Reflections on the Fall Semester at Rutgers

December 6, 2010

Members of the Rutgers Community:

As the fall semester draws to a close, I offer all our students best wishes for success on your final exams and papers, and I thank faculty and staff for your hard work and your dedication to the mission of the university.

This has been a difficult semester at Rutgers. The deaths of undergraduates from our Camden and New Brunswick campuses have caused profound sadness, and we mourn their passing. Student athlete Eric LeGrand suffered a severe spinal cord injury in October and only recently has become able to breathe on his own. It is comforting to know that out of these heartbreaking tragedies have come expressions of compassion and unity, including a fund to support Eric’s family.

Through it all, our community has persevered and, in many cases, has excelled. We take pride in the 11 graduate programs at Rutgers–New Brunswick that received high rankings from the National Research Council, including English, food science, history, mathematics, and philosophy, which were rated as “nationally outstanding.” We salute Lieutenant Richard Dinan of the Rutgers University Police Department, who earned a Civilian Meritorious Service Award from the New Jersey National Guard. We celebrate the Innovators Award that Professor Linda Brzustowicz received for her work on autism; Professor Scott Glenn’s New Jersey Professor of the Year honors; and Professor Mauricio Delgado’s selection for a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, our fourth such highly prestigious award in the past two years.

Our students have also earned significant recognitions. For the second straight year, a team of economics students from Rutgers–Newark won the New York Fed Challenge. This fall at Rutgers–New Brunswick, we had more than twice as many Fulbright scholarship applications as we have ever had, with high hopes for their success. And the Rutgers–Camden men’s soccer team won its third ECAC Division III Metro/Upstate championship in five years. This is just a sampling of our students’ many achievements.

We have seen external signs that Rutgers is on the move. First-year applications to Rutgers are slightly ahead of last year’s record-setting pace, demonstrating the university’s increasing reputation among high school students and their families. Private giving to Rutgers is considerably higher than it was at the same point a year ago. For example, a $1.67 million bequest by 1954 alumnus John Vander Veer has endowed scholarships in Athletics, in the School of Engineering, and on our Camden Campus. Likewise, a million-dollar gift from 1962 graduate Robert E. Campbell has endowed scholarships at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick. And a $10 million anonymous gift to the Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health will support faculty, fellowships, and equipment, as well as research on how food and pharmaceuticals combat cancer and other diseases. Other recent gifts to Rutgers are listed and archived in the Faculty and Staff Bulletin.
I do not mean to ignore the challenges we face as a university, budgetary and otherwise. But it is gratifying to know that Rutgers continues to benefit from the dedication of faculty and staff who are achieving great things despite fewer resources, and that so many of our students continue to excel within and beyond the classroom. Finally, I note with admiration and pride the many ways, including Rutgers Against Hunger, in which our university community reaches out to help others throughout the year. You have my thanks for all you do for Rutgers and my warm best wishes for the holidays.

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