OUR CURRENT STATUS

Effective planning requires a common understanding of where we are and the direction in which we wish to move. This section briefly describes our current status with reference to important benchmarks in the following areas: student characteristics; enrollment; indicators of academic progress; financial aid; budget issues; and characteristics of alumni, faculty, and staff.

Student Profile

Characteristics of the Student Body   Gender: Consistent with trends across the nation, Rutgers enrolls slightly more female than male undergraduates and graduates: women represented 53% of both undergraduate and graduate enrollments in fall 1994.
    Ethnicity: Rutgers' undergraduate student body reflects New Jersey's rich racial and ethnic diversity: in fall 1994, the undergraduate enrollment was 59% white, 14% Asian, 11% African- American, 9% Latino, 2% foreign, and 5% unknown/other. According to the latest available survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rutgers ranks first among public AAU institutions in the percentage of African-American student enrollment, sixth in the percentages of Asian and Latino enrollment, and fourth in total minority enrollment.1
    Graduate and professional student enrollment figures show a slightly different racial and ethnic distribution. In fall 1994, 61% of graduate students were white, 6% African-American, 6% Asian, 4% Latino, 13% foreign, and 10% unknown/other.
    Males and females are not equally represented in the different racial and ethnic groups among undergraduates. There are fairly comparable percentages of white and Asian males and females, while 64% of African-American undergraduates are female and 58% of Latino undergraduates are female. A very similar distribution exists among graduate students. Foreign students, however, show a different gender pattern: 48% of the foreign undergraduates are female, but only 37% of the foreign graduate students are female.
    Age: Rutgers enrolls predominantly traditional age undergraduate students: about 80% of Rutgers' undergraduates are 24 years old or less. The proportion of undergraduate students over 24 years of age is higher at Camden and Newark (36% and 32% respectively) than at New Brunswick (15%). Most graduate students (82%) are over 24 years old.
    Residency: More than 90% of all Rutgers students are in-state residents. About 8% of Rutgers' undergraduate students and 25% of its graduate and professional students are out-of-state residents. While the percentage of out-of-state undergraduates has been fairly stable for more than a decade, the percentage of graduate/professional students from outside New Jersey has shown incremental growth throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
    Rutgers' in-state students come from every county in New Jersey. Counties most heavily represented include: Middlesex (17%), Essex (10%), Bergen (10%), Camden (8%), and, Monmouth (8%).

See Figures 1A and 1B.

Enrollment   There has been tremendous growth in enrollments at Rutgers over the last 35 years; the student body has more than tripled in size since the late 1950s, with most growth occurring during the late l960s and 1970s. Enrollments have fluctuated only slightly over the last decade. Rutgers has not experienced the significant enrollment decline that had been predicted for the early 1990s. Distribution of students across the three campuses has been constant over time, with 70% at New Brunswick, 20% at Newark, and 10% at Camden.

See Figure 2.

    Almost one-third of Rutgers' total student body is enrolled part time, including one-third of the undergraduates at Newark and Camden, 15% of the undergraduates at New Brunswick, and 65% of all the graduate and professional students.
    Overall, about one quarter of the undergraduate student body has transferred to Rutgers from another college or university.
    Rutgers houses over 14,000 of its students in university residence halls. Over 11,000 students live in off-campus housing and approximately 22,000 students commute.

Academic Indicators   The academic standing of Rutgers' incoming classes continues to improve. In 1994, first-year students had a mean math SAT score of 592, a full 85 points higher than the math scores of the 1970s, and surpassing the all time high scores of the late 1980s. The average verbal SAT score in fall 1994 was 508, more than 50 points above the averages in the late 1970s. The combined math and verbal SAT scores for first-year Rutgers students in fall 1994 (1100) was 207 points higher than the New Jersey average and 198 points higher than the national average. While SAT scores have been slipping nationally in the last five years, scores for Rutgers entering students have remained stable, and considerably above average scores of the 1970s.

See Figure 3.

    Class rank is another indicator of academic standing: 30% of the first-time, full-time students entering Rutgers in the fall of 1993 were ranked within their graduating classes at the 90th percentile or above; another 50% ranked between the 70th and 89th percentile.
    Graduation rates are an indicator of students' academic progress in college: 72% of Rutgers' fall 1987 full-time entering class graduated within six years, placing Rutgers within the top third of public AAU institutions in the country on this measure. Rutgers' overall six-year graduation rates have been at about this level for the last several years.

See Figure 4.

    Entering graduate and professional students' scores on standardized tests have increased substantially during the last decade: mean GRE scores and mean GMAT scores increased at every Rutgers school between 1985 and 1994. GRE scores increased by 5.3% at Newark, 0.7% at Camden, and 2.4% at New Brunswick during this period and GMAT scores at the Graduate School of Management increased 2.0% between 1985 and 1994. Average LSAT scores were stable over this period.

Financial Aid   In 1993-1994, 54% of Rutgers' undergraduates (almost 19,000 students) received some form of financial assistance, totaling nearly $94 million and representing nearly 53,000 different awards. Sixty-four percent of the funds awarded were in the form of grants and scholarships, 32% were loans, and 4% were from the federal college work/study program. Fifty percent of the financial aid was from federal sources, 35% was from the state, 12% was from the university, and 3% was from private sources.

See Figures 5A and 5B.

    Among graduate students, the number of full-time equivalent teaching and graduate assistant positions rose from 750 in 1984 to 1,050 in 1993.

Alumni Profile

Facts about the Alumni   Rutgers alumni currently total more than 250,000. In the past ten years alone, Rutgers has awarded over 92,000 degrees.
    Approximately 59% of all Rutgers alumni live in New Jersey, contributing to the state economy and repaying the investment the state made in their education. These alumni work in government, education, and industry and are well-represented among the state's political and corporate leaders. Rutgers alumni also reside in each of the other 49 states and in over 125 foreign countries.

