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when did Rutgers stop having a “college” feel?

kennyschiano

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May 12, 2005
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i just read the article in the passing of Nicholas Rutgers and it said he was the Grand Marshall of the homecoming parade in 1989. I graduated in ‘04. One of my beliefs/negative associations with Rutgers when I graduated was that it didn’t have a “college” feel. It didn’t have a homecoming parade, things you see or hear about in the SEC or in the Midwest. When and why did Rutgers change? Thanks.
 
Here's how I see it....some former students appear to lament it after the fact, but while they are students many of them had little to no interest in many of the traditional "collegiate" aspects of the experience. At least that was my experience in terms of the few different groups/circles that I ran in....could barely get anyone to really bother with the things that Rutgers did have going on that would be collegiate in nature. Most thought those activities were stupid, corny, and a waste of time.

Rutgers didn't always make it easy by not promoting things as much as they could have, I suppose. But things weren't completely unadvertised, either...the information was out there for those interested in and willing to seek it out.
 
i just read the article in the passing of Nicholas Rutgers and it said he was the Grand Marshall of the homecoming parade in 1989. I graduated in ‘04. One of my beliefs/negative associations with Rutgers when I graduated was that it didn’t have a “college” feel. It didn’t have a homecoming parade, things you see or hear about in the SEC or in the Midwest. When and why did Rutgers change? Thanks.

I think a lot of that happened with the Reorganization of Higher Education in 2006. A lot of those traditional associations were unfortunately broken when Rutgers College was dissolved into SAS. Douglass College still participates in a lot of its older traditions such as sacred path.

As a current Rutgers senior, I am also the VP of Traditions for the RUAA Scarlet Council. One of the things we're dedicated to doing is helping to bring back some of those excellent older traditions that make Rutgers so special. A lot of it is just ignorance...lacking a major sponsor in the form of the College architecture, and having not been a part of recent classes, the gap of tradition is notable. The university itself doesn't necessarily help. A fairly basic example is even in the class ring; the older class rings had the cannon, old queens, the 1766 logo, ivy, etc. The modern class rings have only the block R and the Nike-made Scarlet Knight Head. I think part of it also comes from having administrators who truly don't understand and love Rutgers for what it is. Barchi, Duttah, etc., are not Rutgers folks. They're doing a lot for Rutgers, yes, and I think they'll leave it in a better place from an institutional standpoint, but they don't come from Rutgers.

I'm the first VP of traditions we've had, and hopefully we can start to bring some of those back with my successors. One of our first events we'll be trying to bring back is the unveiling of the class stone on Kirkpatrick chapel. In the past decade or so, it has been inscribed in August, long after the graduating class left. This year...well, stay tuned!
 
The block r and the mascot symbol is not the reason. The block r has done more for Rutgers unity and spirit than anything else combined. Before schiano there were no banners in New Brunswick with block Rs and you didn’t even know it was a college town.

Something must have happened in the late 80s and 90s and I have no idea what that is!
 
I remember back in the late 80s, when we got into the AAU, most people didn't think it was that big of a deal and wondered why they would ring the bell for it. I was shocked. But in thinking about it at the time, there just were not that many students who really loved the place. Many "settled" for Rutgers, many who wanted to come here got burned a few too many times by the dreaded RU Screw, others worked and didn't have time to be "collegiate."

The irony is that I, who started college out of state and came home after two years, loved Rutgers (and New Jersey, for that matter) far more than most. But there was not the affinity for alma mater that so many other colleges naturally get. And Rutgers didn't baby you. You had to function as an adult just to make it through the bureaucracy, the buses, pretty much everything.

Now I went at a strange time, post-reorganization but pre-consolidation, when the "colleges" still pretended to be "colleges" and not just residential units with a couple of academic rules. So there was neither a strong feeling for your college, which didn't truly exist because you took classes with students from all of them -- although living on campus gave people some of that feeling, nor for the university, which was not yet whole.

That might have had something to do with it.
 
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In 1989, President Bloustein passed away. In 1990 or so, Fran Lawrence became president. Is it possible that has to do with the waning of tradition that you decry?
 
