (born Theodor Jakob Frelinghaus, – ) was a German-American Dutch Reformed minister, theologian and the progenitor of the Frelinghuysen family in the United States of America. Frelinghuysen is most remember ...
(1691–1747) and Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736–1790), later the college's first president, Queen's College received its charter on November 10, 1766, from New Jersey's last royal governor,
William Franklin William Franklin (22 February 1730 – 17 November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged extra-marital son of Benjamin Franklin. William Franklin was the last colonial G ...
(1730–1813), the son of
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
. The original charter established the college under the corporate name the trustees of Queen's College, in New-Jersey, named in honor of
Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Un ...
(1744–1818), and created both the college and the Queen's College Grammar School, intended to be a preparatory school affiliated and governed by the college. The Grammar School, today the private
Rutgers Preparatory School Rutgers Preparatory School (also known as Rutgers Prep or RPS) is a private, coeducational, college preparatory day school established in 1766. The school educates students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located on a campus along t ...
, was a part of the college community until 1959.Rutgers Through the Years
Rutgers University. Accessed January 1, 2025.
New Brunswick was chosen as the location over Hackensack because the New Brunswick Dutch had the support of the
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
population, making the royal charter easier to obtain. 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. In 1771, the college admitted its first students, which included 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 A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...
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. Like many colleges founded in the U.S. during this time, Rutgers benefited from slave labor and funds derived from purchasing and selling slaves. Research undertaken at the university in the 2010s began to uncover and document these connections, including the university's foundation on land taken from the indigenous
Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...
people.


19th century

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 Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
, but the measure failed by one vote. They later considered relocating it to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. In 1808, after raising $12,000, the college temporarily reopened and broke ground on a building of its own, called "
Old Queens Old Queens is the oldest extant building at Rutgers University and is the symbolic heart of the university's campus in New Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey in the United States. Rutgers, the eighth-oldest college in the United States, w ...
," designed by architect John McComb, Jr.Paths to Historic Rutgers: A Self-Guided Tour
, at Rutgers University. Retrieved August 9, 2006.
The college's third president,
Ira Condict Ira Condict (February 21, 1764 – June 1, 1811) was an American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed minister who served as the third president of Queen's College (now Rutgers University) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A 1784 graduate of the Colleg ...
, laid the cornerstone on April 27, 1809. Shortly after, the
New Brunswick Theological Seminary New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. It was fo ...
, founded in 1784, relocated from
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, to New Brunswick, and shared facilities with Queen's College and the Queen's College Grammar School, and all three institutions were then overseen by the
Reformed Church in America The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 82,865 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed ...
. During those formative years, all three institutions fit into Old Queens. In 1830, 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 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
, Queen's College reopened in 1825 and was renamed "Rutgers College" in honor of
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
hero
Henry Rutgers Henry Rutgers (October 7, 1745 – February 17, 1830) was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City. Rutgers University was named after him, and he donated a bond which placed the college on sound financial f ...
(1745–1830). According to the board of trustees, Colonel Rutgers was honored because he epitomized
Christian ethics Christian ethics, also known as moral theology, is a multi-faceted ethical system. It is a Virtue ethics, virtue ethic, which focuses on building moral character, and a Deontological ethics, deontological ethic which emphasizes duty according ...
. A year after the school was renamed, it received two 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 A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, or a beneficiary ...
of New Jersey in 1864 under the
Morrill Act of 1862 The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cession ...
, resulting in the establishment of the Rutgers Scientific School, featuring departments of
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
,
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, and
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
. 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 Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education ( Dip.Eng.)and (B.Eng.) or ( M.Eng.), and any advanced education and specializations tha ...
(1914) and the College of Agriculture (1921). Rutgers created the New Jersey College for Women in 1918, and the School of Education in 1924.


20th century

With the development of graduate education, and the continued expansion of the institution, the collection of schools became Rutgers University in 1924. Rutgers College continued as a liberal arts college within the university. Later,
University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...
(1945) was founded to serve part-time, commuting students and
Livingston College Livingston College was one of the residential colleges that comprised Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey's undergraduate liberal arts programs from 1969 to 2007. It was located on Livingston Campus (originally Kilmer) in Piscataway ...
(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 The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and ...
in 1945 and 1956.N.J.S.A.
18A:65–1 et seq. (Public Law 1956, chapter 61) repealing and succeeding P.L. 1945, c.49, p.115. Retrieved August 8, 2006.
Although Rutgers thus became a public university, it still retains—as the successor to the private college founded and chartered in 1766—some important private rights and protections from unilateral state efforts to change its fundamental character and mission. The newly-designated state university absorbed the University of Newark (1935) in 1946 and then the College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School, in 1950. These two institutions became
Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Rutgers, fo ...
and
Rutgers University–Camden Rutgers University–Camden is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Camden, New Jersey. Founded in 1926 as the South Jersey Law ...
, respectively. On September 10, 1970, after much debate, the board of governors voted to admit women into Rutgers College. There were setbacks in the growth of the university. In 1967, the Rutgers Physics Department had a Centers of Excellence Grant from the NSF which allowed the physics department to hire several faculty each year. These faculty were to be paid by the grant for three years, but after that time any faculty hired with the associate or full professor designation would become tenured. The governor and the chancellor forced Rutgers to lose this grant by rejecting the condition that tenure be granted. In 1970, the newly formed Rutgers Medical School hired major faculty members from other institutions. In 1971, the governor's office separated Rutgers Medical School from Rutgers University and made it part of New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, and many faculty left the medical school, including the dean of the medical school, Dewitt Stetten, who later became the director of the National Institutes of Health. As a result of the separation of the medical school from Rutgers University, Ph.D. programs that had been started in the medical center were lost, and students had to seek other institutions to finish their degrees. After the dissolution of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in 2013, the medical school again became part of the university. Before 1982, separate liberal arts faculties existed in the several separate "
residential college A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship ...
s" (Rutgers, Douglass, Livingston, University, and Cook colleges) at Rutgers–New Brunswick. In 1982, under president Edward J. Bloustein, the liberal arts faculties of these five institutions were centralized into one college, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which itself had no students. The separate residential colleges persisted for students, and while instructors for classes were now drawn from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, separate standards for admission, good standing, and graduation continued for students, depending on which residential college they were enrolled in. In January 1987, around 2,800 non-teaching employees went on strike for increased salaries, which ended after nine days after an agreement with the administration was made.


