Welcome to the 2010–11 Academic Year at Rutgers

September 1, 2010

Dear Students:

First, let me welcome all our new students to the university community; we are very glad that you have chosen Rutgers. We hope that you will take advantage of all the resources available at the university, starting with our superb faculty, and that you will have a deeply rewarding experience, both in and outside the classroom. If you were at our Student Involvement Fair on Monday afternoon, you saw an incredible array of the extracurricular opportunities that await you here at Rutgers, and I encourage you to get involved as soon as possible.

To all our returning students, and especially those who will be earning a degree this academic year, welcome back! We hope you have had a wonderful summer.

As the 2010–11 academic year begins, there are several developments of note on the New Brunswick Campus:

  • Professor Jacqueline Litt begins her tenure as dean of Douglass Residential College and the Douglass Campus.
     
  • Based on fall enrollments, it appears that fully half of all eligible first-year students will take one of our Byrne First-Year Seminars in 2010–11, and the Signature Courses in the School of Arts and Sciences continue to achieve the high expectations we had in establishing them last year.
     
  • Project Civility, a yearlong, campuswide discussion of what civility means to us as individuals, as an educational community, and as part of the wider world, will kick off later this month. The project will include a public lecture, an essay contest, monthly chats in residence halls, and other conversations.
     
  • The view on College Avenue is changing, as the Gateway building takes shape on Somerset Street, where it will house the Rutgers bookstore, and a new bus shelter has been completed in front of the College Avenue Gym.
     
  • The Livingston Campus continues its transformation, as construction of the dining commons and a new residence hall will complement the superbly renovated student center.

As I do each year, I encourage you to attend my Annual Address to the University Community, which will take place Friday, September 24, at 1:10 p.m. at the University Senate meeting in the Rutgers Student Center on College Avenue. If you cannot attend, the address will be webcast at http://www.president.rutgers.edu/address10.shtml.

I hope this is a year of discovery, excitement, and joy for each of you—and I thank you again for choosing Rutgers.

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