Welcome to the 2011–12 Academic Year at Rutgers

September 1, 2011

Dear Students:

Hello and welcome, or welcome back, to the Newark Campus of Rutgers! We hope that those of you from the East Coast and your families are coping well with the effects of Hurricane Irene.

To our newest students, we are delighted that you have chosen Rutgers. I encourage you to take advantage of the myriad resources available at the university, starting with our superb faculty, to ensure that you will have a deeply rewarding Rutgers experience.

Let me point out a few developments at Rutgers–Newark that have taken place recently:

  • Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick has introduced a new "Flex MBA" program that will enable students to take courses in the evening or during the day on either campus, as well as in Jersey City and Morristown.
  • Two important new research centers have been established. The International Institute for Peace will seek to transform cities and societies marked by inequality, violence, and exclusion into engaged and inclusive communities. The Rutgers University Brain Imaging Center will greatly strengthen the university's research in understanding how the brain works.
  • The LGBTQ and Diversity Resource Center has opened in Conklin Hall, directed by Maren Greathouse. The center works to create a safe and supportive academic environment through educational opportunities and advocating for the needs and concerns of LGBT students.
  • This month, Rutgers–Newark opens its first-ever Child Care Center for the children of students, faculty, and staff. This fully licensed center will operate year-round and will serve both day and evening students.

Many of our efforts this summer were focused on working with Governor Christie's advisory committee on medical education to advance the possibility that several elements of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, including the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, will be integrated into Rutgers. Such a step, which we hope will be recommended by the committee this month, would add critically important capabilities that will enhance Rutgers' profile as one of America's leading research universities and will enable us to better serve the people of New Jersey.

This initiative is one of several urgent goals for the university in the year ahead, including further advancement toward the billion-dollar target of our fundraising campaign. To hear more about our plans, please attend my Annual Address to the University Community, which will take place Friday, September 16, at 1:10 p.m. at the University Senate meeting in the Rutgers Student Center on College Avenue in New Brunswick. If you cannot attend, the address will be webcast at http://www.president.rutgers.edu/address11.shtml.

I hope this is a year of discovery, excitement, and joy. For those who will be earning a degree this year, I hope it will be particularly rewarding and memorable. Welcome to all of you!

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey