Overview

Rutgers, first chartered in 1766 as Queen's College, is the eighth oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The university changed its name in 1825 to honor Colonel Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War veteran and former trustee of the college. From a colonial college with few students and a classic liberal arts curriculum, Rutgers has evolved into a land-grant institution and major public university.

Through legislative acts in 1945 and 1956, all of the university's divisions were designated "The State University of New Jersey." Since that time, Rutgers has continued to expand its undergraduate, graduate, and professional offerings to better serve the changing needs of the state and its citizens. Today, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has approximately 48,000 students and more than 8,000 full-time faculty and staff. The university comprises 29 degree-granting divisions: 12 undergraduate schools, 11 graduate and graduate/professional schools, and six schools that offer both degree levels. Of the 29 divisions, five are located in Camden, eight in Newark, and 16 in New Brunswick.

The university is also a land-grant institution and home of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. The Agricultural Experiment Station is the research arm of the state dealing with renewable natural resources. Its mandate is to improve the quality of life for New Jersey citizens. Among its activities, the Agricultural Experiment Station runs the Rutgers Cooperative Extension, a classroom without walls which brings the research of the land-grant college to the citizens of New Jersey in their homes and in their communities.

The university also operates centers, institutes, and bureaus that translate the fruits of university research into practical applications. Among the areas addressed by these centers, institutes, and bureaus are: crime prevention (Center for Crime Prevention Studies), health care (Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research), women's issues (Institute for Research on Women), the ecology of New Jersey waterways (Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences), alcohol and drug abuse (Center of Alcohol Studies), and the environment (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, operated jointly with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey). Other centers establish government/university/industry partnerships that bridge the gap between pure research and practical application, creating new jobs in the process. Examples include the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, Fiber Optic Materials Research Program, Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity, Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Advanced Food Technology, Biotechnology for Agriculture and the Environment, Malcolm G. McLaren Center for Ceramic Research, Multimodal Collaborative Systems, Institute for Engineered Materials, Rutgers Business Innovation Center, and New Jersey Entrepreneurs Forum.

On to Missions and Goals.

Back to the 1997-1998 Fact Book Introduction.