Rowan University
Rowan University is a public research university in Glassboro, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a site donated by 107 residents, the school was known as Glassboro State College from 1958 until 1992 and Rowan College of New Jersey from 1992 to 1997. It also operates a medical campus in Stratford, and medical and academic campuses in Camden.
The university includes 14 colleges and schools with a total enrollment of just over 19,600 students. Rowan offers bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degree programs. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
History
In the early part of the 20th century, there was a shortage of adequately trained teachers in the state of New Jersey. It was decided to build a two-year Normal school in the southern part of the state to counter the trend. Among the candidate towns, Glassboro became the location due in no small part to its easy access to passenger rail as well as its offer to donate of land to the state to build the Normal school. The 1917 purchase price of the property was raised by the residents of the town and used to purchase a tract that belonged to the Whitney family, who owned the local glassworks during the 19th century.In 1923, the Glassboro Normal School opened with a class of 236 students, 226 women and 10 men, arriving at the train station in front of Bunce Hall. With the evolution of teacher training, the school became a four-year program in 1934; in 1937, the school was renamed The New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro and became co-educational shortly thereafter.
The college was one of the first in the country to begin programs for teachers for reading disabilities and physical therapy in 1935 and 1944, respectively. Glassboro State began to develop a reputation as a leader in special education. After several years and the return of soldiers from World War II, the college was able to expand its enrollment from a wartime low of 170 in 1943 to an expansion of several additional campus and academic programs over the next 15 years and became Glassboro State College in 1958.
Hollybush Summit
The Cold War Glassboro Summit Conference between U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin took place from June 23–25, 1967, in Hollybush Mansion on the campus of then–Glassboro State College. The college was chosen because of its location equidistant between New York City, where Kosygin was making a speech at the U.N., and Washington, D.C.Then–college president Thomas E. Robinson was given just 16 hours' notice of the decision to hold the summit at GSC and, despite the lack of advance notice, converted his on-campus home into a secure location for the leaders of the world's superpowers.
After the summit
The campus hosted hard rock band Black Sabbath's first U.S. concert on October 30, 1970. Peaceful student protests occurred during the Vietnam war as they did at other campuses, but never required the college to close the campus.The college made national news during "Spring Weekend" in 1986, due to a loud party atmosphere primarily off campus around the Beau Rivage townhouses and The Crossings apartment complex in which police from several municipalities were called in to break up the parties. The event led to Glassboro State College's ranking as the #28 Party School in the nation in the January 1987 issue of Playboy magazine.
Though the alcohol-fueled Spring Weekend was canceled by then–President Herman James, a non-alcoholic version continued for several years, Glassboro State College remained known for its hard-partying culture. However, in 1988, there began one of the biggest crackdowns in school history. As a result of the drinking death of freshman James Callahan at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Herman James decided to make GSC an example for the rest of the state colleges and universities to follow. He invited the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission to the school. He began shutting down off-campus parties and placing undercover agents in the local liquor establishments. This prompted Morton Downey Jr., who was based in Secaucus, New Jersey, and very popular at the time, to do an untelevised show focusing on the drinking age and the classic argument that an eighteen-year-old can go off to war and die for their country although they cannot legally buy and consume beer. The following year, the ABC did not return, and the partying atmosphere that Glassboro State College was known for returned in earnest and continued into the 1990s and early 2000s.
University status
In 1992, president Herman James oversaw the development of Glassboro State College into what would eventually become Rowan University. This transformation came about because of what was then the largest single gift to a public college or University in history. Industrialist Henry M. Rowan, Jr., a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology class of 1947, and his wife donated $100 million to the college, which later changed its name to Rowan College of New Jersey in his honor. The gift stipulated that the college open a College of Engineering, allowing the college to expand its course and curriculum offerings to the point that it became a full-fledged university, achieving that status in 1997. This status was given by the State of New Jersey based on Rowan University's doctoral degree program, the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, and the numerous master's-level programs in education and business.Following James' retirement as president in 1998, Donald J. Farish was chosen to succeed him and began further expansion on the Glassboro campus, opening a modern Science Hall in 2003 and a building to house the College of Education in 2005. In addition, acquisitions during the beginning of Farish's tenure as president led to the development of a tract of land bordering US Route 322 and State Route 55 as the West Campus.
