Rutgers News Center

History professor to play a key role in shaping the country’s approach to humanities

Clement Alexander Price will chair President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The NEH is an independent grantmaking agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.

Price is Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor on the Newark Campus and director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience.

Newark Chancellor Steven Diner said that in choosing Price, Obama’s advisors reached out to a scholar who has earned national distinction for his leadership roles in higher education and the arts and humanities.

“Clement Price is known widely for his pioneering efforts in using the humanities to build civic culture and to empower communities,” Diner said. “Professor Price is uniquely qualified to identify the ways the Obama administration can draw upon the humanities as a vital part of its agenda.”

A longtime resident of Newark, Price is considered one of the foremost authorities on the black New Jersey experience. Among his many books are Freedom Not Far Distant: A Documentary History of Afro-Americans in New Jersey.

Named New Jersey Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in 1999, the historian was inducted into the Rutgers University Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 2006.

Also in 2006, he and his wife, Mary Sue Sweeney Price, received the 2006 Ryan Award for Commitment to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

No stranger to public service, Price was Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s choice last spring to chair the Superintendent Search Committee for the Newark public schools. He is a trustee of the Urban Libraries Council and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and president of the Newark Public Schools Foundation.

“The NEH is a public trust that is committed to a broad and deep investment in public knowledge,” Price said after his appointment was announced. “I expect President Obama, despite the financial crisis now facing the nation, will want to continue its mission and its service to the principles of the American Republic.”

  – Helen Paxton

A call for applicants to Rutgers Faculty Traveling Seminar

Once again, Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick will lead a group of Rutgers faculty and administrators on a bus tour across the state to get a five-day lesson in New Jersey’s history, economics, culture, and government.

Applications are being accepted for the Rutgers' Faculty Traveling Seminar's sixth annual trek across the state of New Jersey, a unique opportunity to see firsthand the breadth and variety of New Jersey’s communities, to learn about the places Rutgers students come from, and to meet and interact with colleagues.

The five-day, four-night bus journey kicks off with an early morning departure from Piscataway on Monday, June 1, 2009, and returns to Piscataway on Friday afternoon, June 5.

Applications for the 2009 seminar will be accepted until Monday, February 2. The tour is open to tenured or tenure-track faculty who have joined Rutgers within the past four years, newly appointed department chairs, newly tenured faculty, and, by invitation, select senior administrators and newly appointed deans.

Graduate School of Education unveils new master’s program

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) is taking applications for September 2009 enrollment for its new Masters of Education in College Student Affairs (CSA) program.

The new CSA master’s program at the New Brunswick Campus will be a 42-credit course of study designed to prepare students to enter the field of student affairs.

Student affairs professionals work directly with students in areas such as housing and residence life, student unions, student activities, counseling, enrollment, and support services.

GSE Dean of Students Paul A. Herman said the program will be the first of its kind in New Jersey. “The program will offer outstanding learning opportunities for its students, and some of the graduates will be hired by Rutgers and provide the long-term leadership that will help improve the quality of student life at the university,” Herman said.

Learning opportunities in the CSA program include a combination of classroom instruction, field experience, apprenticeships, and individualized learning. Students will gain practical experience working with student affairs professionals at Rutgers on contemporary issues in the field.

The program can be completed in two years; however, the field experience required could extend the course of study longer.

Two new faculty members, at least one of which will be at the level of associate or full professor, are currently being sought for this program, according to Herman.

The deadline for applications is February 1. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree with at least a 3.0 grade point average.

                                                                                        – Coleen Dee Berry

New statue of Walt Whitman unveiled at Rutgers–Camden

Walt Whitman would delight in seeing himself as a bronzed beacon. Even amidst the raindrops during a Thursday, November, 13 unveiling ceremony, the Good Grey Poet shines again. Thanks to world-renowned sculptor John Giannotti, a professor emeritus of art at Rutgers–Camden, the eight-foot statue “Whitman with Butterfly” now stands as a welcoming focal point in front of the Campus Center. 

Giannotti, who retired from Rutgers–Camden in 2001, has donated the creation as well as the hundreds of hours it took to improve the sculpture. Three versions of the piece now exist; two earlier works – made during the centennial of Whitman’s death in 1992 – are featured at Soka University in Tokyo and the Camden Children’s Garden.

“I wanted to leave something behind at Rutgers that was visible,” Giannotti notes. “Of course, we’ve all left something behind, but as a sculptor I get to leave something tangible. Who gets to leave a thousand-pound piece of bronze?”

During the ceremony, held indoors due to inclement weather, Rutgers–Camden Interim Chancellor Margaret Marsh discussed Giannotti’s significant contribution to the campus.  “We are thrilled for John’s generosity. We have an extraordinary piece of art created by an extraordinary sculptor,” Marsh remarked.

Giannotti’s creative contribution also will serve as a constant reminder of Whitman’s great connection to Camden, which Rutgers–Camden continues to foster. Home to the online journal Mickle Street Review and the Walt Whitman Program in American Studies, Rutgers–Camden also offers access to the primary materials of the Good Grey Poet that are stored at the Walt Whitman House, located less than a mile from campus.

– Cathy K. Donovan

$750,000 grant to support 10 doctoral fellows in nursing

The F.M. Kirby Foundation, Inc. of Morristown awarded a $750,000 grant to the College of Nursing to support the education of 10 doctoral fellows who are New Jersey residents.

The grant will also fund the work of a faculty member who is committed to teaching, research, and service in the best academic tradition, said Interim Dean Lucille Joel.

The F.M. Kirby Foundation is a family foundation. Its grantees are largely in geographic areas of particular interest to five generations of Kirby family members and, in many cases, are organizations with which family members have been associated.

Rutgers College of Nursing was the first to introduce a doctoral program in nursing in New Jersey. In the fall of 2006, the first online and blended doctoral program was introduced at Rutgers University to meet the needs of nurses interested in Ph.D. studies, but who cannot attend a traditional setting because of family and work demands.

The College of Nursing also introduced the doctor of nursing practice (D.N.P.) program in the Spring 2007 semester. The D.N.P. program differs from a nursing Ph.D. program in that it will focus on the practice of nursing and the application of research, rather than the development and testing of original research.

The coursework is delivered in an online and blended format similar to the doctoral program and includes a residency period in which students will gather on campus for instruction.

 – Miguel Tersy