“A Century of Reaching Higher” Gala is Attended by 370 Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Students, Friends and Supporters
Rutgers University celebrated one hundred years in the City of Newark at a gala event on June 19, 2008. Over 370 people attended the gala held in the Paul Robeson Campus Center, and the evening’s net proceeds were more than $160,000, to be used for student scholarships at Rutgers-Newark (R-N). PSEG and Prudential were lead sponsors of the event.
Among the gala’s attendees were five co-chairs, all distinguished alumni of Rutgers-Newark; Four distinguished alumni of Rutgers University in Newark – (from left) Dennis Bone, CEO of Verizon New Jersey; Al Koeppe, CEO of The Newark Alliance; Ralph Izzo, CEO of PSEG; and Barbara Bell Coleman, President of BBC Associates — are joined by Rutgers-Newark Professor Clement Price, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Steven Diner at the June 19 gala.
Business School graduates Dennis Bone, President of Verizon New Jersey; Raymond Chambers, chairman of the MCJ-Amelior Foundation, and Ralph Izzo, CEO of PSEG; and Newark College of Arts and Sciences graduates Barbara Bell Coleman, President of BBC Associates, and Alfred Koeppe, CEO of The Newark Alliance.
The current and former living New Jersey governors were honored at the event, and although Governor Corzine was unable to attend, Governors Brendan Byrne, James Florio and Christine Todd Whitman attended the gala with their spouses. Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Steven Diner and Rutgers University President Richard McCormick were among the evening’s speakers. Keynote speaker for the evening was Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who addressed the legacy and history of Rutgers University in Newark, beginning with the founding of the New Jersey Law School in 1908.
The evening’s emcees were Rutgers-Newark faculty members Dr. Clement Alexander Price, Rutgers Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History, and Dr. Asela Laguna, Professor and Chair of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures. Additional speakers were the Dr. M. William Howard, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, and chairman of the Rutgers University Board of Governors; and Tynesha McHarris, 2008 graduate of the Newark College of Arts & Sciences.
Entertainment for the evening was provided by two jazz ensembles, the first led by Dr. Lewis Porter, Professor of Music at R-N; and the second by R-N Master’s in Jazz History alumnus Leo Johnson, who led an ensemble made up of fellow alumni.
The evening’s attendees included members of the centennial gala committee, a group of over 40 civic, business and government leaders, many of whom are graduates of Rutgers-Newark.
Historical Background on Rutgers University in Newark
From humble beginnings as a law school founded in 1908 by New York attorney Richard Currier, Rutgers University in Newark has grown over the course of the past century to become one of the country’s leading urban research universities.
Professional education has been a hallmark of Rutgers University in Newark since the early days of the New Jersey Law School and the Seth Boyden School of Business, both housed in the old Ballantine Brewery building at 40 Rector Street. These schools, along with Dana College, eventually merged to form the University of Newark in 1936, one of the important “streetcar universities” of the early 20th century. The streetcar universities were commuter schools founded by Progressive Era idealists with the goal of expanding higher educational opportunity to the sons (and later daughters) of primarily working class and immigrant families.
In the 1940s, the University of Newark merged with Rutgers University to form a geographically diverse public state university with programs in a broad variety of undergraduate and graduate disciplines. In the 1960s the university acquired a large parcel of land in what is now known as the University Heights district, and began construction of the modern campus. Rutgers-Newark today is a modern urban research university of 38 acres, where 10,500 students pursue degrees in business, law, the arts and sciences, nursing, criminal justice, public administration and global affairs.
Further information on the history of Rutgers University in Newark can be found at www.newark.rutgers.edu/century.
