The life-changing power of the relationship between students and professors is what compelled John "Jack" Byrne RC'54 to give the university $3 million to underwrite a revolution of sorts in undergraduate education. Special courses known as first-year seminars are connecting freshman students with senior research faculty who typically have little contact with undergraduates. Read More ››
This legendary Harlem record shop gave Newman’s students a real-life lesson in gentrification.
Diana Won (second from right above), a first-year honors student in the School of Arts and Sciences, credits the seminars for making the university less imposing and more accessible. In fall 2007, Won took Gentrifying New York City, a seminar taught by Kathe Newman, an assistant professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. For Won and her five classmates, the concept of gentrification took on real-life dimensions when they traveled with the class to Harlem, where Newman does much of her current research. While there, they visited the legendary record store Bobby's Happy House and met its owner, Bobby Robinson. "He is being evicted because the owners of the block are tearing it down to create new stores," says Won. "It's disheartening. Gentrification is not necessarily a bad thing but it takes away the very culture and richness of a city."
Newman, who specializes in urban policy, politics, and revitalization, spends much of her time on research and working closely with graduate students at Rutgers. She signed on for a first-year seminar because it gave her the rare opportunity to teach undergraduates, something she is passionate about, in an intimate setting. The experience did not disappoint. "I am so happy I did this," she says about the seminar. "You're watching the students as you throw ideas at them, watching their minds open up. It's what I loved about being in college. The students are so smart, so engaging, and we have great discussions." Newman also took the students to Coney Island, introduced them to New York City community leaders, and led a tour of downtown New Brunswick to see how the city's revitalization has affected the people living there.
Newman enjoyed teaching the class so much that she is now teaching another seminar called Riots and Public Policy, in which Won is enrolled. "I thought it was cool that Professor Newman taught the seminars because she mainly teaches upper-level courses," says Won, who aspires to a career in planning and public policy. "She really helped us understand gentrification and it piqued my interest in the subject. It was great to get to know a professor as well as the people in my class."
From left: University Professor Norman Glickman, Rebecca Davoudian, Laura Reans, Diana Won, and Anthony Barnett on a class tour of Coney Island
The seminars began last fall as part of Rutgers' broad makeover of undergraduate education. The 1-credit elective courses are limited to 20 students, and most seminars have far fewer. President McCormick, who teaches a seminar himself, has said that generous gifts like Byrne's are helping first-year students to appreciate the vast opportunities of a major research university as soon as they arrive at Rutgers.
Byrne's gift has been put to work to make the seminars a very popular choice for incoming students. Over the past year, more than 1,500 students and 112 faculty members participated. With continued financial support, program director Kathleen Hull hopes to enroll at least 2,500 students next year. "A personal connection with a professor is one of the best sources of inspiration for learning and for fulfilling ambitions," Hull says. "The seminars serve to humanize our university by bringing its great resources into an intimate educational setting."
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President McCormick presenting a basketball signed by Rutgers’ top-ranked women’s team to Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chair and CEO
As Rutgers strives to become one of the nation's premier public universities, creating a top economics department is essential. Verizon's recent $1 million gift toward the Cullen Chair in economics is an important step in reaching this goal. "It's especially difficult to recruit and fund an economics department," says Barry Sopher, the department chair. "This gift provides a boost to our efforts to recruit world-class scholars to the department. It really gives us momentum." Read More ››
Sopher was at an intimate gathering of senior Verizon staff and university leadership last month at President McCormick's home. The event provided Rutgers with the opportunity to thank Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chair and CEO, personally for the generous support Verizon has given to Rutgers over the past few years. In addition to the recent donation to the economics department, Verizon has given generously to the School of Social Work, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience in Newark, and the LEAP Academy University Charter School in Camden.
Campaign co-chair Keiko Harvey with Seidenberg
Verizon recently relocated several of its major business units to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, only 20 miles from the New Brunswick Campus. In his remarks at the event, McCormick called the move "a huge boost to our citizens and our economy." As a token of appreciation for Verizon's support of the university, he presented Seidenberg with a basketball signed by Vivian Stringer's top-ranked women's basketball team. After the event, Seidenberg attended that evening's game.
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Rich colleges are getting richer, and most public universities are paying the price.
The gap between the wealthiest institutions of higher education and most others is widening. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the five largest institutions—Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Texas—hold nearly a quarter of all endowment wealth. Read More ››
Obviously, this increases the competition for available donors and dollars. More institutions are looking beyond alumni for funding, creating quantifiable metrics to measure fundraisers' performance, and digging deeper and more creatively into their donor databases to identify the donors with both the wealth and inclination to give.
But there are also immediate consequences to this trend. Most notably, as the wealthier institutions increase financial aid to students, the gap between out-of-pocket costs to students at public institutions and well-endowed private institutions becomes smaller. The traditional benefit of a public education—an excellent education at a lower cost—is quickly disappearing.
So what does this mean for the Rutgers Foundation? It means working harder, faster, and smarter than ever before to raise the resources needed to compete with private institutions. We have in place not only an excellent staff, but the systems and the knowledge to make the most of Rutgers' unique position as one of the leading public research and education institutions in the country.
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Spring has arrived, as has a seminal part of the upcoming campaign: securing early funding commitments. Our five campaign co-chairs—Keiko Harvey, Al Gamper, Ernie Mario, Duncan MacMillan, and Tom Renyi—met recently at President McCormick's home. We discussed strategies for cultivating these advance donations, clarified campaign goals, and reviewed the university's priorities process. The group was confident and enthusiastic about creating a culture of philanthropy throughout the university community.
Among the most committed members of that community is Jim Cullen, who has agreed to serve as honorary chair for the upcoming campaign. Jim was chair of Rutgers' last campaign, Creating the Future Today, which exceeded its goal by more than $100 million. The promise of his continued leadership in the new campaign is great news for the university.
Soon, we will launch an online portfolio of the 670 campaign project proposals submitted by many of you. Nowhere is Rutgers' excellence and ambition more apparent than in this impressive collection of ideas. The portfolio will be the true working document for the campaign, available to our fundraising staff and the university community. It will be continuously updated to reflect new and changing priorities within this dynamic and growing institution.
We hope you enjoy this latest edition of IMPACT, and as always, we welcome your ideas and suggestions.
Carol P. Herring
President, Rutgers University Foundation
Executive Vice President, Development and Alumni Relations