Welcome to the 2010–11 Academic Year at Rutgers

September 1, 2010

Dear Students:

First, let me join Chancellor Diner in welcoming 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 have a deeply rewarding experience, both in and outside the classroom.

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 new people and programs of note on the Newark Campus:

  • U.S. News & World Report has ranked Rutgers–Newark first in student ethnic diversity among national universities for the 14th year in a row.
     
  • Todd Clear begins his first full academic year as dean of the School of Criminal Justice, leading a faculty that includes some of the top scholars in the field, with a Ph.D. program in criminology that is ranked seventh in the nation.
     
  • Beginning this semester at Rutgers–Newark, former New Jersey Supreme Court chief justice Deborah T. Poritz will begin a three-year tenure as visiting jurist emerita-in-residence at both Rutgers School of Law–Newark and Rutgers School of Law–Camden.
     
  • The campus will hold its first-ever Annual Public Service Day on October 7, when all undergraduates will have the opportunity to learn about, and volunteer to help, Newark-based community organizations and agencies.

In addition, the university is conducting a national search for a new dean of the Rutgers Business School to succeed Michael Cooper, who has advanced the school dramatically in his time as dean, and who will be leaving the deanship next June.

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 on the New Brunswick Campus. 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