Chancellor's Annual Address to the Campus Community (Sept. 16, 2009)

Wendell Pritchett,  Chancellor

To view the video of the address, visit here.

Thank you for coming today.  This is my first formal campus address, but I hope you know – or you will know – that I’m not someone who waits for an excuse to talk about Rutgers–Camden.

I’ve been on campus for a little more than two months now.  During that time, I’ve held numerous meetings with faculty in small groups (and I intend to hold more through this semester); introduced myself to staff and faculty in their offices and buildings; visited with regional and statewide opinion leaders; met with alumni and donors; and been introduced to some of the finest students in the Delaware Valley.

Through all of this, I’ve learned a lot about Rutgers–Camden, but two lessons stand out:

One:  I still have a lot to learn about our campus.  There are a lot of amazing stories about faculty research, effective teaching, student achievement, community engagement, and so much more, that I don’t think I’ve really scratched the surface yet. So I look forward to continuing to meet with students, staff, faculty, alums, and anyone with a stake in the future of Rutgers–Camden. 

Two:  From meeting with external constituents, such as legislators, business leaders, and other officials, it’s clear to me that Rutgers–Camden is a valued and respected institution in the Delaware Valley and even beyond. It’s also clear that, for as many people who know about our strengths and abilities, there are just as many – perhaps even more – who don’t realize how Rutgers–Camden touches their lives. 

I learned something else this summer, from virtually everyone I’ve met.  Rutgers–Camden is more than a university campus.  We’re more than faculty, or students, alumni, or staff.  The sum total of our diverse parts is this:  Rutgers–Camden is a place of optimism.  We’re confident in our future and in our ability to get there.  We know that we have what it takes: our faculty, our students, and our staff. And we have the rigor and integrity to do it right.

We’re preparing to celebrate our 60^th anniversary in 2010 as the southernmost campus within the Rutgers system.  From what I understand, the admissions building, 406 Penn Street, is pretty much the original building from the very early days of the campus.  So think about the incredible optimism of the local businesspeople who launched the South Jersey Law School in 1926, and the College of South Jersey in 1927.  Think about the decision by the State of New Jersey to incorporate those units into Rutgers in 1950.  And then think about the explosion of our campus and the magnitude of its impact on the lives of our students, our graduates, and our state, since then.  Could anyone have foreseen the outcome of the decision to open a law school more than 80 years ago?

Let me say that I am proud to be one of you, a part of this progress.  

I already know that Rutgers–Camden is blessed with a sharp and dedicated professional staff and, pound for pound, book for book, a research faculty that I’ll stack up against any other university – including my former employer – any day. 

Let me talk first about administrative issues.  My transition to the role of chancellor was exponentially simplified by the momentum established during Margaret Marsh’s tenure as interim chancellor.  Margaret has returned to the deanship of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but set a high bar, and she’s a tough act to follow. Thank you, Margaret.

But Margaret’s service is not yet done.  On Sept. 9, President McCormick delivered the charge to the search committee for a new School of Business dean.  Margaret has agreed to co-chair the committee, alongside Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, associate dean for undergraduate programs at the business school.  We all know how important the leadership of the business school is to growing our campus and improving our region.  I know that our co-chairs are committed to finding the best qualified person, and I look forward to working with them to achieve this goal.

I would like to thank Ray Solomon, dean of the School of Law, for assuming the additional role of acting dean of the School of Business.  Ray’s leadership of our professional schools is unparalleled, and his role as a respected leader within the University is critical to our campus.  His friendship to me has been invaluable.

I am fortunate to be working with some of the most talented staff within the Rutgers system.  They are too numerous to mention, but to them all, I offer my thanks for their support.

Together, we all confront a challenge that is unfortunately common here at Rutgers and, indeed, across the nation.  The recession has taken a dramatic toll on funding for higher education, especially state-supported colleges and universities, such as Rutgers. While the State of New Jersey passed its budget in June, it simply did not fund higher education to the level required.  President McCormick continues to work with Rutgers employees to find mutually agreeable ways to defer, but not eliminate, salary increases, and to minimize, if not outright avoid, the use of furloughs.  I don’t have more details at this time.  I can tell you that, here in Camden, Vice Chancellor Larry Gaines and I are working closely with the deans and administrative directors to develop budgets that allow us to protect our core mission and, moreover, to advance and grow.

We will make commitments that recognize and reconcile the reality of our fiscal constraints and the aspirations to build Rutgers–Camden.

And growth is real and it is happening.  I am pleased to report that, for the first time in Rutgers–Camden history, our enrollment is over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students. This extraordinary expansion is a direct result of the campuswide team effort to attract new students and retain current students.  Increased enrollment clearly supports our ambitions to become a campus of 7,500 or so students, which decreases our reliance on state support.      

These new students require top scholars to provide them with the high level of Rutgers excellence that they expect. Our campus welcomes 13 new tenure-track, tenured, and clinical faculty this fall.  In October, the Board of Governors is expected to vote on the appointment of a top international scholar to the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair in Mathematics in Memory of Leonard Bidwell, our first-ever endowed faculty chair.