21st century

In 2007, Rutgers New Brunswick, Douglass, Livingston, and University Colleges, along with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were merged into the new " School of Arts and Sciences" with one set of admissions criteria, curriculum, and graduation requirements. At this time, the liberal arts components of Cook College were absorbed into the School of Arts and Sciences as well, while the other aspects of that college remained, but as the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. These changes in 2007 ended the 241-year history of Rutgers College as a distinct institution. Students at the 2011 Rutgers tuition protests fought against rising education costs and diminished state subsidies. Campus groups (including the Rutgers Student Union, the Rutgers One Coalition, and the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA), supported by New Jersey United Students (NJUS), mobilized to keep the increase in annual student financial obligation to a minimum through marches, sit-ins, letters to administration officials and forums. In 2011, there was an attempt by then New Jersey governor
Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician and former United States Attorney, federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party (United States) ...
and members of the legislature to merge Rutgers–Camden into
Rowan University Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. Founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents, the scho ...
, it ultimately was rejected in part due to several on-campus protests and pushback from Camden faculty, students, and alumni. On June 20, 2012, the outgoing president of Rutgers University, Richard L. McCormick, announced that Rutgers will "integrate five acres along George Street between Seminary Place and Bishop Place into the College Avenue Campus." Most of the block had been occupied by the
New Brunswick Theological Seminary New Brunswick Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Reformed Church in America (RCA), a mainline Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States that follows the theological tradition and Christian practice of John Calvin. It was fo ...
. Rutgers agreed to rebuild the seminary in exchange for the land it gave up. In 2013, most of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was integrated with Rutgers University and, along with several existing Rutgers units, was reformed as Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. This merger attached the
New Jersey Medical School New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) is the medical school of Rutgers University, a public university in Newark, New Jersey. It has been part of the Rutgers Health since the 2013 dissolution of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey ...
and
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Health, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Robert Wood Johnson University ...
to Rutgers University. In 2013, Rutgers changed part of its alma mater, " On the Banks of the Old Raritan." Where the lyrics had stated, "My father sent me to old Rutgers, and resolved that I should be a man," now they state, "From far and near we came to Rutgers, and resolved to learn all that we can." The alma mater for the Camden campus "On the Banks of the Old Delaware" are lyrically similar aside from the river name. In 2016, Rutgers celebrated its 250th anniversary. On May 15, President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
became the first sitting president to speak at the university's commencement. The university held a variety of celebrations, academic programs, and commemorative events which culminated on the 250th anniversary date, November 10, 2016. Rutgers invited multiple notable alumni from around the world to the celebration.
Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared i ...
was the commencement speaker the following year and received an honorary doctorate. In November 2016, Rutgers released research findings that revealed: "an untold history of some of the institution's founders as
slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
owners and the displacement of the Native Americans who once occupied land that was later transferred to the college." In January 2020, Jonathan Holloway made history as the first African American and person of color to be named president of Rutgers. On April 9, 2023, three unions voted to go on the first strike by academics in the university's 257-year history, citing the lack of progress on contract talks between union representatives and university officials. As a result, classes and research were suspended until a tentative agreement was reached on April 15, 2023. Five months later, in September, the university's faculty senate voted "
no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...
" in Holloway; in addition to issues related to the strikes, the motion also cited Halloway's decision to dismiss the chancellor of the university's Newark campus and his proposal to merge the university's two medical schools.


Organization and administration


University president

Since 1785, twenty-one men have served as the institution's president, beginning with Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, a Dutch Reformed minister who was responsible for establishing the college.Frusciano, Thomas J. "Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers' Presidents, 1766–2004", in ''The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries'' LIII(1) (June 1991). Before 1930, most of the university's presidents were clergy affiliated with Christian denominations in the
Reformed tradition Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteria ...
(either
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
or
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
Reformed, or
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
).Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers Leaders, Rutgers History: Past Presidents
. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
Two presidents were alumni of Rutgers College— William H. S. Demarest (Class of 1883) and Philip Milledoler Brett (Class of 1892). The president serves in an ''
ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...
'' capacity as a presiding officer within the university's 59-member board of trustees and its eleven-member board of governors, and is appointed by these boards to oversee the day-to-day operations of the university across its campuses. He is charged with implementing "board policies with the help and advice of senior administrators and other members of the university community." The president is responsible only to those two governing boards—there is no oversight by state officials. Frequently, the president also occupies a professorship in his academic discipline and engages in instructing students. The current president is Jonathan Holloway, who assumed the role on July 1, 2020.


Governing boards

Governance at Rutgers University rests with a board of trustees consisting of 41 members, and a board of governors consisting of 15 voting members: eight are appointed by the
Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The ...
and seven chosen by and from among the board of trustees. accessed June 20, 2010. 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: 20 charter members (of whom at least three shall be women), 16 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 Senate The New Jersey Senate is the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232,225 (2020 figure ...
.


Affiliations

*
Association of American Universities The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of predominantly American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 69 public and private ...
*
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, also referred to as the Middle States Association or MSA, is an accreditor in the United States. Historically, it has accredited schools in the Mid-Atlantic states region of the northeas ...
*
Big Ten Academic Alliance The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), is the academic consortium of the universities in the Big Ten Conference. The consortium was renamed on June 29, 2016. Member universities The Big ...
*
Universities Research Association The Universities Research Association (URA) is a non-profit association of more than 90 research universities, primarily but not exclusively in the United States. It has members also in Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1965 ...
*
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is a research, policy, and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and higher education organizations. It has member c ...
*
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...


Locations and divisions

Rutgers University has three campuses in New Jersey. The New Brunswick Campus, located in
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
and adjacent
Piscataway Piscataway may refer to: *Maryland (place) **Piscataway, Maryland, an unincorporated community ** Piscataway Creek, Maryland ** Piscataway Park, historical park at the mouth of Piscataway Creek ** Siege of Piscataway, siege of Susquehannock fort sou ...
, is the largest campus of the university. The Newark Campus in Newark and the Camden Campus in Camden are located in the northern and southern parts of the state, respectively.Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey — Department of University Relations
Rutgers Editorial Style Guide
(revised July 1, 2013), page 5 ff.
Combined, these campuses comprise 33 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.


Rutgers–New Brunswick

The New Brunswick Campus (or Rutgers–New Brunswick) is the largest campus and the site of the original Rutgers College. Spread across six municipalities in
Middlesex County, New Jersey Middlesex County is a County (United States), county located in the North Jersey, north-Central Jersey, central part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, extending inland from the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region to the northern portion of the ...
, it lies chiefly in the City of New Brunswick and adjacent Piscataway and is composed of five smaller campuses and a few buildings in downtown New Brunswick. The historic College Avenue Campus is close to downtown New Brunswick and includes the seat of the university,
Old Queens Old Queens is the oldest extant building at Rutgers University and is the symbolic heart of the university's campus in New Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey in the United States. Rutgers, the eighth-oldest college in the United States, w ...
and other nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century buildings that constitute the Queens Campus and
Voorhees Mall Voorhees Mall is a large grassy area with stately shade trees on a block (sometimes known as "Voorhees Campus") of about 28 acres (0.11 km2) located on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University near downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. ...
. Its proximity to New Brunswick's train station and numerous food vendors located downtown, in addition to a large amount of off-campus housing and fraternity and sorority houses, make this a popular weekend destination. Across the city, Douglass Campus and Cook Campus are intertwined and often referred to as the Cook/Douglass Campus. Cook Campus has extensive farms and woods that reach North Brunswick and East Brunswick. Separated by the Raritan River is Busch Campus, in Piscataway, and Livingston Campus, also mainly in Piscataway but including remote sections of land extending into Edison and Highland Park. The Busch Campus is noted as the home of Rutgers' highly ranked Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, as well as the golf course and football stadium. The Livingston campus is home to
Jersey Mike's Arena Jersey Mike's Arena, commonly known as the RAC (an initialism for Rutgers Athletic Center, its former official name), is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Piscataway, New Jersey on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus. The building is shaped ...
(formerly the Rutgers Athletic Center AC, a trapezoidal building that is home to many sports teams, notably the men's basketball team. Additionally, this campus has undergone many renovations and is regarded as the most "modern" campus. The campus entrance is delineated by the all-glass
Rutgers Business School Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...
building known as "100 Rock" (because of the building's Piscataway address, 100 Rockafeller Road). Rutgers Campus Buses transport students between the various campuses. As of 2010, the New Brunswick-Piscataway campuses include 19 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, including the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Communication and Information, the
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy The Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy of Rutgers University (The Bloustein School) serves as a center for the theory and practice of urban planning, public policy and public health/health administration scholarship. The sc ...
, the
School of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional development, professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (Diploma in Engineering, Dip.Eng.)and Bachelor of Engineering, ( ...
, the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, the
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy The Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy (EMSOP) is the pharmacy school of Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting ...
, 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 Mason Gross School of the Arts ("Mason Gross" or "MGSA") is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mason Gross offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, design, dance, filmmaking, music, and theater. Ma ...
, the College of Nursing, the
Rutgers Business School Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...
and the School of Social Work. , 40,434 students (31,593 undergraduates and 8,841 graduate students) were enrolled at the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus. The New Brunswick-Piscataway campus includes a Business School building on the Livingston Campus.


