History Timeline

1892 -1926: Newark becomes home to a series of independent institutions of higher education: New Jersey College of Pharmacy, New Jersey Law School, Newark Institute of Arts and Sciences, and Mercer Beasley School of Law.

1929-1934: The Seth Boyden School of Business and Dana College are created from the Pre-Legal Department of the New Jersey Law School; Rutgers University --a private institution in New Brunswick --opens University College in Newark, offering evening classes. Newark Institute of Arts and Sciences and Mercer Beasley merge, forming the University of Newark.

1936: The University of Newark merges with Dana College, Seth Boyden School of Business and the New Jersey Law School, under the name of the University of Newark.

1945-46: Rutgers University is designated a New Jersey public university; the following year, the University of Newark, along with the Rutgers College of Pharmacy, becomes the Newark Colleges of Rutgers University.

The 1960s: The modern campus takes shape with the construction of academic buildings, a library and a student center, and Seth Boyden School of Business is renamed the Graduate School of Business Administration. The takeover of Conklin Hall leads to changes that impact the Newark campus and the entire University, transforming R-N from a mainly white institution, in a mainly non-white city, to a campus rated the most diverse national university campus in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 1997.

1970s-1980s: Rutgers-Newark welcomes the School of Criminal Justice, and the Graduate School-Newark is established as a free-standing academic unit.

The campus expands its facilities, constructing several academic buildings, the Golden Dome Athletic Center and Alumni Field, and its first residence hall, Talbott Apartments, and a parking deck.

1990s: The construction spurt continues, adding the campus’s first undergraduate residence hall, Woodward Hall, and Stonsby Commons, a dining facility; the Aidekman Research Center, housing the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, and the Management Education Center, opens as do multi-million-dollar additions to Dana Library and Robeson Center. Construction of a $49-million Center for Law and Justice, then the largest building project in Rutgers history, is authorized.

1997 marks the first year that Rutgers-Newark is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the most diverse national university campus in the country, a recognition it still retains.

Rutgers offers what is believed to be the world’s first Masters of Arts in Jazz History and Research, and the Honors Program is expanded into a four-year Honors College.

2000-2003: The Center for Law and Justice opens its doors, and the Joseph P. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, the Center for the Study of Public Security and the Police Institute are established.

2004-2009:The Life Sciences Center opens.

The School of Public Affairs and Administration, is established in 2006; two years later it offers the state’s first undergraduate major in public service.

In 2006, Rutgers-Newark is awarded the Community Engagement Classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, one of only 115 U.S. colleges and universities so designated.

2009-2013: Rutgers-Newark serves as a national case study in diversity and leadership, for the American Council on Education spring fellowship program, 2009.

Rutgers University in Newark is chosen to lead a $5 million, five-year, multiple-school program to substantially increase the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing majors in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM fields. The Garden State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (GS-LSAMP) is funded by the National Science Foundation.

In fall 2010 Washington Monthly ranks Rutgers, Newark, at # 18 in the nation among National Universities for its contributions to public good, in its 2010 College Rankings issue.

Rutgers-Newark opens the Rutgers University Brain Imaging Center (RUBIC). RUBIC offers the latest functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner technology, available to researchers on all four Rutgers campuses, as well as other institutions, for a wide range of studies.

The City of Newark gains a second Rutgers campus: the Rutgers Health Sciences campus at Newark, part of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.

The Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies(IJS) becomes the fifth New Jersey library to be designated a “Literary Landmark” by the New Jersey Center for the Book.

2014: Nancy Cantor becomes the first female chancellor of RU-N, effective Jan. 1. She launches an inclusive, comprehensive strategic visioning process that results in the campuswide strategic plan, Rutgers University–Newark: Where Opportunity Meets Excellence.

Rutgers University–Newark joins with more than 60 organizations to establish the Newark City of Learning Collaborative(NCLC), a citywide network charged with increasing by 2025 the number of Newark residents with post-secondary degrees, from 17% of the city’s current population to 25%. NCLC’s composition includes higher education institutions, the City of Newark, the Newark Workforce Investment Board, the Newark Housing Authority, the private sector, philanthropic organizations, college attainment programs, and community-based organizations.

2017: Express Newark, RU-N’s Arts Incubator, Now Open in Historic Former Hahne’s Department Store, Is Bringing New Synergy to Newark’s Arts District.

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