New Rutgers Law School Facility to Rise in Camden

School of Law-Camden Expansion

CAMDEN -- The construction of a new facility to expand the academic, research, and community service programs at the Rutgers University School of Law at Camden will begin this summer.

The $37 million project will add approximately 50,000 square feet of new space for the Rutgers-Camden law school, as well as renovate the existing building, which was constructed in 1972. The new space will be located on land that has been acquired for this purpose across from the current site on Fifth Street and will be linked at the third-floor level above the street.

Funded partially by an $11 million grant from the State of New Jersey as part of the Municipal Recovery and Rehabilitation Act of 2002, and a $1 million grant from the State of New Jersey, the balance of the project will be bonded by Rutgers. Similar grants to Cooper Medical Center, Rowan University, and Camden County College also acknowledge the anchoring roles of higher education and health care in Camdens recovery, and seek to enhance the citys growing University District.

The new Rutgers-Camden law school facility will be located on a site bounded by Fifth and Sixth Streets and Penn and Lawrence Streets. The university secured ownership of the site in January.

The firm Ayres Saint Gross selection has been selected to design the new facility. The Baltimore architectural firm has a strong history of creating high-profile facilities for top law schools nationwide.

Construction will begin during summer 2005. The new facility is scheduled for occupancy by late fall 2007; the entire project, including renovations to the existing facility, will be completed during early 2008.

The new structure will allow the Rutgers-Camden law school to expand its successful clinical and pro bono programs, wherein students, working closely with attorneys and law school staff, gain practical experience by providing much-needed legal services to New Jersey citizens who otherwise would not have representation. The Rutgers-Camden School of Law currently offers such programs in bankruptcy, domestic violence, immigration law, community dispute resolution, elderlaw, security deposit assistance, and special education.

A state-of-the-art moot court complex also will be part of the new construction. Rutgers-Camden is the only law school in New Jersey and the Delaware Valley, and in its national peer group, without an on-site courtroom for student learning. Such activities currently take place at the federal and county courthouses in the City of Camden only during the evening.

Other anticipated aspects of the new facility include the creation of student gathering space and offices for student organizations; instructional spaces that reflect modern trends in class size among nationally ranked law schools; and a central location for law school administrative functions that currently are housed elsewhere on campus.

This is truly exciting news for the future of our law school, says Rayman Solomon, dean of the Rutgers University School of Law at Camden. Our faculty and students have done a remarkable job of serving the public and building community without adequate space. The new facility will allow Rutgers-Camden to expand its pedagogical and pro bono offerings, and is a significant element in our plan to become one of the top public law schools in the United States.

An investment of this magnitude in southern New Jerseys higher education community clearly is important to Rutgers, but it also speaks to the mounting demand for graduate and professional education across our region, says Roger Dennis, provost of Rutgers Universitys Camden campus. South Jersey is the growth area for the State of New Jersey during the coming years. Such projects as this new construction allow us to meet that demand in a strategic manner.

We are pleased and gratified that the Rutgers Board of Governors has ratified this project, and we thank them for their support. We thank the State of New Jersey for recognizing in the Municipal Recovery and Rehabilitation Act that investment in Rutgers-Camden is an investment in both the city and the state. We also thank Senator Wayne Bryant and Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Roberts for their support of our campus. Through this project, and many others, Rutgers-Camden is committed to working with our neighbors to bring new vitality to our host city.

During the 2004-05 academic year, the Rutgers University School of Law at Camden enrolls 797 students during day and evening classes. There are approximately 8,000 living graduates of the Rutgers-Camden law school, which was founded in 1926 as the South Jersey Law School and became part of the Rutgers system in 1950. In 1968, the Rutgers-Camden law school was accorded independent status from its sister school in Newark.

Updates about the Rutgers-Camden law school facility project will be posted online at www.camlaw.rutgers.edu as details develop.

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