Rutgers University–Camden is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. It is located in Camden, New Jersey. Founded in 1926 as the South Jersey Law School, Rutgers–Camden began as an amalgam of the South Jersey Law School and the College of South Jersey. It is the southernmost of the three regional campuses of Rutgers—the others being located in New Brunswick and Newark.[5] It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".[6] In 2024 the school was ranked 48th among the top public universities and 98th among national universities by US News and World Report[7]
Rutgers University-Camden was founded in 1926 as The College of South Jersey and South Jersey Law School by a group of South Jersey lawyers led by Collingswood mayor Arthur Armitage.[8] The campus joined the Rutgers University system in 1950, becoming Rutgers University-Camden and Rutgers Law School-Camden. Since the merger the campus has expanded its footprint in the Cooper Grant and Downtown/University District neighborhoods in Camden.
The Black Student Unity Movement of Rutgers-Camden was founded in 1969 by a group of black students at the school.[9] While segregation in public education was deemed unconstitutional by the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, universities still had policies in place that caused de facto segregation.[10] On February 10, 1969, three students from the Black Student Unity Movement interrupted a political science class that was taking place on Rutgers-Camden's campus and dispersed papers that listed the movement's demands.[11] Some demands listed by the Black Student Unity Movement were "that all racist faculty be removed from the university, an Urban Education Department be established, and that the new library addition be named after Paul Robeson".[12] The movement was unable to get their demands met by Rutgers University immediately, but in 1991, Paul Robeson Library was established on the Rutgers-Camden campus.[13]
In 2012, there was a proposal for the campus to merge with Rowan University. Due to a large opposition movement led by faculty, staff, students and alumni, the proposal was defeated.[14]
On June 20, 2020, students of Rutgers University–Camden created a petition that called for, "the removal of the Walt Whitman statue which stands tall in the middle of our campus."[15] Walt Whitman was an American poet and writer, who purchased a house in Camden in 1864, where he wrote his defining work, "Leaves of Grass".[16] In some of his works, Walt Whitman referred to black individuals as "baboons" and "wild brutes" and had utilized a racial slur against black people. Many Black intellectuals have called for these comments to be discussed at the same time as praise of Walt Whitman.[17] Rutgers University-Camden addressed the concerns proposed in the petition by hosting virtual meetings with community members, university faculty, students, and historians.[18] In 2021, the statute of Walt Whitman was moved from in front of the Rutgers University–Camden campus center to a garden space on campus and included contextualization of the complex history.[19]
Rutgers–Camden is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.[20] It has nearly 40 majors and 50 minors plus special programs, an Honors College, hands-on research with faculty mentors, study abroad, internships, civic learning, and various graduate and advanced professional programs. The academic year follows a 4-4 schedule of two four-course semesters, fall and spring. During the winter study term, students study various courses outside of typical curriculum for 3 weeks in January. Rutgers students often take the winter study term to pursue internships or work on intensive research projects.
The Graduate School offers 14 programs granting master's degrees in several liberal arts disciplines including history, English literature, languages, and creative writing, as well as advanced degrees in the biological, chemical, computer, and mathematical sciences, nursing, psychology, social work, political science and public policy, and Doctoral programs in Childhood Studies, Computational Biology, and Public Affairs with emphasis on community development. An MBA program is offered through the Rutgers School of Business-Camden.
The Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts provides performances, exhibitions, education programs, and community projects. The Fine Arts Building on the Rutgers–Camden campus houses the Walter K. Gordon Theater, Black Box Theater, and the Stedman Gallery. The Gordon Theater is the home venue for the Collingswood-based Symphony in C.
The Rutgers School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The Rutgers Law School is a center of legal education, with two campuses—in Camden and Newark. Its faculty is internationally recognized in a number of fields including constitutional, criminal, health, and corporate law.[citation needed] Its alumni are leading members of the bar in public and private practice settings throughout the nation.[citation needed] The school is well represented among the state and federal judiciary.[citation needed] The law school is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and is on the list of approved schools of the American Bar Association. It offers a three-year course of study for full-time students and a four-year, part-time program leading to the awarding of the Juris Doctor degree."[21]
The Rutgers School of Nursing–Camden offers curricula that integrate nursing knowledge and clinical practice, including baccalaureate programs for traditional students, registered nurse students, and second-degree students; a doctor of nursing practice program; and certification in school nursing and wound ostomy continence nursing.