Whatever the changes have been,I can honestly say that Rutgers has never been gaining traction throughout the state as New Jersey's university like it has in the last decade. It is not just the obvious things like the zillion R magnets on the cars and people wearing Rutgers gear.By the way,for some of the younger folks,you never saw random people wearing Rutgers stuff around the state.At most,about twenty percent would wear it at games.Applications and visits to all three campuses have skyrocketed the past few years.I also think Rutgers is doing a better job at letting residents know about the university.Being in the Big Ten and creating Rutgers Day have been big. One specific area,the health fields of Rutgers,has started to bring about an explosion n residents contacts with Rutgers grads. Whether it is a nurse,doctor,dentist,nutritionist,physician assistant,or administrator,you are now hearing "I went to Rutgers" .We are just about to see the expansion for RU in the pharmacy and engineering fields.Rutgers will gain more of a presence in South Jersey with the growing Camden campus,including business,nursing,and the arts.I know some disagree,but I would really like to see us have a four year teaching degree,not just five. Many families can not afford five years of school or are just not interested in an additional year. We should not be losing any good students to Montclair,Rowan,Etc who want to be K through 12 teachers.New Jersey school students having good teachers and coaches who went to RU will help us in bringing in better students and student athletes. Anyway,just my two cents
 
I live in California and my son has applied to nothing but California schools. If he wanted to go back east I would definitely have wanted him to apply to Rutgers especially because he's going to major in some form of biology. Rutgers science departments undergraduate and graduate are elite programs.

As for lack of a "college feel" I never felt that way and I attended in the late 1970's into the early 1980's. I felt there was a lot of college spirit back then. We had a good football program albeit what one would call now FCS, and our basketball programs were both very competitive. I don't remember many high school kids looking at Rutgers as a fall back or safety school. In fact I remember quite a few kids ended up at the U of Delaware because they were rejected at Rutgers. My sister, a graduate of U of Michigan was rejected at Rutgers College back then.

What gives me hope for my alma mater is the last ten years and entry into the B1G not only for sports but for academics. I'm hoping once we get our full amount starting in 2021 and our continued relevance in various academic fields, Rutgers will regain the "feeling" once again of a destination school and not a fall back school. I think what also hurts Rutgers is the smallness of the state and lot's of kids wanting to go away to college, which there are many choices within four hours or less of NJ. In California, my son may end up going to a UC school up north and he will be living anywhere from five to eight hours away.
 
I graduated nearly 52 years ago when there was an actual Rutgers College, an all-male, mostly liberal arts school with a fraction of the enrollment that RU has today. When I visited the campus for the first time in decades (since I live far away), to attend my 50th class reunion, I obviously found a very different place, but also much that was familiar, and not just in the wizened faces of my classmates. I have great memories of my college experience. The Rutgers name carried a lot of prestige then, especially outside of New Jersey, and I believe it still does today. But even then it was undergoing growing pains in its transition from a private to a public institution. Perhaps this reached an awkward adolescent stage in subsequent years, but I get the sense that Rutgers is finally coming into its own as a large, premier public university. Its peers will soon be the best of the Big Ten and Cal universities. I find that a lot more exciting than the "college feel" of homecoming parades and SEC-type football days.
 
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The university itself doesn't necessarily help. A fairly basic example is even in the class ring; the older class rings had the cannon, old queens, the 1766 logo, ivy, etc. The modern class rings have only the block R and the Nike-made Scarlet Knight Head.

In the 2000's I wanted the get a class ring, even though I graduated in the 80s. I thought that 1766 logo ring was really cool and wanted that version of the ring. I put off the decision and then when I revisited it, I learned that RU stopped (or severely limited) the public use of the 17R66 logo and the ring manufacturer no longer made that ring, but made the ring you describe. I also understand you cannot purchase the 17R66 flag (the flagpole size at least). I agree, bad decison on RU's part to restrict that logo.
 
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I graduated nearly 52 years ago when there was an actual Rutgers College, an all-male, mostly liberal arts school with a fraction of the enrollment that RU has today. When I visited the campus for the first time in decades (since I live far away), to attend my 50th class reunion, I obviously found a very different place, but also much that was familiar, and not just in the wizened faces of my classmates. I have great memories of my college experience. The Rutgers name carried a lot of prestige then, especially outside of New Jersey, and I believe it still does today. But even then it was undergoing growing pains in its transition from a private to a public institution. Perhaps this reached an awkward adolescent stage in subsequent years, but I get the sense that Rutgers is finally coming into its own as a large, premiere public university. Its peers will soon be the best of the Big Ten and Cal universities. I find that a lot more exciting than the "college feel" of homecoming parades and SEC-type football days.
Awesome post, thanks!
 
A lot of people who never went to Rutgers assume you don't get the classic "college experience" because of the disjointed campus structure or the buses. I honestly thought that made Rutgers unique. Many great and not so great times happened on those buses which sort of added to the experience. Many times I would get to classes on other campuses faster than I would if they were on my own campus because the bus would drop you off right in front of the classrooms. It really wasn't nearly as much of an issue as many made it out to be.