The presidency of Donald Farish was noted for a continued crackdown on the university's partying culture, which declined alongside a rise in SAT scores and class rank among the incoming freshman classes. The crackdown on the partying culture began in earnest in 2002 with the official banning of kegs for use by Greek letter organizations. In 2006, two Rowan University students were found guilty for serving alcohol to minors at an off-campus party that resulted in the death of a 16-year-old male. Rowan promised to follow up with its own penalties.
West Campus
On March 20, 2006, Farish announced a joint venture between the university and Major League Soccer to construct a new athletic complex based around a 20,000-seat soccer-specific stadium on property owned by the campus at the intersection of U.S. Route 322 and Route 55. Although the stadium was planned to be complete for the start of the 2009 MLS season, New Jersey's 2006 budget problems resulted in cutbacks in funding for the infrastructure upgrades required by increased traffic related to an MLS team. When plan fell through, the stadium project was relocated to nearby Chester, Pennsylvania where the MLS's Philadelphia Union now play their home matches.The northern portion of the West Campus expansion currently contains the South Jersey Technology Park as well as room for future expansion; the southern portion of the West Campus expansion will accommodate both academic and athletic facilities. The university in 2015 opened a site across from the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University with practice fields for football, soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse. Transportation between the two campuses will be provided with both shuttle service and improved bike paths, as well as improvements to Route 322 itself.
On a vast site, adjacent to the West Campus athletic fields, the Inspira Medical Center complex opened in late 2019.
South Jersey Technology Park
Rowan University broke ground for the South Jersey Technology Park on April 10, 2006. The New Jersey Economic Development Authority gave Rowan University $5.8 million to combine with $1.5 million from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, $1 million from Samuel H. Jones, and $1 million from Rowan itself. SJTP is planned to be a site which will serve as an establishment for science and technology companies as well as academics. It is planned to have 25 buildings to provide competitively priced Class "A" facilities for budding entrepreneurs, start-up and established companies. SJTP was incorporated as a non-profit corporation with its own board of directors.The first building, the Samuel H. Jones Innovation Center, has been leased completely out, and the revenue will help build a second building.
The Tech Park's first incubated business, SocialReach, has successfully graduated into its own offices in Philadelphia.
The second planned building will be approximately divided between research and technology labs and offices.
Campus crimes
In December 1972, Stephen Setrin was stabbed while on the grounds of Glassboro State CollegeOn August 12, 1996, 22-year-old Cindy Nannay was fatally shot outside Bozorth Hall by her estranged boyfriend, who then killed himself. Nannay was so afraid of Scott Lonabaugh, 27, that when he arrived on the campus to see her, she asked friends to accompany her to the parking lot, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's office said. As her friends looked on, Mr. Lonabaugh shot Ms. Nannay twice with a shotgun and then shot himself in the head, prosecutors said. Both died at the scene.
Eleven years later, in 2007, another student was murdered on campus. Sophomore Donald Farrell, 19, was robbed and beaten to death by unknown assailants while walking behind the Triad dormitory. A reward of $100,000 has been offered for information leading to the capture, arrest and conviction of the assailants. In an effort to find Farrell's assailants, television stations in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City aired reports on the murder, and America's Most Wanted twice featured segments on the incident.
Following Farrell's murder a new campus security initiative was undertaken, starting with a 14-point plan proposed by President Farish. The plan included hiring additional security staff, adding more fully trained police officers, starting a student patrol program, an expansion of the Safe Walk and Ride program, improving lighting in and around campus, installation of CCTV cameras, and changing security and police coverage from an 8-hour to a 12-hour shift.