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Credit: Roy Groething
President Richard L. McCormick announces
his recommendations for undergraduate
education in New Brunswick/Piscataway at
a March 7 press briefing at Old Queen's.
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In a 10-1 vote, the Rutgers Board of Governors approved President Richard L. McCormick’s proposals to enhance the quality of undergraduate education across the university’s New Brunswick/Piscataway campus. The recommendations reflect the president’s vision to remake Rutgers as a “new public research university.”
“We envision a campus in which students are empowered, faculty are reconnected to undergraduates and the public gains a much clearer understanding of a Rutgers education,” McCormick said. “We will bring the more than 26,000 undergraduate students in New Brunswick/Piscataway into full participation in the dynamic life of discovery and of service to society that characterizes Rutgers at its best.” The board approved the president’s recommendations at a special March 10 meeting.
A single School of Arts and Sciences will serve undergraduates throughout Rutgers University's largest campus, uniting all arts and sciences faculty and students with a common academic mission.
Uniform admissions and graduation requirements will apply to all arts and sciences undergraduates. Students will have full access to programs and services, no matter where they choose to live. All first-year students in New Brunswick/Piscataway will have an opportunity to take special seminar courses taught by senior faculty. And a new residential college will serve Rutgers women with world-class educational programs.
McCormick proposed the creation of the Douglass Residential College. Located on the Douglass campus, it will provide special academic and co-curricular programs for women students who choose to be a part of the residential college. These programs also will be open to students across the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus, regardless of where they choose to live.
“It is clear that there is value both to our students and to Rutgers in upholding the tradition and spirit of the New Jersey College for Women and Douglass College even as we establish a single, degree-granting School of Arts and Sciences,” McCormick said. “Based on Rutgers’ long tradition of providing educational opportunities for women in all fields, the Douglass Residential College offers one model for learning communities and, more specifically, for other residential colleges that may develop in New Brunswick/Piscataway.”
The proposed change to Douglass College was a contentious topic throughout last semester’s discussions. “It is a compromise. Not everyone will find it perfect but I seek your support on it,” McCormick said.
After the board’s action, McCormick announced three appointments. He named Barry Qualls as interim vice president of undergraduate education. Qualls is dean of humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick and chaired the Task Force on Undergraduate Education.
McCormick also named Michael Beals director of implementation and chair of the steering committee in charge of implementing the reforms. Beals is dean for educational initiatives in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick and served on the task force as the structure working group co-chair. Cheryl Wall, professor of English, will serve as vice chair. And Lea Stewart, professor of communication, will head a committee concerning nontraditional students.
Earlier in the week, McCormick appointed internationally known scientist Joan W. Bennett to serve as an associate vice president for academic affairs responsible for women-centered initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math.
Most of the changes will apply to the undergraduate class that enters the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus in fall 2007. McCormick said that the implementation steering committee will move aggressively to ensure the necessary changes are in effect by that date.
McCormick stressed that transformation calls for “clear accountability measures” and pledged that one of at least a dozen implementation subcommittees will be responsible in years to come for tracking and publicly reporting measures, such as graduation rates, faculty and student participation in first-year seminars, student satisfaction, use of student services and advising, and diversity measures of future classes.
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