I would say that Rutgers still has a long way to go in terms of beautification and unification of the campuses. It's getting much better and with the 2030 plan I think it's going to be on par with most other Big Ten Universities. The biggest thing I notice at other Big Ten Universities is they have big beautiful and well taken care of campuses. Rutgers, not so much.
 
A lot of people who never went to Rutgers assume you don't get the classic "college experience" because of the disjointed campus structure or the buses. I honestly thought that made Rutgers unique. Many great and not so great times happened on those buses which sort of added to the experience. Many times I would get to classes on other campuses faster than I would if they were on my own campus because the bus would drop you off right in front of the classrooms. It really wasn't nearly as much of an issue as many made it out to be.

I would say that Rutgers still has a long way to go in terms of beautification and unification of the campuses. It's getting much better and with the 2030 plan I think it's going to be on par with most other Big Ten Universities. The biggest thing I notice at other Big Ten Universities is they have big beautiful and well taken care of campuses. Rutgers, not so much.
My experience at RU was overall good, but the funny thing is, the "college feel" thing was better for me in the full-time MBA program instead of undergrad. I was an engineering student on Busch, the campus was great, classes solid, fellow students fun and established plenty of long-term friendships. But the "typical" college events/experiences were not readily available, or I didn't look for them enough (which I admit was part of the problem). Went to a few parties, hit some bars (especially when a buddy of mine lived next to Old Queens), but most of what I remember fondly was the Busch Student Center arcade, cram sessions in the SERC resource room, the Hill computer dungeon, and Serin library for quiet studying. And of course, enjoyed the basketball games!

After rereading this post, hey, I guess my college experience was pretty damn good. Just not "typical" like some people portray. :)
 
Armor,have you checked Rising Flags in East Brunswick? They carry a good amount of Rutgers flags and other stuff. On their website www.rising flags.com they have two versions of the 17R66 flag.By the way,he is not a friend or relative,but I know the owner is a huge fan. He and his family have had season tickets for basketball and I think football too for a hundred years.
 
....but most of what I remember fondly was the Busch Student Center arcade,..., the Hill computer dungeon, ...
I lived both of those items!
...and Serin library for quiet studying.
Not sure what the Serin library was, but the SciMed library was where you went to get some serious studying done. I lived in Richardson for 2.5 years, so that was our go-to place.
 
I lived both of those items!

Not sure what the Serin library was, but the SciMed library was where you went to get some serious studying done. I lived in Richardson for 2.5 years, so that was our go-to place.
I was in undergrad during the early/mid 90's, so the arcade was all about Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam! The Serin library was a small library in the Physics building (aka, Serin) on the top/second floor facing Allison Road. Small place, but never crowded, nice and quiet, a few computers and a printer. Awesome place!

LSM was my study place for my MBA years, great library! And the top floor of Alexander was my place for writing history papers (I was a dual degree undergrad, ChemE and history). So I had a unique place for all the steps in my RU journey. :)
 
I lived both of those items!

Not sure what the Serin library was, but the SciMed library was where you went to get some serious studying done. I lived in Richardson for 2.5 years, so that was our go-to place.

IIRC, Serin is the name of the Physics building so I'm assuming it was a smaller departmental library inside there, but not really sure as I never knew about it. LSM was too far on the west side of Busch so made sense for Richardson folks (or Pharm students since it was next door to their building), but for where I lived over in Silvers it was often SERC (centrally located; study room/cubes or open classroom), and when that got tiring or monotonous, finding an open room in Hill or TCB was usually the alternative. Sometimes even the student center food court area late at night was an option.
 
Nice to read these reminiscences. Clearly Rutgers can afford a great experience. I notice these stories are based largely on experiences with the engineering program (and I think that a lot of our posters were engineering or science students.) I wonder whether students outside those fields have equally pleasant memories.
 
A couple years ago I walked in the Homecoming parade with some of my friends from my class. I mean, it was mostly just a bunch of graduation years walking down with maybe the marching band and stuff. No real floats or old classic cars or anything, but it was a parade.
 
I never even knew we had a Homecoming parade. A long time ago I used to march with the alumni band at the parade for Reunion Weekend - I'm not sure if they do that anymore.
 
I never even knew we had a Homecoming parade. A long time ago I used to march with the alumni band at the parade for Reunion Weekend - I'm not sure if they do that anymore.

You're right. My bad. I forget if it was Homecoming or just a Reunion Weekend now that you say that.
 
I notice these stories are based largely on experiences with the engineering program (and I think that a lot of our posters were engineering or science students.)

