When Rudolph Bell came to Rutgers in 1968, there were no women on the history department faculty, no unions for the professors, and certainly no computers for students or academics to use.

While much has changed in 40 years, campus life and the experience of working with students is not so different, said Bell, a School of Arts and Sciences professor who specializes in Italian history.

 “Rutgers has been very good to me,” he said.

Bell and more than 250 other faculty members were recognized for their service to Rutgers on May 6 during a luncheon at Neilson Dining Hall. Terence Butler, a math professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, and Leonard Wang, a classical and modern languages and literature professor at Rutgers–Newark, were the two 50-year honorees.

Collectively, the honorees have been at Rutgers for 5,180 years.

President Richard L. McCormick thanked the group for their service, and Alex Kemeny, a 2009 graduate of the School of Law–Camden, gave the student address. Bell, who addressed the audience on behalf of the group, said some of his most vivid memories of Rutgers surround the debates over the Vietnam War and the years he spent in Europe advising students who were studying abroad.

“You get to know the students in a different way,” he said. “It’s challenging and different from the classroom experience.”

Michael Rockland, a professor of American studies in New Brunswick who was also celebrating 40 years at Rutgers, said students are just as bright as they have always been – even if they don’t like to read as much as they once did.

Rockland said it’s important for professors to be Renaissance men and women.

“If we’re not interesting people, we won’t be interesting in the classroom,” Rockland said.  I feel blessed.  I’ve had 40 years of being paid to do the three things I like to do: read, write, and teach.”