See Figures 6A and 6B.

    In FY 1994, Rutgers alumni donated $5.2 million to the university, an increase of 20.9% over the $4.3 million donated in FY 1993.

Faculty Profile

Characteristics of the Faculty   Rutgers employs just over 2,400 full-time faculty, with 74% on the New Brunswick campus, 17% on the Newark campus, and 9% on the Camden campus.
    Universitywide, the faculty is 31% female, 69% male. The racial and ethnic distribution is 84% white, 9% Asian, 5% African American, and 2% Latino. The Newark and Camden campuses have slightly higher proportions of women faculty than the New Brunswick campus (34% and 32%, respectively, compared to 30% at New Brunswick), but the racial/ethnic composition of the faculty on the three campuses is similar.
    According to 1993 national data showing full-time faculty characteristics, Rutgers compares favorably to other public AAU institutions in faculty diversity. Nationwide, Rutgers had the third highest percentage of women faculty. It ranked first among public AAU institutions in its percentage of African-American faculty, ninth in its percentage of Latino faculty, and eleventh in its percentage of Asian faculty. In total, Rutgers ranked sixth among AAU public institutions in its percentage of minority faculty.

See Figures 7A and 7B.

    Rutgers faculty are well represented in the prestigious national academies. Eleven faculty are members of the National Academy of Sciences, five are members of the National Academy of Engineering, five are members of the Institute of Medicine, and nine are in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rutgers ranks 12th among AAU public institutions in the number of faculty in these associations.

See Figure 8.

Faculty Rank and Tenure   More than a third of Rutgers' faculty are full professors and about two-thirds are tenured. Universitywide, 38% of the full-time faculty are professors, 31% are associate professors, 22% assistant professors, and 9% are instructors or hold other ranks. Faculty distribution by rank on the New Brunswick and Newark campuses is similar to that for the total university. Of Camden faculty, 29% hold the rank of professor, while 36% are associate professors, 30% are assistant professors, and 5% are instructors or hold other titles.
    In 1994, the percent of the full-time Rutgers faculty with tenure is considerably higher than the percent tenured in 1980. In 1994, 63% of the Newark faculty, 67% of the New Brunswick faculty, and 62% of the Camden faculty were tenured, whereas 56%, 56%, and 51%, respectively, were tenured in 1980. Rutgers has a slightly lower percentage of tenured faculty than the average for public AAU institutions.

See Figure 9.

    Rutgers ranked first among public AAU institutions with respect to average faculty salaries in academic year 1993Ð1994; this ranking held for professors, associate professors, and assistant professors alike.

Staff Profile

Characteristics of the Staff   In 1994-1995, 60% of the staff were women. Gender differences by category of employment prevail, e.g., 93% of the clerical staff were female, while 6% of the skilled craft employees were female. However, almost 40% of the executive, administrative, and managerial employees, and over 60% of the professional and technical staff were women.
    In 1994-1995, 68% of the staff were white, 19% were African-American, 9% were Latino, 3% were Asian, and 1% were foreign or other. In 1993 Rutgers ranked fourth among public AAU institutions in its percentage of minority staff.
    Comparisons between Rutgers and 28 other public AAU institutions on the number of staff per faculty member consistently show Rutgers to be in the bottom third of institutions on this ratio. In every employee-to-faculty comparison (e.g., executive, administrative, and managerial employees per faculty), with the exception of skilled craft employees, Rutgers' ratios are lower than the averages at peer institutions.

See Figure 10.

Budget Issues

Public Support   State appropriations to higher education have declined significantly in recent years. Public colleges and universities across the country are losing revenue as states allocate increasing proportions of their discretionary funds to corrections and health care. With just 4.4% of state and local tax revenues devoted to higher education, New Jersey ranks sixth lowest in the nation.
    In FY 1994, state appropriations provided only 39.8% of the university's budget. Other sources included student tuition and fees (22.0%); government grants and contracts (15.1%); auxiliary enterprises (12.9%); gifts, private grants, and contracts (3.7%); and other sources (6.5%).

See Figure 11.

Sponsored Research   Funds for externally sponsored research have grown tremendously in the last decade. Nonstate research funding at Rutgers more than quadrupled between FY 1984 and FY 1994. Sponsored research grants and contracts totaled $149.4 million in FY 1994. About 60% of sponsored research funds come from federal sources, with the remaining 40% divided among state, corporate, and foundation sources.

See Figure 12.

Private Support   Rutgers' fund raising efforts have reached record levels in recent years. In FY 1994 the total amount raised exceeded $35 million, which is 43% higher than the total amount raised in FY 1989. Corporations contribute the largest share (38%), followed by foundations (26%), friends (20%), and alumni (16%).

See Figure 13.

Educational Costs   As state support declines, public colleges and universities are finding it necessary to pass on greater proportions of their educational costs to students. Rutgers has been able to keep increases in tuition and fees to 5-6% a year for the last three years, compared to average increases of 9-10% (in academic years 1992-1993 and 1993-1994) for other public AAU institutions.
 Close to one third of the university's budget (32.2%) is spent on instruction and departmental research ($284 million in FY 1994). Auxiliary enterprises account for 12.7% ($112 million), operation and maintenance of plant account for 9.5%, sponsored research 9.0%, student aid 7.4%, general administration and institutional costs 6.0%, and other separately budgeted research 5.1%. Other categories of expenditures--student services, other sponsored programs, extension and public service, libraries, general obligation debt service, and other--each account for less than 5% of the university's total annual expenditures.

See Figure 14.


1. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1994.