The Paul Robeson Library develops and maintains access to materials that support undergraduate and graduate coursework and research. A designated Federal Depository for the First U.S. Congressional District, the library serves as a public resource for the citizens of New Jersey. Library faculty deliver comprehensive support for reference and research questions in their subject areas. Through the Paul Robeson Library, the Rutgers–Camden community may access the global resources of the Rutgers University Library System. The Robeson library also serves as the academic library for students and faculty at the Camden campuses of Camden County College and Rowan University.[22][23]
The Law Library is one of New Jersey's largest law libraries. It serves as a research facility for law students, legal practitioners, and the general public. The Law Library houses a collection of over 440,000 books and other materials, and the collection is comprehensive in its holdings of American, English, Canadian, and foreign legal periodicals. The Law Library is located on three floors of the Law School Building. A selective federal depository, the Rutgers–Camden Law Library hosts numerous online collections of public documents related to federal and New Jersey courts.[24]
Undergraduate and graduate dorms are located at Third and Cooper Streets, and a graduate residence hall is located at 330 Cooper Street.[25] The twelve-story residence hall is the tallest building on campus. Many students live off campus in Camden's Cooper Grant neighborhood, in Philadelphia, or in surrounding suburbs such as Collingswood and Haddonfield.
The Rutgers Alumni House is located at 312 Cooper Street, in a historic mansion built in 1809, and serves the alumni of all four Rutgers University campuses.[26]
The Rutgers Writers House is located at 305 Cooper Street, in a house historically known as the Dr. Henry Genet Taylor House.[27] The house is home to the university's MFA in Creative Writing Program, as well as the journals Cooper Street and StoryQuarterly. The Writers House hosts writers, scholars, and others for various programs.[28]
North of the campus green, The Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts houses the Stedman Art Gallery, the Gordon Theater, and the Black Box theater.
Rutgers-Camden is home to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH), a public humanities learning and professional center which publishes the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, hosts fellowships, and sponsors research projects on the Mid-Atlantic region.
Regional rail access to the university is provided by the PATCO's City Hall station, located two blocks from center campus, and the RiverLINE's Cooper Street–Rutgers University station. The Walter Rand Transportation Center is located a few blocks from campus, which provides access to several NJ Transit bus lines. Additionally, the seasonally operated RiverLink Ferry running between Camden and Philadelphia has a stop at the nearby Adventure Aquarium.
As a service to students of the university, the Rutgers–Camden Police Department provides "a walking security escort for individuals to their vehicles, campus housing, the PATCO Hi-Speed Line station at 5th and Market Sts., and the Walter Rand Transportation Center on Broadway".[29] The campus also runs shuttle buses with stops throughout the campus.
The Rutgers–Camden's athletic teams are called the Scarlet Raptors. The university is a member in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) for most of its sports since the 1985–86 academic year;[30] except men's golf and women's volleyball, which the NJAC does not sponsor either. In those two sports, the Scarlet Raptors are members of the United East Conference (UEC) for men's golf and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) for women's volleyball.
Rutgers–Camden competes in 17 intercollegiate varsity sports (8 for men and 9 for women): Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field (indoor and outdoor); while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, tennis, track & field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball.
In 2006, Rutgers–Camden earned its first NCAA Division III national championship when the softball team defeated top-ranked and two-time defending champion St. Thomas (Minn.), 3–2. Rutgers–Camden set program marks with a 47–5 record and a 29-game winning streak.
In 2012 and 2013, Rutgers–Camden student-athlete Tim VanLiew won back-to-back NCAA Men's Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the javelin. He won his first title on May 26, 2012, with a throw of 67.19 meters (220.4 ft) at Claremont–Mudd–Scripps in Claremont, California. Nearly a year to the day of his first title, he not only defended his national javelin title, but he did so in record-breaking fashion. VanLiew's throw of 75.55 meters (247.9 ft) set the all-time NCAA Division III record for the new javelin, while shattering the NCAA Championship record, the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse stadium mark, and VanLiew's old Rutgers–Camden program record in the process.
Rutgers–Camden's men's soccer team went a school-record 37 consecutive games without a loss, a record that spanned the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The team compiled a 32–0–5 record during that time, the eighth-longest streak in NCAA Division III men's soccer history. The team earned a trip to the NCAA Division III National Championship for the first time in program history by defeating Loras College, 3–2, in overtime on Dec. 6, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. The unbeaten streak came to an end on Dec. 7, 2013, in a 2–1 double-overtime loss to Messiah College in the NCAA Division III National Championship. The men's soccer team won three consecutive NJAC titles and in 2013 finished ranked No. 3 in the D3soccer.com Top 25 and No. 4 in the NSCAA national poll.
Approximately 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students attend Rutgers–Camden. Nearly 600 students live on campus. Renowned for its commitment for diversity, the student body is made up of students from 29 states and 33 countries. There are many clubs that represent various ethnic and racial groups, various religious denominations, political beliefs, and an LGBTQ club. There have been over 43,000 graduates as of 2016 [31]
39°56′56″N 75°07′26″W / 39.949°N 75.124°W / 39.949; -75.124