I think while there may be many posters from engineering and hard sciences, my guess is that there are quite a few more posters comprising the balance. Just stands to reason from the distribution of the student body by academic programs and assuming proportionate interest in Rutgers athletics.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of engineering alumni who also do not look that fondly upon their Rutgers experience (all or part). Several classmates of mine have little or no connection to Rutgers any longer and don't really care to either.

I think it runs the gamut. I would guess that holds true of alumni of the other schools/colleges too.
 
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I think a lot of that happened with the Reorganization of Higher Education in 2006. A lot of those traditional associations were unfortunately broken when Rutgers College was dissolved into SAS. Douglass College still participates in a lot of its older traditions such as sacred path.

As a current Rutgers senior, I am also the VP of Traditions for the RUAA Scarlet Council. One of the things we're dedicated to doing is helping to bring back some of those excellent older traditions that make Rutgers so special. A lot of it is just ignorance...lacking a major sponsor in the form of the College architecture, and having not been a part of recent classes, the gap of tradition is notable. The university itself doesn't necessarily help. A fairly basic example is even in the class ring; the older class rings had the cannon, old queens, the 1766 logo, ivy, etc. The modern class rings have only the block R and the Nike-made Scarlet Knight Head. I think part of it also comes from having administrators who truly don't understand and love Rutgers for what it is. Barchi, Duttah, etc., are not Rutgers folks. They're doing a lot for Rutgers, yes, and I think they'll leave it in a better place from an institutional standpoint, but they don't come from Rutgers.

I'm the first VP of traditions we've had, and hopefully we can start to bring some of those back with my successors. One of our first events we'll be trying to bring back is the unveiling of the class stone on Kirkpatrick chapel. In the past decade or so, it has been inscribed in August, long after the graduating class left. This year...well, stay tuned!


Two things:

1) I LOVE the fact that there's a position/committee of students (and hopefully admins to back you up) dedicated to traditions on campus. That is awesome and very much what RU needs. Excited to hear it exists and hopefully you guys are able to get things done. (PS I'm an alumn now but I have tons of ideas if you ever wanted a "recent" 9 years out alumn perspective. One of which is something that resembles the Rutgersfest of old)

2) Huge & important point you make is that Rutgers doesn't (and seemingly hasn't) had admins across the top who are die-hard, love Rutgers type people. I truly thing that is the root cause for so many of Rutgers shortfalls over the last couple of decades. Including slipping in the rankings, lack of new buildings, subpar undergrad experience, lack of support for athletics, etc.
 
Two things:

1) I LOVE the fact that there's a position/committee of students (and hopefully admins to back you up) dedicated to traditions on campus. That is awesome and very much what RU needs. Excited to hear it exists and hopefully you guys are able to get things done. (PS I'm an alumn now but I have tons of ideas if you ever wanted a "recent" 9 years out alumn perspective. One of which is something that resembles the Rutgersfest of old)

2) Huge & important point you make is that Rutgers doesn't (and seemingly hasn't) had admins across the top who are die-hard, love Rutgers type people. I truly thing that is the root cause for so many of Rutgers shortfalls over the last couple of decades. Including slipping in the rankings, lack of new buildings, subpar undergrad experience, lack of support for athletics, etc.

Have to agree with number 2- It seems like the leadership for the past several decades hasn't focused on the mythical "student experience". Much of that grows organically through the social aspects that students will share. By and large or sports teams have sucked for the past 30 years. ( So happy my daughter stormed the court for the Seton Hall game.) Things like camping out for tickets and Schiano buying pizza for 500 kids will be long remembered. The throngs of students/fans taking the train together to the NIT finals back in 2004. The Louisville game in 2006. These sports moments are too far between to resonate with most students.

The Alley was something students rallied around and had a great time at...but was taken away. Rutgersfest...was taken away. Fraternity parties.....have basically been taken away. Ag Field Day....has been taken away. Basic backyard and house parties are being taken away at a much higher rate lately.

No one remembers the night you went to bed early. It's the social life that creates the friends and memories. It builds bonds and creates a link to YOUR school that you recall fondly and want to go back to when you can......here, we give $1000 tickets to a girl with a red cup ( with her parents) at a tailgate. GD shame.

Personally, I had an amazing "college experience" in the 80's Much of it is what you make of it. Other than some classic large state schools, I believe Rutgers has more "college feel" than most. However, the administration has only worked to eliminate what was there.
 