During the summer, we completed work on the Athletic and Fitness Center.  If you weren’t at the Grand Opening on Sept. 1, you missed an amazing day, but you still have the chance to enjoy the state-of-the-art facility.  We also completed renovations to this room, the 401 Penn classroom, and started some renovations to the Paul Robeson Library.  The Multi-Purpose Room in the Campus Center was re-visioned into a top-notch space for academic conferences, alumni events, and more which, in turn, allows the Main Lounge in the Campus Center to revert to its original purpose – a comfortable space for students to relax.  Furniture is on order for just that purpose.

Ray Solomon wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t note that the Law Café on the Law School Bridge opened this summer as well.  If you want sushi on campus, it’s the place to go.

With increased enrollment, we need accommodations for more students.  The Camden County Improvement Authority is working to establish a private/public partnership that will yield a 350-bed housing facility for graduate students.  Rutgers will be a primary guarantor of those beds, which will be critical as we expand our national and international student recruitment efforts.  We envision that the facility likely will be built on Cooper Street, although the specific site has not yet been confirmed.

I’ve told President McCormick and many others that as soon as the shovels are in the ground on this new project---really before then---I’m then going to go back to him to propose the construction of another facility for undergraduate housing.  He understands that our demand is real and proven, and will work with us to help meet that student demand.

More housing for students matches up with another tactic for growing our enrollment:  attracting more international students to campus.  In order to recruit and then serve more international students – at the graduate and undergraduate levels – we are creating an Office for International Students within the Division of Student Affairs.  This office will have campus-wide responsibility for growing our international student population, which has clear benefits for the vitality of our campus.

Faculty

Let me say a few words about our faculty.  As I said, the excellence of our faculty represents our core strength.

I can’t possibly identify all of your achievements, so let me select just a few for illustrative purposes only:

Law Professor Michael Carrier published a well-received book, Innovation for the 21^st Century, with Oxford University Press;

Dr. Eduardo Gomez, an assistant professor of public policy, recently was elected to term membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, a signature accomplishment presented to a highly select group of exceptional young scholars;

Dr. Joseph Martin in the biology department is the PI on a $307,000 National Science Foundation grant that combines the energies of the science and math disciplines to develop new ways to retain students in these critical fields;

And the aggregated excellence of our School of Business faculty earned our MBA program designation as one of the nation’s top 15 in the area of global management, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

We produce an exceptional quantity and quality of research, made even more remarkable when adjusted for our relatively small size.  But even on a campus of our modest size, it’s difficult to know what our colleagues are doing.  That’s why I’m establishing the Rutgers Faculty Research Day.  On Nov. 5, several junior faculty will be challenged to present their research in short, easy-to-understand presentations.  Their work will be spotlighted for their faculty colleagues and their students, who will be encouraged to ask questions, and a post-event reception will allow us all the chance to interact.  I’ll send out more details soon.

But it doesn’t take a special event for faculty to have an excuse to gather as colleagues.  Starting tomorrow, I’ll host the first of what I hope will become a weekly lunchtime gathering of faculty in the law school faculty lounge.  Come on out and have lunch with faculty from other disciplines. Get to know each other as colleagues and scholars.  I’ll buy lunch tomorrow just to get things started.  I hope you will join me.

The reputation of our campus hinges on our faculty.  We will focus on developing national conferences that will attract peer scholars to Rutgers for substantive discussion about research and subjects that cross disciplines on our campus. Through President McCormick’s Initiative on Diversity Hiring, we will host a scholarly conference on the issues and concerns of urban youth during this academic year.  In the spring, we also will host a conference examining issues related to reentry of ex-offenders into society.

Similarly, our research centers are channels for reinforcing our faculty strength.  Through such centers as the Center for State Constitutional Studies, the Center for Strategic and Urban Community Leadership, and the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers–Camden grows its reputation among peer institutions.  I intend to work with these centers to help them grow to their next level of excellence.

The excellence of our faculty research is measured in another way:  funding for sponsored research projects, which, in 2008-09, rose 16 percent over the previous year.  Private donor support also is up.  It’s worth noting that, during the entirety of the last University campaign, the Camden Campus raised $17 million; a little more than two years into the current campaign, and we’ve raised $12-and-a-half million.

Students

Some words about our students. Certainly, we are here for our students.  At every level, Rutgers–Camden students work diligently and remain focused on their personal and professional goals. Increasingly, our students come from diverse backgrounds and widespread location.  This is a distinct advantage that we should celebrate and exploit.

We will continue to develop new opportunities for our students to take full advantage of the resources of Rutgers, while never losing sight of the personal attention that defines us.  During the past two weeks, I’ve enjoyed greatly the chance to meet so many of our students at a wide range of “Welcome Back” activities, including a luau, Coney Island night, and a Riversharks game.  I look forward to continuing to attend campus events; it’s the best way to get to know people.  It’s important for all of us who work at Rutgers, at every level, to connect with students on a regular and meaningful basis.