Rutgers–Newark

The Newark Campus (or Rutgers–Newark) consists of eight undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, including Newark College of Arts and Sciences, University College, School of Criminal Justice, Graduate School, School of Nursing, School of Public Affairs and Administration,
Rutgers Business School Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...
and the Newark location of the
Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...
. , 7,666 undergraduates and 4,345 graduate students (total 12,011) are enrolled at the Newark campus. Originally the University of Newark, the campus was renamed and rebranded as Rutgers–Newark in 1945.


Rutgers–Camden

The Camden Campus (or Rutgers–Camden) consists of six undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, including Camden College of Arts and Sciences, University College, Graduate School, Rutgers School of Business–Camden, Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden, and the Camden location of the
Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...
. The schools are located in the Cooper's Grant and Central Waterfront neighborhoods of Camden. , 4,708 undergraduates and 1,635 graduate students (total 6,343) are enrolled at the Camden campus. The campus was founded as the College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School in the 1920s, and became part of Rutgers in 1950.


Rutgers Health

Rutgers Health (formerly Rutgers Biomedcial and Health Sciences) is a division of the university that serves as an umbrella organization for schools, centers, and institutes from Rutgers University and the old
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution with six locations in New Jersey. It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a ...
. The organization was incorporated into the university following the 2013 merger of Rutgers and UMDNJ. While its various facilities are spread across several locations statewide, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences is considered a "campus" for certain organizational purposes, such as the appointment of a separate chancellor. In July 2023, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences renamed to Rutgers Health. Rutgers Health comprises nine schools and other research centers and institutes including; Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, New Jersey Medical School, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,
School of Nursing Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to student nurses by experienced nurses and other me ...
, School of Dental Medicine, School of Health Related Professions, the School of Public Health, Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Environmental and the Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Brain Health Institute, and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research. The programs are offered at different location sites across New Jersey in New Brunswick, Newark, Blackwood, Stratford and
Scotch Plains, New Jersey Scotch Plains is a Township (New Jersey), township in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is located on a ridge in North Jersey, northern-central Jersey, central New Jersey, within the Raritan R ...
.


Rutgers-Online

As of 2015, Rutgers offered a total of 11 fully online degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Online degree programs at Rutgers must meet the same academic expectations, in terms of both teaching and learning outcomes, as traditional on-campus programs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of courses were conducted through remote instruction.


Off-campus

Rutgers offers classes at several off-campus sites in affiliation with community colleges and other state colleges throughout New Jersey. These partnerships are designed to enable students to achieve a seamless transfer to Rutgers and to take all of their Rutgers classes in a select number of the most popular majors at the community college campus. The collaborative effort provides access to Rutgers faculty teaching Rutgers courses, at a convenient location, but it is also one of the few programs that cater exclusively to the non-traditional student population. Rutgers' current partners include Atlantic Cape, Brookdale,
Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (automobile), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City, US * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or tra ...
,
Morris Morris may refer to: Places Australia * St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Man ...
, Camden, and Raritan Valley community colleges.


Academics

The university offers more than 100 distinct bachelor, 100 masters, 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. It is accredited by the
Commission on Higher Education The Commission on Higher Education (CHED; ) is a government agency under the Office of the President of the Philippines. It is responsible for regulating and governing all higher education institutions and post-secondary educational programs i ...
of the
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, also referred to as the Middle States Association or MSA, is an accreditor in the United States. Historically, it has accredited schools in the Mid-Atlantic states region of the northeas ...
(1921), and in 1989, became a member of the
Association of American Universities The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of predominantly American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 69 public and private ...
, an organization of the 62 leading research universities in North America.Association of American Universities
AAU. Retrieved August 6, 2006
Rutgers–New Brunswick is
classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...
among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Rutgers–Newark and Rutgers–Camden are classified by the same organization as "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".


Admissions


Undergraduate

'' U.S. News & World Report'' considers the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University to be a "more selective" school in terms of the rigor of its admissions processes. For the Class of 2025 (enrolling fall 2021), the New Brunswick campus received 43,161 applications and accepted 29,419 (68.2%). The number enrolling was 7,105; the yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who enroll) was 24.2%. The freshman
retention rate Retention rate is a statistical measurement of the proportion of people that remain involved with a group from one time period to another. The concept is used in many contexts, including marketing, investment, education, employee management, rese ...
is 94%, with 83.8% going on to graduate within six years. Of the 45% of the incoming freshman class who submitted
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
scores; the middle 50 percent Composite scores were 1240-1470. Of the 7% of enrolled freshmen in 2021 who submitted ACT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite score was between 27 and 33. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey is a college-sponsor of the National Merit Scholarship Program and sponsored 21 Merit Scholarship awards in 2020. In the 2020–2021 academic year, 29 freshman students were
National Merit Scholars The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships. The program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded not-for-profit ...
.