Have to agree with number 2- It seems like the leadership for the past several decades hasn't focused on the mythical "student experience". Much of that grows organically through the social aspects that students will share. By and large or sports teams have sucked for the past 30 years. ( So happy my daughter stormed the court for the Seton Hall game.) Things like camping out for tickets and Schiano buying pizza for 500 kids will be long remembered. The throngs of students/fans taking the train together to the NIT finals back in 2004. The Louisville game in 2006. These sports moments are too far between to resonate with most students.

The Alley was something students rallied around and had a great time at...but was taken away. Rutgersfest...was taken away. Fraternity parties.....have basically been taken away. Ag Field Day....has been taken away. Basic backyard and house parties are being taken away at a much higher rate lately.

No one remembers the night you went to bed early. It's the social life that creates the friends and memories. It builds bonds and creates a link to YOUR school that you recall fondly and want to go back to when you can......here, we give $1000 tickets to a girl with a red cup ( with her parents) at a tailgate. GD shame.

Personally, I had an amazing "college experience" in the 80's Much of it is what you make of it. Other than some classic large state schools, I believe Rutgers has more "college feel" than most. However, the administration has only worked to eliminate what was there.

Whole heartedly agree with this. Its these events that create the lifelong bonds and ties to Rutgers. Which in turn comes back to Rutgers financially via donations, people coming back to visit, speaking highly to others and therefore enhancing the reputation and demand of a Rutgers experience.

I was at Rutgers 2004-2008 so luckily I experienced many of those things such as exciting sporting moments, traveling to bowl games with friends, 4 years of Rutgersfest, Ag Field Day, etc. Although I didn't experience the Alley, I thought that was the coolest idea ever and was partially jealous of the students at the time. Students would proudly bring their friends to Rutgers games, win or lose, and have a great time. And all those friends would be jealous that they don't get to do that on a weekly basis. I understand a lot of these fun experiences cannot be condoned by the University due to liability, but there's a difference between sponsoring it and just policing only the dangerous behavior (rather than banning it all together - such as Rutgersfest or the Alley)

Other schools made their reputation solely off having a good undergrad experience. Look at WVU for example, Arizona State, and even Penn State. It's part of a evolution because being a good time brings it money, which then in turn gives you the opportunity to improve the campus, buildings, academics, hire better faculty, etc.

Rutgers foolishly ignored that for decades (and still I would think 90% of admins today still think this way). But where has that got Rutgers academically? We haven't improved, we've declined and watched these other schools pass us. So I feel like the admins turned up a nose at the athletics and social aspect ... and instead preached from their podium about academics .. but Rutgers essentially did neither well and is now playing catch-up in both aspects.
 
Actually, academics have improved.

SATs are higher than Ped. The difference is their acceptance rate is slightly lower because they get more OOS apps- which RU is working on.

Also, fraternity life has kind of declined nationally with all the recent incidents, I would not think RU is any different.

Like with Rutgersfest, a handful of bad apples, often with no affiliation to the school, generally caused the issues.
 
Whole heartedly agree with this. Its these events that create the lifelong bonds and ties to Rutgers. Which in turn comes back to Rutgers financially via donations, people coming back to visit, speaking highly to others and therefore enhancing the reputation and demand of a Rutgers experience.

I was at Rutgers 2004-2008 so luckily I experienced many of those things such as exciting sporting moments, traveling to bowl games with friends, 4 years of Rutgersfest, Ag Field Day, etc. Although I didn't experience the Alley, I thought that was the coolest idea ever and was partially jealous of the students at the time. Students would proudly bring their friends to Rutgers games, win or lose, and have a great time. And all those friends would be jealous that they don't get to do that on a weekly basis. I understand a lot of these fun experiences cannot be condoned by the University due to liability, but there's a difference between sponsoring it and just policing only the dangerous behavior (rather than banning it all together - such as Rutgersfest or the Alley)

Other schools made their reputation solely off having a good undergrad experience. Look at WVU for example, Arizona State, and even Penn State. It's part of a evolution because being a good time brings it money, which then in turn gives you the opportunity to improve the campus, buildings, academics, hire better faculty, etc.

Rutgers foolishly ignored that for decades (and still I would think 90% of admins today still think this way). But where has that got Rutgers academically? We haven't improved, we've declined and watched these other schools pass us. So I feel like the admins turned up a nose at the athletics and social aspect ... and instead preached from their podium about academics .. but Rutgers essentially did neither well and is now playing catch-up in both aspects.

I was there at the same time and honestly I just think RU markets really poorly. When I had friends come and visit they all were jealous of how fun it was and one ended up going to grad school there.

Even the soft marketing- like how many HS kids realize the dorms are coed and no minus grades- neither of which the Cult has, BTW.
 
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