Welcome to a New Academic Year

September 3, 2007

Dear Rutgers Students:

Welcome to the 2007–08 academic year! I wish you the best possible experience—both in and outside the classroom.

Much is happening on the New Brunswick Campus as the fall semester gets under way, most prominently a dramatic transformation of undergraduate education that features:

  • Creation of the School of Arts and Sciences to serve all undergraduate arts and sciences students.
  • The renaming of Cook College as the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.
  • Reorganization of student affairs offices to serve the university community better and more efficiently.
  • Introduction of campus deans and deans of students on the Busch, College Avenue, Cook, Douglass, and Livingston campuses to support undergraduates and to connect classroom life to campus life.

All undergraduates will benefit from the changes, including those in the professional schools in New Brunswick—the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and School of Engineering.

I want to thank all those students who have helped us make this transition, including the leaders who helped shape the new student government structure that takes effect this semester. For more information on the transformation of undergraduate education, see http://ur.rutgers.edu/transform_ru/.

Whether you are a first-year student, an upperclassman, or a long-time graduate student, I hope you will make the most of your opportunities at Rutgers this year. I will be speaking about our ambitions for the coming year in my Annual Address to the University Community on Friday, September 28, at 1:10 p.m. in the Rutgers Student Center on College Avenue. There will also be a question-and-answer period after I give my remarks. I invite you to attend, or you can see the webcast via my website, http://www.president.rutgers.edu.

As you begin the semester, I wish you all the rewards of hard work, intellectual curiosity, and active participation in the life of this dynamic community.

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