Financial aid

As a state university, Rutgers charges two separate rates for tuition and fees depending on an enrolled student's residency. The ''Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning'' estimates that costs in-state students of attending Rutgers would amount to $25,566 for an undergraduate living on-campus and $30,069 for a graduate student. For an out-of-state student, the costs rise to $38,228 and $39,069 respectively. As of the 2024–2025 academic school year, the estimated cost of tuition for in-state students is $14,222, $33,734 for out-of-state students, and $15,332 for Room and Board. In the 2010–2011 academic year, undergraduate students at Rutgers, through a combination of federal (53.5%), state (23.6%), university (18.1%), and private (4.8%) scholarships, loans, and grants, received $492,260,845 of
financial aid Student financial aid in the United States is funding that is available exclusively to students attending a post-secondary educational institution in the United States. This funding is used to assist in covering the many costs incurred in purs ...
. 81.4% of all undergraduates, or 34,473 students, received some form of financial aid. During the same period, graduate students, through a combination of federal (61.9%), state (1.8%), university (34.5%), and private (1.9%) scholarships, loans, and grants received $182,384,256 of financial aid. 81.5% of all graduate students, or 11,852 students received some form of financial aid. Alongside Pell and TAG grant which are well-known federal and state aids, Rutgers provides EOF grant, merit based scholarships such as SAS Excellence Award, Scarlet Guarantee, and many other forms of aid. Rutgers is an active participant of the EOF program giving financially or academically disadvantaged students resources to success. Furthermore, the Scarlet Guarantee covers any tuition cost for students whose aid might not if the student's household income is below a certain amount. Apart from need based aid, Rutgers University have a list of Scholarships which first-time or continuing students can apply to based upon GPA and/or extra-curriculum involvement. The University also offers multiple opportunities for students to earn while in college through Federal Work Study, on-campus employment, and internships. In 2007, the university's Office for Enrollment Management launched the Rutgers Future Scholars Program as an initiative to help 7th graders from low-income families achieve academic success and be the first in their families to go to college. The program targets students from the school systems of Rutgers's hometowns, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Newark, and Camden. Once admitted, the students receive mentoring and college prep courses each summer leading up to the year of their college applications. If admitted to the university, they are given a full tuition scholarship for four years of undergraduate study. The program has been very successful and currently admits as many as 200 new 7th graders each year with most of the original 200 now attending the university as undergraduates.


Academic Support

Rutgers University have a variety of resources to help students succeed academically. Rutgers offers academic counselling to help students plan a study schedule, plan a schedule for the semester, decide their major, and complete their major requirements in time. The Learning Centers at Rutgers provide Peer Tutoring and Study Groups where students can work with or receive help from others who are taking or have taken the same courses. Certain courses provide extra tutoring like the Computer Science program offer tutoring from RUCATS(Rutgers Computing Academic Tutoring for Students). Students can use resources such as the Penji app to find available academic support. Rutgers offers these academic support resources motioned above for free to its students.


Rankings

In the 2025 '' U.S. News & World Report'' rankings of universities in the United States, the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers is tied for 41st among national universities overall and ranked tied for 15th among public universities. ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the Camden campus 127th among national universities, and 18th in top performers for social mobility. The same ranking placed Rutgers-New Brunswick in the top 25 among all U.S. universities for the following graduate school programs:
Library Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...
(7th), English (15th),
Fine Arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...
(23rd),
History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
(21st) with the subspecialties of
Women's History Women's history is the study of the role that Woman, women have played in history and Historiography, the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights, women's rights throughout recorded history, ...
and
African-American History African-American history started with the forced transportation of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. The European colonization of the Americas, and the resulting Atlantic slave trade, ...
both ranked 1st,
Social Work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
(17th), and
Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
(22nd). ''U.S. News'' ranked Rutgers-Camden 58th for graduate nursing programs, and 83rd among graduate public policy programs, and 49th for top public universities. Rutgers University-New Brunswick has consistently ranked 2nd for
Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
according the
QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...
and the Philosophy Gourmet Report. QS ranks Rutgers 42nd nationally. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranks Rutgers-New Brunswick 29th nationally and 50th globally as of 2020–2021. QS Top Universities ranked Rutgers-New Brunswick 264 in the world in 2022. ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranking placed Rutgers-New Brunswick 130th in Best Global Universities, 15th in public universities in the US (2025), 47th in Agricultural Sciences, 45th in Arts and Humanities (tie), 61st in Mathematics, 66th in Cell Biology, 63rd in Economics and Business, 99th in Computer Science, 37th in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and 23rd in Food Science and Technology. The RBS Master of Quantitative Finance (M.Q.F.) program, and the Master of Mathematical Finance (M.S.M.F) program in the department of mathematics, are ranked 7th in the United States. Under the New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act of 2012, the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution with six locations in New Jersey. It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a ...
was dissolved. Most of its schools, including
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a medical school of Rutgers University. It is one of the two graduate medical schools of Rutgers Health, together with New Jersey Medical School, and is closely aligned with Robert Wood Johnson University ...
,
New Jersey Medical School New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) is the medical school of Rutgers University, a public university in Newark, New Jersey. It has been part of the Rutgers Health since the 2013 dissolution of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey ...
, and
New Jersey Dental School The Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (formerly New Jersey Dental School) is the dental school of Rutgers University. It is one of several professional schools that form Rutgers Health, a division of the university. Established in 1956, the den ...
, were merged into the new Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, formed in 2013.


Libraries

The Rutgers University Libraries (RUL) system consists of twenty-six libraries, centers and reading rooms located on the university's four campuses. Housing a collection that includes 4,383,848 volumes (print and electronic), 4,605,896 microforms, and an array of electronic indexes and abstracts, full-text electronic journals, and research guides, Rutgers University Libraries ranks among the nation's top research libraries.Library Facts and Figures
Accessed September 15, 2014
The
American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...
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 New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
, known to many students as "Club Alex", is the oldest and the largest library of the university, and houses an extensive
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
and
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
collection.Archibald S. Alexander Library Collection Description
Accessed January 10, 2007
It also supports the work of faculty and staff at four professional schools: the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the School of Communication and Information. Alexander Library is also a
Federal Depository Library The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is a government program created to make U.S. federal government publications available to the public at no cost. there are 1,114 depository libraries in the United States and its territories. A "go ...
, maintaining a large collection of government documents, which contains United States, New Jersey, foreign, and international government publications. The Paul Robeson Library in Camden, serves Rutgers affiliates as well as the Camden campuses of
Rowan University Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford and medical and academic campuses in Camden. Founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents, the scho ...
and
Camden County College Camden County College (CCC) is a Public college, public community college in Camden County, New Jersey. Camden County College has its main campus in the Blackwood, New Jersey, Blackwood section of Gloucester Township, New Jersey, Gloucester Tow ...
with a broad collection of volumes, and also houses an archive including the papers of poet
Nick Virgilio Nicholas Anthony Virgilio (June 28, 1928 – January 3, 1989) was an internationally recognized haiku poet who is credited with helping to popularize the Japanese style of poetry in the United States. Early life Virgilio was born in Camden, New ...
. The Dana Library is the main research library for the Newark campus and is also home to the
Institute of Jazz Studies The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) is the largest and most comprehensive library and archives of jazz and jazz-related materials in the world. It is located on the fourth floor of the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers University–Newark in Ne ...
, one of the world's largest collections of jazz archives and research. The ''Library of Science and Medicine'' (LSM) on the Busch Campus in
Piscataway Piscataway may refer to: *Maryland (place) **Piscataway, Maryland, an unincorporated community ** Piscataway Creek, Maryland ** Piscataway Park, historical park at the mouth of Piscataway Creek ** Siege of Piscataway, siege of Susquehannock fort sou ...
houses the university's collection in
behavioral Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate p ...
,
biological Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...
,
earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, and
pharmaceutical science Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
s and
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
. LSM also serves as a designated depository library for government publications 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 current character of LSM is a university science library also serving a medical school.LSM History
accessed January 10, 2007
On the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, in addition to Alexander Library, many individual disciplines have their libraries, including art history, Chemistry, mathematics, 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 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. There are nine major libraries at the Rutgers- New Brunswick location which are the Alexander Library, Art Library, Carr Library, Chang Library, Douglass Library, Library of Science and Medicine, Math and Physics Library, School of Management and Labor Relations Library, and Special Collections & University Archives Library. Both the Newark and Camden campuses have law libraries.


