News
Board approves endowed chair in neuroscience
The Rutgers Board of Governors took the following actions at its June 15, 2006, meeting:
$3 million to support neuroscience The board approved the creation of the Richard Shindell Chair in Neuroscience and named Wise Young as the first Shindell Chair. Young is the founding director of the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and a professor of cell biology and neuroscience. He is a world authority on spinal cord research and an ardent spokesman for stem cell research, which could yield therapies for damaged spinal cord tissue. Shindell, a 1957 Rutgers College graduate and longtime donor, committed $3 million to establish the chair after he visited the Keck Center. “I was deeply moved and began to comprehend the team spirit and real caring for the injured that is so evident there,” Shindell said. “I knew I had to do whatever I could to support this work.”
More clinical faculty appointments The board established clinical non-tenure track faculty appointments in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, Mason Gross School of the Arts, and the School of Business-Camden. Clinical faculty members typically focus more on practice and training and less on research; the board said the clinical track has been used “to excellent effect” and benefited students at other Rutgers units.
Addition to promotion committee The board amended the university policy so that the vice president for undergraduate education, a position recently reconceived by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, sits on the Promotion Review Committee. The board also added to the committee a fifth voting faculty member ranked at or above professor.
New school in Newark The board approved the creation of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers-Newark. Headed by Marc Holzer, founding director of the National Center for Public Productivity at Rutgers-Newark, the school will raise the national and international profile of Rutgers-Newark while catering to the needs of communities and government and nonprofit agencies in northern New Jersey. The school will pave the way for more research and development funds and help Rutgers-Newark compete for more highly qualified faculty and graduate students in public administration.
Laboratory renovations The board awarded a $2.1 million contract to a Pine Brook construction company to renovate the Wright-Rieman Laboratories on Busch Campus in Piscataway. The laboratory houses the departments of chemistry and geological sciences and various scientific research centers. Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corporation in Morris County submitted a low bid of $2,147,800.
Gift to kick off capital campaign The board of governors transferred $6 million from the board's Consolidated Reserve Account to the Rutgers University Foundation. The gift will support the administrative work necessary for the foundation to prepare for and carry out the university's next capital campaign. The most recent capital campaign raised more than $600 million.
Softball champs The board recognized the 2006 Rutgers-Camden women’s softball team, the Scarlet Raptors, for winning the first national title in the school’s history, the NCAA Division III softball championship.