60 Milestones

1.      1766 Queen’s College – the forerunner of Rutgers University – is founded in New Brunswick.

2.      1825 Queen’s College becomes Rutgers College to honor trustee and Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Henry Rutgers.

3.      1864 The state legislature chooses Rutgers to be the state land-grant college.

4.      1926 Local businessman Arthur Armitage leads a coalition of area citizens in founding the South Jersey Law School; among the 53 members of the first class were four women.

5.      1926 Benjamin Franklin Bridge – originally known as the Delaware River Bridge, is completed. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Today’s Rutgers–Camden community members “run the bridge” – a three-mile jaunt to Philadelphia and back – for exercise.

6.      1927 The College of South Jersey is launched as an undergraduate companion to the law school.

7.      1946 The Ayer family deeds their flagstone mansion at 406 Penn Street to the College of South Jersey; this building later becomes Rutgers–Camden’s admissions office.

8.      1950 South Jersey Law School and College of South Jersey merge with Rutgers University to form the Camden Campus.

9.      1951 Two students become the first graduates of the Rutgers College of South Jersey.

10.  1958 Campus library (now known as the Paul Robeson Library) is built.

11.  1961 Camden mayor Alfred R. Pierce and Rutgers president Mason W. Gross announce a major building expansion.

12.  1964 Campus Center and Science Building are constructed.

13.  1967 School of Law becomes independent from Rutgers–Newark. Russell Fairbanks is named first dean of the new law school.

14.  1968 Armitage Hall, named for a campus founder, is opened.

15.  1969 Some 30 students and community activists occupy the Campus Center in support of black students who have occupied Conklin Hall at Rutgers–Newark to increase the number of black students, faculty, and administrators at Rutgers.

16.  1971 School of Law facility is built.

17.  1973 Gymnasium is constructed.

18.  1975 The Fine Arts Theater – now known as the Walter K. Gordon Theater – opens with a concert by the New Jersey Symphony. Lily Tomlin later would hold the theater’s first sold-out show.  

19.  1981 The Graduate School-Camden is founded. The first degree programs were offered in biology and English; a master’s of business administration was also offered.

20.  1984 The Cooper’s Ferry Development Association is organized to restore the Camden Waterfront via a master plan mixing residential, business, entertainment, and cultural complexes.

21.  1986 First residential apartments open.

22.  1988 School of Business is created; Rick Elam is named inaugural dean.

23.  1989 Rutgers joins the prestigious Association of American Universities, comprised of the top 62 research universities in the country.

24.  1989 Nick Virgilio, an internationally known haiku poet who used the Rutgers–Camden Paul Robeson Library to write, dies. He, like Walt Whitman, is buried at Harleigh Cemetery.

25.  1989 Business and Science Building opens. Rutgers–Camden Tower opens to provide dormitory housing.

26.  1991 Roger J. Dennis is named dean of the Rutgers School of Law—Camden. Milton Leontiades is named dean of the Rutgers School of Business—Camden.

27.  1992 New Jersey State Aquarium opens a few blocks from Campus.

28.  1993 The Campus Center expands to include a new bookstore, student and staff offices, the health center, and meeting rooms.

29.  1995 Tweeter Center opens as one of the first year-round amphitheaters of its kind. Rutgers–Camden students become graduates when they cross the stage each year at commencement held at the facility, now called the Susquehanna Bank Center.

30.  1995 Rutgers School of Business—Camden becomes first southern New Jersey institution to earn accreditation from the AACSB International.

31.  Georgia Arbuckle, associate professor of chemistry, is the campus’s first recipient of the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

32.  1997 Scarlet Raptor born on Sept. 17. Prior to the Raptor, Rutgers–Camden was the home of the Pioneers with Calistoga the Calistoga Wagon as the school’s mascot.

33.  1997 The president of Namibia becomes the first seated world leader to deliver a commencement address at Rutgers–Camden.

34.  1997 Roger J. Dennis, dean of the School of Law—Camden, is named provost.

35.  1997 First MBA classes offered off-site in Atlantic City.

36.  1998 Rayman L. Solomon is named dean of the Rutgers School of Law—Camden. Margaret Marsh is named dean of the Rutgers–Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

37.  1999 The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs is launched, addressing the needs of southern New Jersey’s citizens with scholarly expertise and community resources.

39.  2001 Campbell’s Field, home to the professional minor league Camden Riversharks and the Rutgers–Camden Scarlet Raptors baseball teams, opens. The Rutgers–Camden Community Park also opens and provides the first on-campus athletic fields for soccer and softball.

40.  2001 The Battleship New Jersey Memorial and Museum opens helping the Camden Waterfront attract some three million people each year.

41.  2002 Starbucks opens on campus. While the coffee seller typically doesn’t open on college campus with less than 10,000 students, predicted sales goals at Rutgers–Camden have far surpassed expectations.

42.  2003 The RiverLINE light rail begins transporting Rutgers–Camden riders.

43.  2003 Women’s basketball team wins first NJAC team championship in school history.

44.  2004 The Victor, a high-end apartment building, opens, along with neighboring retail and dining options along the Camden Waterfront.

45.  2005 Rutgers partners with Camden County to manage the Boathouse at Cooper River.

46.  2006 Women’s softball wins the NCAA Division III National Championship Title and becomes the first Rutgers team to win an NCAA title in more than 60 years.

47.  2007 The nation’s first PhD in childhood studies debuts at Rutgers–Camden.

48.  2008 Renovated dining reopens.

49.  2008 Rutgers partners with Camden County to manage the Camden County Golf Academy.

50.  2008 The Gateway, a new public artwork that serves as an illuminating entryway into Campus is unveiled. Created by acclaimed New Jersey sculptor Clyde Lynds, the Rutgers-Camden Gateway consists of two ten-foot-high and 60-foot-long walls of laminated, tempered glass secured in stainless steel, that showcase hundreds of etchings of objects from nature and civilization, in their proudest and harshest moments.

51.  2008 Classes begin for aspiring poets and authors in Rutgers–Camden’s MFA in creative writing program.

52.  2008 Rutgers partners with Camden County to manage the Camden County Golf Academy. 

53.  2009 An eight-foot bronze sculpture of Walt Whitman is unveiled in front of the Campus Center. “Whitman with Butterfly,” created and donated by Rutgers–Camden Professor Emeritus John Giannotti has become a campus landmark and the Good Grey Poet has even had fun sporting commencement regalia and a Phillies cap. 

54.  2009 3D Sesame Street episodes created by Rutgers–Camden alums air to celebrate the television show’s 40^th anniversary.

55.  2009 Rutgers–Camden faculty and student researchers identify a new species of leech in New Jersey: Haemopis ottorum, named for the southern New Jersey family who found the rare foot-long terrestrial leech in their backyard.

56.  2009 Newly renovated gymnasium reopens, featuring top-of-the-line cardio and strength-training equipment; a resistance pool; temperature-controlled showers; first-ever team locker rooms; and a team lecture hall with smart technology.

57.  2009 Wendell E. Pritchett, a noted scholar in urban history and policy and an experienced government and university administrator, is named chancellor.

58.  2009 The School of Law, which dedicates a gleaming new 53,000 square foot building that complements the school’s existing facility, hosts a session of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

59.  2010 The Rutgers–Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office Funds its 100^th student in undergraduate research endeavors, since the program’s inception in 2005.

60.  2010 More than 6,000 students enroll at Rutgers–Camden, the largest student body in Campus history.