Welcome Back for a New Semester

January 20, 2004

Members of the Rutgers Community:

Welcome back for a new semester at Rutgers. I hope the winter break gave you an opportunity to relax and recharge for the challenges of a new year. Special welcome to those students who are new to the university; we wish you every success and hope you will enjoy your time at Rutgers. You are joining one of the finest learning communities in America, and we are glad you’re here.

The new year also signals the start of a new budget cycle for the State of New Jersey. The Governor and the Legislature will be developing a state budget over the next few months. Funding for Rutgers and for higher education statewide remains a critical issue. As was the case last year, I will soon be calling on you to help advocate for the funding we need. Over the long run, adequate funding for Rutgers will depend on our responding ever more fully and extensively to the needs of the people of New Jersey.

You will also be hearing more about our efforts to collaborate with our fellow public research universities, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). While Governor McGreevey has decided not to pursue his restructuring plan at this time, the spirit of collaboration embodied in the plan lives on.

In his State of the State address last week, Governor McGreevey asked Rutgers, UMDNJ, and NJIT to “present a plan that eliminates the institutional barriers that prevent the enhanced research and teaching opportunities that our state desperately needs.” Having recently met with the presidents of UMDNJ and NJIT, I know we are all eager to meet the Governor’s request and to maintain the momentum for collaboration built over the past year.

We also have set an ambitious internal agenda for Rutgers. It includes raising the already-high quality of our academic programs; improving the education of our students; increasing the diversity of our student body, staff, and faculty; and making much-needed improvements in our campuses and facilities. These are farsighted goals, which we can only achieve by working together.

Great opportunities await Rutgers University in the coming months and years. With confidence that this will be an exciting and rewarding year for us, I offer you my best wishes for an enjoyable, successful semester at Rutgers.

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