Museums and collections

Rutgers oversees several museums and collections that are open to the public. * Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, on the College Avenue Campus maintains a collection of over 60,000 works of art, focusing on Russian and
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
art, French 19th-century art and
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
19th- and 20th-century art with a concentration on early-20th-century and contemporary prints. * Rutgers University Geology Museum in Geology Hall features exhibits on
geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
and
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, with an emphasis on the natural history of New Jersey. The largest exhibits include a
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...
trackway Historic roads (or historic trails in the US and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient track ...
from
Towaco, New Jersey Towaco is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in the township of Montville, Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,624. The area is served as United States Postal S ...
; a
mastodon A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...
from
Salem County Salem County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Its western boundary is formed by the Delaware River, and it has the eastern terminus of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects the county with New Castle, Delaware. ...
; and a
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty *Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining t ...
era
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
ian
mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
. * Rutgers Gardens, which features of horticultural, display, and
botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
, as well as
arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
s. * ''Stedman Art Gallery'' on the Camden campus is a collection of local, national, and international artwork and exhibits as part of the Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts. * ''Edison Papers'' is a collection of roughly 5 million documents related to Thomas Alva Edison. Nearly 175,000 of these documents are digitized and available to be viewed through their website. Rutgers' facilities across the four campuses include a golf course,
botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
, working agricultural, horse, dairy, and sustainable farms, a creamery, an
ecological preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...
with multiple use trails, television and radio studios, theaters, museums, athletic facilities, helipads and a
makerspace A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sci ...
. The
New Jersey Museum of Agriculture The New Jersey Museum of Agriculture was an American agriculture museum, located in North Brunswick, New Jersey, and focused on the evolution of agriculture in New Jersey. The museum's exhibits included farm tools and machinery, household imple ...
, established in 1984 in a facility in North Brunswick, closed in 2011.


Research

Rutgers is home to the Rutgers University Center for
Cognitive Science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
, also known as RUCCS. This research center hosts researchers in
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
,
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
,
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
,
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
, and
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
. It was at Rutgers that
Selman Waksman Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888 – August 16, 1973) was a Russian-born American inventor, biochemist and microbiologist, whose research into the decomposition of organisms that live in soil enabled the discovery of streptomycin and severa ...
discovered several
antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...
s, including
actinomycin Dactinomycin, also known as actinomycin D, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes Wilms tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, trophoblastic neoplasm, testicular cancer, and certain types of ...
,
clavacin Patulin is an organic compound classified as a polyketide. It is named after the fungus from which it was isolated, '' Penicillium patulum''. It is a white powder soluble in acidic water and in organic solvents. It is a lactone that is heat-stabl ...
,
streptothricin Streptothricins are a group of antibiotics in the aminoglycoside class. The first antibiotic in the group was isolated from '' Streptomyces lavendulae'' in 1942. It was later determined to be a mixture of closely-related compounds, and is now kn ...
, grisein,
neomycin Neomycin, also known as framycetin, is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that displays bactericidal activity against Gram-negative aerobic bacilli and some anaerobic bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen. It is generally not effective against ...
, fradicin,
candicidin Candicidin is an antifungal compound obtained from ''Streptomyces griseus''. It is active against some fungi including '' Candida albicans''. Candicidin is administered intravaginally in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis. This bioactive ...
, candidin, and others. Waksman, along with graduate student Albert Schatz, discovered
streptomycin Streptomycin is an antibiotic medication used to treat a number of bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium complex, ''Mycobacterium avium'' complex, endocarditis, brucellosis, Burkholderia infection, ''Burkholderia'' i ...
—a versatile antibiotic that was to be the first applied to cure
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. For this discovery, Waksman received the
Nobel Prize for Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accor ...
in 1952. Rutgers developed water-soluble sustained release polymers, tetraploids, robotic hands, artificial bovine insemination, and the ceramic tiles for the
heat shield In engineering, a heat shield is a component designed to protect an object or a human operator from being burnt or overheated by dissipating, reflecting, and/or absorbing heat. The term is most often used in reference to exhaust heat management a ...
on the
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
. In health-related field, Rutgers has the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute (EOHSI). Rutgers is also home to the RCSB
Protein Data bank The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, which is overseen by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB). This structural data is obtained a ...
, 'an information portal to Biological Macromolecular Structures' cohosted with the
San Diego Supercomputer Center The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego. Founded in 1985, it was one of the five original NSF supercomputing centers. Its research pursuits are high performance comput ...
. This database is the authoritative research tool for bioinformaticists using protein primary, secondary and tertiary structures worldwide.' Rutgers is home to the Rutgers Cooperative Research & Extension office, which is run by the Agricultural and Experiment Station with the support of the 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. Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR) is the largest university-based repository in the world and has received awards worth more than $57.8 million from the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
(NIH). One will fund genetic studies of mental disorders and the other will support investigations into the causes of digestive, liver, and kidney diseases, and diabetes.


Student life


Residential life

Rutgers University offers a variety of housing options. On the
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
-Piscataway campus, students are given the option of on-campus housing in both traditional
dorm A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm), also known as a hall of residence, a residence hall (often abbreviated to halls), or a hostel, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential qu ...
s or apartments. Freshman students, however, are allowed only a dorm, while upperclassmen have a wider array of on-campus housing choices, like apartments, but must apply for on-campus housing through the Rutgers online lottery process. Most students seeking on-campus housing will be accommodated with a space and sophomores are guaranteed housing. 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. Rutgers University's three campuses are in Newark, Camden, and
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
. In 2008, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked
Rutgers University–Newark Rutgers University–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Newark, New Jersey, Newark. Rutgers, fo ...
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. The Rutgers bus system is the second-largest bus service in New Jersey, transporting six million passengers on an annual basis.


Security and emergency services

Services provided by the university include Rutgers Police, Emergency Medical Services, an emergency management office, bus and shuttle service, inter- and intra-campus mail, and occupational and environmental health and safety.