An important part of a Rutgers–Camden degree is the unique opportunity for every student to work closely with our research faculty.  In recognition of this priority, I have started the Margaret Marsh Award for Undergraduate Research, which will honor innovative work by an undergraduate student who creates original research while working with one of our faculty.  The award is open to any undergraduate student, and will be presented late in the spring semester.

These are just a few of the initiatives we will continue for our students.  I expect to announce more in the future.

Civic Learning/Academic Programs

Of course our most important interaction with students is in class.  Our students expect academic programs that will prepare them for a lifetime of success, and so we continue to expand our academic portfolio.  We finalize preparations for recruiting the first class of students to enter our PhD programs in computational biology and public affairs next fall.

As President McCormick announced last week, we are working to pursue the creation of a School of Nursing here on the Rutgers–Camden Campus. Through this school, Rutgers will achieve its full potential for nursing education in southern New Jersey without sacrificing any of our academic rigor.  This is an important step in the continued growth of our campus. Clearly, we are in the early stages of this process, which includes earning approval from the Board of Governors. 

Experiential learning is also vital to the evolving academy.  It benefits students, who apply their new skills in a living laboratory of sorts; it benefits the faculty, who see first-hand the efficacy of their research and their pedagogy; and it benefits our host community.  Understand that I am not talking about internship experiences which place students into organizations; rather, I’m talking about traditional courses that organically incorporate faculty-initiated and –implemented field experiences into the curriculum, and complement the classroom learning.  This past spring, Margaret Marsh initiated the Chancellor’s Grants to develop service learning courses; I will continue that excellent program.

Let me identify just two example of new courses developed by these grants that are active this fall:  “The Socially Responsible University,” taught by Richard Harris in the political science department, and “Entrepreneurship:  New Venture Creation,” taught by Briance Mascarenhas in the School of Business.  There are more offered this fall, and still more slated to debut in the spring; I applaud all involved.

Service

Civic engagement courses are a good start towards broader connection with our community.  Towards this end, we have secured funding from the Annie Casey Foundation to hire a director of civic engagement.  This person will become our primary point of contact for connecting Rutgers with our host city and the Delaware Valley.  Many offices on this campus already do fine work within our community, and I do not suggest that this position will redefine their efforts. The civic engagement director will become a clearinghouse of information, advising the community of the many Rutgers services that we have available and, as well, providing students, faculty, and staff with a central point of contact on research and civic opportunities where they can make a difference.

Our challenge – the challenge to the academy nationwide and to Rutgers–Camden – is to define our role in helping to build the  capital that will generate social and economic growth here in Camden.  It’s a tall order, I know; but, as New Jersey’s land-grant institution, we will not shy away from this opportunity.  Fortunately, we at Rutgers–Camden are, in many ways, ahead of the national curve.  Through the Rand Institute here on campus, we are working closely with our neighbors in North Camden to help that community develop plans to transform unused lots into community green space, and to develop thoughtful, community-driven plans for growth.  This is just one of many campus activities.

Many of you have seen media reports that Rutgers is interested in building north of the bridge, perhaps on the site of the former prison.  I can tell you that we are interested in building a parking deck on the site of the former prison parking lot.  We all know that parking in any urban setting is challenging and as our student population grows, so does our need for parking.  This deck would also become the new headquarters for the Rutgers University Police Department, which will provide additional security for the neighborhood.  We will continue to house an RUPD presence in the Administrative Services Building as well, and services and patrols will not be altered.  This plan is in the early stages, and will require much input from relevant stakeholders.

We also are in discussions to identify a site just north of the bridge that would accommodate playing fields for our new lacrosse program, which starts as an intercollegiate sport this coming spring.  The fields would include a track, which our campus currently lacks.

These facilities, combined with new graduate and undergraduate student housing, will attract more students to live in our University District.  We currently house approximately 550 students on campus; once we reach a critical mass of 2,000 residential students, with an overall student enrollment of 7,500, Rutgers will become even more of a lynchpin to attract retail investment in the city. 

These are just a few examples of how we already rise to the challenge of engaging our community.  There are many more examples, and even more potential for growth. I welcome your thoughts in this area.

Summary

To conclude, I’d like to return to some of the goals, which, through my many conversations with faculty and staff, I have heard you express.

First:  We have a strong portfolio of academic programs and research centers. While we’ll certainly add new initiatives, we want to focus on augmenting our existing strengths and capabilities.

Second: We will leverage our resources to build the human and physical capital required for Rutgers to help propel the growth of Camden and the region.

Third: We will increase our efforts to communicate our strengths and market our campus to prospective students and faculty.  This will provide us with the resources that we need to grow.

During 2010, we will use our 60^th anniversary as an opportunity to remind the world about the critical role of Rutgers–Camden in transforming lives and building optimism.  You’ll see advertising, billboards, and other communications positioning our achievements and touting our potential.  Certainly, our alumni will help us define the celebration.

While we certainly face challenges in achieving our goals, I am heartened by the common vision we share, and I am also heartened by what I see as an emerging consensus across the country about the importance of higher education.  I have no doubts that Rutgers-Camden will play a central role in that discussion, and I look forward to working with you on the communal enterprise that this university represents.