Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is one of the leading research universities in the nation and is unique in being
the only university in the nation to be a colonial chartered
college (1766), a land-grant institution (1864), and a state university (1945/1956). The university is made up of 29 degree-granting divisions; 12 undergraduate colleges, 11
graduate schools, and three schools offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Five are located in Camden, seven in
Newark, and 14 in New Brunswick/Piscataway.Rutgers College became the land-grant college of New Jersey in 1864, resulting in the
establishment of the Rutgers Scientific School, featuring departments of agriculture, engineering, and chemistry. Further expansion in the sciences came with the founding of the New Jersey Agricultural
Experiment Station in 1880, the College of Engineering (now the School of Engineering) in
1914, and the College of Agriculture (now Cook College) in 1921. The precursors to several other Rutgers divisions were also established during this period: the College of
Pharmacy (now the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy) in 1892, the New Jersey College for
Women (now Douglass College) in 1918, and the School of Education in 1924. After the initial legislation designating Rutgers as the New Jersey's state university was passed in
1945, the University of Newark (in 1946) and the
College of South Jersey (in 1950) were annexed into the Rutgers University system.The first Summer Session began in 1913 with one six-week session. That summer program
offered 47 courses and had an enrollment of 314 students. Currently, Summer Session offers over 1,000 courses to more than 15,000
students on the Camden, Newark, and New
Brunswick/Piscataway campuses, off-campus, and
abroad.Since the 1950s, Rutgers has continued to expand, especially in the area of graduate
education. The Graduate School—New Brunswick, Graduate School—Newark, and Graduate School—Camden each serve
their respective campuses. In addition, professional schools have been established in such areas as business, management, public policy, law, social work, criminal justice, applied and
professional psychology, the fine
arts, and communication, information and library studies. (A number of these schools offer undergraduate programs as well.) Also at the
undergraduate level, Livingston College was founded in 1969, emphasizing the urban
environment.On September 10, 1970, after
several years of debate and planning, the Board of Governors voted to admit women into the previously all-male Rutgers College.
The transformation from single-sex to coeducational institutions became a
trend in many colleges across the United States that had—up to the late 1960's and
early 1970's—remained all-male. Today, Douglass College (originally the New Jersey
College for Women) remains all-female, while the rest of the institution is coeducational.Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States
Association of Colleges and Schools (since 1921). In 1989, Rutgers University became a member of the Association of American Universities, an organization comprised of the 62 leading
research universities in North America.
Richard Levis McCormick (b. 1947) is the current president of
Rutgers University.