Student organizations and activities

Rutgers University has a student government that 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, part-time, and military veteran students. Rutgers hosts over 700
student organization A student society, student association, university society, student club, university club, or student organization is a society or an organization, operated by students at a university, college, or other educational institution, whose membership ty ...
s; among the first student groups was the first
college newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repo ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. ''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 ''The Daily Targum'' is the official student newspaper of Rutgers University. Founded in 1867, it is the second-oldest collegiate newspaper in the United States. The ''Daily Targum'' is student written and managed, and boasts a circulation of ...
'', established in 1869, which is the second-oldest college newspaper published in the United States, after ''
The Dartmouth ''The Dartmouth'' is the daily student newspaper at Dartmouth College and America's oldest college newspaper. Originally named the ''Dartmouth Gazette'', the first issue was published on August 27, 1799, under the motto "Here range the world— ...
'' (1843). Both poet
Joyce Kilmer Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American people, American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees (poem), Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection ''Trees and Other Poems'' in ...
and economist
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...
served as editors. Also included are ''
The Medium ''The Medium'' is a short (one-hour-long) two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946, with Claramae Turner a ...
'', a weekly satirical newspaper billed as Rutgers Entertainment Weekly, ''
Rutgers Centurion ''The Centurion'' is a conservative online magazine focused on Rutgers University-New Brunswick campus life. Its motto is "veritas vos liberabit," which is Latin for " the truth shall set you free." The magazine attempts to counterbalance that ...
'', a conservative newspaper, the '' Rutgers University Glee Club'', a male
choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
singing group established in 1872 (among the oldest in the country). Rutgers a cappella groups have routinely placed well in the
International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), originally the National Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (NCCA, a play on NCAA), is an international competition run by Varsity Vocals, that attracts hundreds of college ''a capp ...
, including in 2010 when The OrphanSporks placed second in the semifinals. Governed by the Rutgers University Student Assembly and funded by student fees, 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 In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...
maintain houses for their chapters in the area of Union Street (known familiarly as "Frat Row") in
New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
, within blocks of Rutgers' College Avenue Campus. Chapters of
Zeta Psi Zeta Psi () is an international collegiate fraternity. It was founded in 1847 at New York University. The fraternity has over 100 chapters, with roughly 50,000 members. Zeta Psi was a founding member of the North American Interfraternity Confer ...
and
Delta Phi Delta Phi () is a fraternal society established in Schenectady, New York, on November 17, 1827. Its first chapter was founded at Union College, and was the third and final member of the Union Triad. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's '' America ...
were organized at Rutgers as early as 1845. The Alpha Rho chapter of
Chi Psi Chi Psi () is a fraternities and sororities, fraternity consisting of active chapters at 34 American colleges and universities. Chi Psi was founded in 1841 at Union College in Schenectady, New York. It was the first Greek-letter organization to b ...
fraternity, founded at Rutgers College in 1879, was the first fraternity at Rutgers to own a fraternity house, purchased in 1887 and still in use by the fraternity today. There are over fifty fraternities and sororities on the New Brunswick-Piscataway campus, ranging from traditional to historically
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
,
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
,
Multicultural Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various e ...
, and Asian interest organizations. The New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University has a chapter of the only active co-ed pre-medical fraternity,
Phi Delta Epsilon Phi Delta Epsilon () (commonly known as PhiDE) is a co-ed international medical fraternity founded at Cornell Medical College and a member of the Professional Fraternity Association. History Phi Delta Epsilon was founded on October 13, 1904, at ...
, . Most Greek organizations are governed by the ''Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs,'' but twelve organizations maintain chapters in New Brunswick without sanction by the university's administration. It is Rutgers's tradition for students to participate in one of the largest student-run philanthropic events in New Jersey, the Embrace Kids Foundation for children with cancer and blood disorders. The annual Dance Marathon involves hundreds of dancers and volunteers. In 2015, the marathon collected $692,046. Rutgers has five vocal ensembles: Voorhees Choir (the New Brunswick campus's women's ensemble), Kirkpatrick Choir (the university's most selective coed ensemble),
Glee Club A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs by trios or quartets. In the late 19th century it was very popular in ...
(New Brunswick's most esteemed tenor-bass ensemble), University Choir (a larger mixed choir in New Brunswick), and the Rutgers Concert Choir (Camden's vocal ensemble of faculty and students).


Traditions

The
Grease Trucks The Grease trucks were a group of food trucks located on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They were known for serving, among other things, "Fat Sandwiches," a sub roll containing a combination of in ...
are a group of truck-based food vendors located at various locations on the New Brunswick campus. They serve traditional grill fare and Middle-Eastern specialties. Three Rutgers Grease Trucks remain on the College Avenue Campus, while the remaining two were moved to the Cook/Douglass Campus. The
Dance Marathon Dance marathons (or marathon dances) are events in which people dance or walk to music for an extended period of time. They started as dance contests in the 1920s and developed into human endurance contests, or exploitative entertainment events d ...
is a student-run fundraisers. Hundreds of dancers pledge to raise funds and remain standing for 32 hours. Rutgers has held this tradition since 1999 and to date has raised more than $1.3 million for the Embrace Kids Foundation and for other charities. In the two decades starting in 1998, the event had raised $5.8 million for the Embrace Kids Foundation. Rutgers Day is an annual festival established in 1906.


Mottos, colors and mascots

Rutgers University's motto is a modification of
Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...
's motto gleaned from a literal Latin Bible translation of Malachi 4:2 and highlights the historic connection of these two universities. Rutgers University's only school color is scarlet. Students had sought to make
orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...
the school color, citing Rutgers'
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
heritage and about the
Prince of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by the stadtholders of, and then the heirs apparent of ...
. The Rutgers student publication ''Targum'' (which would become the ''Daily Targum'') proposed that scarlet be adopted in May 1869, claiming that it was a striking color and because the scarlet ribbon was easily obtained. During the first intercollegiate football game with
Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
on November 6, 1869, the players from Rutgers wore scarlet-colored
turban A turban (from Persian language, Persian دولبند‌, ''dolband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Commun ...
s and
handkerchief A handkerchief (; also called a hankie or, historically, a handkercher or a ) is a form of a kerchief or bandanna, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric which can be carried in the pocket or handbag for personal hygiene purposes such as w ...
s to distinguish them as a team from the Princeton players. The board of trustees officially made scarlet the
school color A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
in 1900. In its early days, Rutgers athletes were known informally as "The Scarlet" after the school color, or as "Queensmen" after the institution's first name, Queen's College. In 1925, the
mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
was changed to Chanticleer, a fighting rooster from the
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...
''
Reynard the Fox Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, ...
'' (''Le Roman de Renart'') which was used by
Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
in the ''
Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, as part of a fictional storytellin ...
''. At the time, the student humor magazine at Rutgers was called ''Chanticleer'', and one of its early arts editors,
Ozzie Nelson Oswald George Nelson (March 20, 1906 – June 3, 1975) was an American actor, filmmaker, musician, and bandleader. He originated and starred in ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'', a radio and television series with his wife Harriet Nelson, ...
(later of ''
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' is an American television sitcom that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from October 3, 1952, to April 23, 1966, and starred the real-life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was b ...
'' fame) was quarterback of the Rutgers team from 1924 to 1926.Scarlet Letter 1924 (Rutgers University yearbook), Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries. The Chanticleer mascot was unveiled at a football game against
Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...
, in which Lafayette was also introducing a new mascot, a
leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...
. However, the choice of Chanticleer as a mascot was often the subject of ridicule because of its association with "being
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
." In 1955, the mascot was changed to the Scarlet Knight after a campus-wide election, beating out other contenders such as "Queensmen," the "Scarlet," the "Red Lions," the "Redmen" and the "Flying Dutchmen."Tradition
at www.scarletknights.com. Published by Rutgers University Athletic Department (no further authorship information available), accessed September 10, 2006.
Earlier proposed nicknames included "Pioneers" and "Cannoneers." When
Harvey Harman Harvey John Harman (November 5, 1900 – December 17, 1969) was an American college football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Haverford College (1922–1929), Sewanee: The University of the South (1930), the University of Pennsyl ...
, then coach of the football team was asked why he supported changing the Rutgers mascot, he was quoted as saying, "Awnish You can call it the Chanticleer, you can call it a
fighting cock Cockfighting is a blood sport involving domesticated roosters as the combatants. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term ...
, you can call it any damn thing you want, but everybody knows it's a chicken." Harman later is said to have bought the first "Scarlet Knight" mascot costume for the 1955 season, which was to be his final season as football coach at Rutgers. Today, the Scarlet Knight costumed mascot appearing at Rutgers football and basketball games and other campus events is called "Sir Henry". In later years the Camden and Newark campuses adopted their mascots, the Scarlet Raptor (Camden) and the Scarlet Raider (Newark).


Athletics

The Rutgers–Camden athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raptors. The Rutgers–Newark athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raiders. The Scarlet Raiders and the Scarlet Raptors both compete within
NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
. Rutgers was among the first American institutions to engage in intercollegiate athletics, and participated in a small circle of schools that included
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
,
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, and long-time rival,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
(then called the College of New Jersey). The four schools met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
on October 19, 1873, to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate competition, and particularly to codify the new game of
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
. Although invited,
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
chose not to attend. In the early years of intercollegiate athletics, the schools that participated in these athletic events were located solely in the American Northeast and by the turn of the 20th century, colleges and universities across the United States began to participate. Rutgers University is referred to as "the birthplace of
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
" as the first intercollegiate football game was held on College Field between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1869, in
New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.College Avenue Gymnasium College Avenue Gymnasium is an athletic facility on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is the second gymnasium built on the site. The first was built in 1892 on the site of College Field, the for ...
now stands. Rutgers won the game, with a score of 6 runs to Princeton's 4. A Rutgers-Princeton rivalry still exists today. According to Parke H. 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.) 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. Women's crew was added to the program in 1974. Financial support of the men's crew program was discontinued by the university in 2006, though the crew continues to compete (funded entirely by alumni and private support) at a high level in the
Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of fifteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Fifteen colleges and universities are membe ...
conference. The first intercollegiate athletic event at Rutgers was a baseball game on May 2, 1866, against Princeton in which they suffered a 40–2 loss. Beginning in 1866, Rutgers was unaffiliated with any formal athletic conference and thus classified as "independent" for eighty years. 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 The Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC) is an umbrella organization of three intercollegiate athletic conferences that competes in the NCAA's Division III. The 16 member colleges are in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The organization is divided ...
.Rutgers football history database
at NationalChamps.net. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
In 1978, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights became a member of the
Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located mostly on the East Coast and Midwest of the ...
conference. In 1991, it joined the
Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
for football. All sports programs at Rutgers New Brunswick subsequently became affiliated with the Big East in 1995. The first intercollegiate competition in
Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...
was held between students from Rutgers and
Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
on November 6, 1972, to mark the one hundred third anniversary of the first intercollegiate football game. Rutgers won 29–27."Discography"
from ''Failure Magazine''. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights 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 The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in the semifinals, and a 106–92 loss against
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
in the consolation round of the 1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are members of the
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
, a collegiate athletic conference consisting of 14 colleges and universities from the
Midwestern The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
and East Coast regions of the United States. The Big Ten Conference is a member of the
Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...
. Rutgers currently fields 27 intercollegiate sports programs and is a Division I school as sanctioned by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
. Rutgers fields thirty teams in NCAA Division I sanctioned sports, including
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
crew A crew is a body or a group of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchy, hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the ta ...
, cross country,
fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...
,
field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
,
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
,
gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...
,
lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...
,
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
,
softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
,
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
,
track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
,
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
and
diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...
,
wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
, and
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
. The Scarlet Knights have won five Big East Conference tournament titles: men's
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
(1997), men's
track & field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and ...
(2005),
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
(2000, 2007), and
women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...
(2007). Several other teams have won regular season titles but failed to win the conference's championship tournament. published by the Big East Athletic Conference. Retrieved August 8, 2006. Although the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' football team had losing seasons in 2016 and 2015 (won-lost records of 2–10 and 4–8, respectively) it achieved success previously, being invited to the
Insight Bowl The Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989, under several different names. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 ...
on December 27, 2005, in which they lost 45 to 40 against
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
. This was Rutgers' first bowl appearance since the December 16, 1978, loss against Arizona State, 34–18, at the
Garden State Bowl The Garden State Bowl was an annual post-season college football bowl game played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, from 1978 until 1981.Foldesy, Jody. "Bowls burgeon as big business", ''The Washington Times''. December 21, 1997. P ...
. The 2006 football season also saw Rutgers being ranked within the Top 25 teams in major college football polls. After the November 9, 2006, victory over the 3rd ranked, undefeated
Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...
, 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 The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of America ...
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 The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replace ...
on December 28, 2006, defeating the Kansas State Wildcats, Wildcats of Kansas State University by a score of 37–10 and finishing the season ranked twelfth in the final AP 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, the Scarlet Knights 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. The Scarlet Knights maintain athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. The university has historic rivalries with
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
,
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
(formerly ''King's College''),
Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 18 ...
, Lehigh University, and New York University originating from the early days of college football. While they maintain this rivalry in other sports, neither of them has met in football since 1980. Rutgers has a basketball rivalry with Seton Hall University. Pennsylvania State University, Penn State and the University of Maryland are the two schools with which Rutgers was developing rivalries within the Big Ten. In the fall of 2007, six Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway NCAA Division I sports were discontinued by the university, including men's swimming and diving, men's heavyweight and lightweight crew, men's tennis, and men's and women's fencing. Some continued as club teams, while some were disbanded completely. The university claims this change was due to budget cuts, while others claim it was a politically motivated move designed to protest state funding changes. In November 2012, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, along with Louisville, Connecticut, and Cincinnati left the Big East to form the American Athletic Conference. Syracuse and Pittsburgh have decided to enter the Atlantic Coast Conference, while West Virginia entered the Big 12 Conference, taking effect as of the 2012–2013 season. Rutgers decided to leave American for the
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
, effective July 1, 2014. Rutgers surpassed Pennsylvania State University, Penn State as the Big Ten's easternmost school. On March 23, 2019, Nick Suriano and Anthony Ashnault won national titles for Rutgers Wrestling and provided Rutgers with their first 2 NCAA wrestling championships. In 2021, the Rutgers men's basketball team was selected to participate in the NCAA tournament. This marked the program's first appearance in the tournament since 1991 and ending a 30-year-long streak that made the school the longest to have been excluded among major collegiate basketball programs. In 2022, Rutgers men's lacrosse team was selected to participate in the 2022 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, NCAA Division I tournament. They defeated Harvard Crimson men's lacrosse, Harvard and the Penn Quakers men's lacrosse, University of Pennsylvania to reach their first-ever Final Four. Their season ended with a 17–10 loss to Cornell Big Red men's lacrosse, Cornell.


Notable people


Alumni

At Queen's College's first commencement in 1774, one graduate, Matthew Leydt, received his baccalaureate degree in a brief ceremony.Raven, John Howard (compiler).
Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College (originally Queen's College) in New Brunswick, N.J., 1766–1916
''. (Trenton, New Jersey: State Gazette Publishing Company, 1916).
Rutgers alumni have been influential in many fields. Singer, athlete, attorney, and Civil Rights Movement activist Paul Robeson graduated in 1919 and is the namesake of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center on the Busch Campus, the Paul Robeson Library on the Camden Campus, and the Campus Center on the Newark Campus. Among the first students enrolled at Rutgers (when it was ''Queen's College''), Simeon De Witt (A.B. 1776) became the Surveyor-General for the Continental Army (1776–1783) during the American Revolutionary War, American Revolution and classmate James Schureman (A.B. 1775), served in the Continental Congress and as a United States senator. Two alumni have been awarded Nobel prizes —
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...
(A.B. 1932) in economics, and Selman A. Waksman (B.Sc. 1915, M.Sc.1916) in Medicine. Poet Robert Pinsky (B.A. 1962) was appointed the nation's Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, poet laureate and novelist Junot Díaz (B.A. 1992) awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008. Seven alumni have served as List of Governors of New Jersey, New Jersey governor; two as List of Rutgers University presidents, president of Rutgers; Garret A. Hobart (A.B. 1863) as Vice President of the United States; Louis Freeh (B.A. 1971, J.D. 1974) as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI; Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (A.B. 1836) served a U.S. Senator and as U.S. Secretary of State. Alumnus Joseph P. Bradley (A.B. 1836) served for two decades as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and cast the tie-breaking vote on the bipartisan commission that decided the contested 1876 U.S. presidential election, American presidential election in 1876. Diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa served as President of the United Nations General Assembly. Senators Elizabeth Warren (JD 1976) and Bob Menendez (JD 1979) both attended
Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...
. Some alumni became Activism, activists such as Jack Babuscio (MHist.). In business, alumni include: Bernard Marcus (B.S. 1951), founder of hardware retail company Home Depot; Bill Rasmussen (MBA 1960), founder of ESPN; Rana Kapoor (founder of Yes Bank); Dev Ittycheria (B.S 1990) CEO of MongoDB Inc.; Greg Brown (businessman), Greg Brown, CEO of Motorola Solutions; and Duncan MacMillan (Bloomberg), Duncan MacMillan (B.S. 1966), co-founder of financial data and media company Bloomberg L.P. In science and technology, alumni include: Peter C. Schultz (B.S. 1967), co-inventor of fiber optics; molecular geneticist Angela Christiano (Ph.D. 1991); geneticist Stanley N. Cohen (B.Sc. 1956) who pioneered in the field of gene splicing; physician Howard Krein; and Louis Gluck (B.S. 1948) the "father of neonatology". Alumni prominent in entertainment include actor James Gandolfini (B.A. 1983) (''The Sopranos''); chef Mario Batali (B.A. 1982); David Stern (B.A. 1963), former commissioner of the National Basketball Association; Henry Selick, film director (Disney's ''The Nightmare Before Christmas''); actor Michael Sorvino; Holly Black; actor Sebastian Stan (''Captain America: The Winter Soldier''); cartoon character Mr Magoo; actress Jessica Darrow (''Encanto''); voice actor John DiMaggio (''Futurama'', ''Adventure Time''); guitarist Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), actor Roy Scheider (Jaws (film), ''Jaws''); and actress Calista Flockhart (''Ally McBeal'').


Faculty

Ruth Bader Ginsburg served as a professor at
Rutgers Law School Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. pr ...
for 9 years from 1963-1972 and later went on to serve as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During his 20-year tenure at Rutgers, David Levering Lewis, a former history professor, was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1994 and 2001) for both volumes of his biography of W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and was also the winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize. Poet Gregory Pardlo won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, he is both an alumnus and faculty member at the Camden campus. Michael R. Douglas, a prominent String theory, string theorist and the director of the New High Energy Theory Center and winner of the Sackler Prize in theoretical physics in 2000. Family Research Council director Jennifer Bauwens taught in the Rutgers School of Social Work. Avery Brooks, a Rutgers graduate, taught at
Mason Gross School of the Arts Mason Gross School of the Arts ("Mason Gross" or "MGSA") is the arts conservatory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mason Gross offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, design, dance, filmmaking, music, and theater. Ma ...
. Former professor Ruth Chang is an expert in decision-making and a fellow at Oxford. Literature scholar Ankhi Mukherjee now at University of Oxford won the Rose Mary Crawshay prize. Former English professor at Rutgers-Newark Jayne Anne Phillips won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2024. Jerry Fodor, Zenon Pylyshyn, Stephen Stich and Frances Egan were awarded the Jean Nicod Prize in
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and cognitive science. Endre Szemerédi was awarded the Abel Prize in 2012. Mario Szegedy was awarded the Gödel Prize twice, in 2001 and 2005. Many other members of the faculty have received the highest awards in their fields, including Guggenheim and MacArthur "Genius Award" fellowships, Pulitzer Prize winners, National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology recipients, a National Endowment for the Arts "Jazz Master," amongst others. , 37 science, engineering, and medical faculty are members of the four "National Academies"—the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
"Rutgers Outstanding Thinkers: Members of the National Academies"
. Retrieved October 29, 2013.


See also

* 2011 Rutgers tuition protests * List of Rutgers University people * List of Rutgers University presidents


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* H.M. Berman, J. Westbrook, Z. Feng, G. Gilliland, T.N. Bhat, H. Weissig, I.N. Shindyalov, P.E. Bourne: The Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids Research, 28, pp. 235–242 (2000). * Demarest, William Henry Steele. ''History of Rutgers College: 1776–1924.'' (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College, 1924). * ''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). * Lukac, George J. (ed.), ''Aloud to Alma Mater.'' (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1966), 70–73. * McCormick, Richard P. ''Rutgers: a Bicentennial History''. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1966). . * Schmidt, George P. ''Princeton, and Rutgers: The Two Colonial Colleges of New Jersey''. (Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand, 1964).


External links

*
Official Home of the Scarlet Knights

Official Home of the Scarlet Raiders

Official Home of the Scarlet Raptors
* 1937–. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutgers University Rutgers University, 1766 establishments in New Jersey Colonial colleges Educational institutions established in 1766 Flagship universities in the United States, Rutgers Land-grant universities and colleges Public universities and colleges in New Jersey Robert A. M. Stern buildings Universities and colleges in Camden County, New Jersey Universities and colleges in Essex County, New Jersey Universities and colleges in Middlesex County, New Jersey