Rated Highly for Contributions to Public Good, MFA in Creative Writing

Once again national magazines have recognized Rutgers University, Newark, for its academic excellence and community outreach.  Last week Washington Monthly ranked Rutgers, Newark, at # 18 in the nation among National Universities for its contributions to public good, in its 2010 College Rankings issue. That announcement was followed this week by Poets & Writers magazine ranking Rutgers-Newark’s Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program among the top 50 MFA programs in the nation, an especially impressive accomplishment considering Rutgers-Newark’s MFA program was only launched in fall 2007.

The MFA program’s founding director is Jayne Anne Phillips, the award-winning author whose critically acclaimed most recent novel, Lark and Termite, was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the 2009 Heartland Prize.

“We are delighted to get this kind of recognition for our longstanding commitment to community engagement and to educational opportunity,” states Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Steven J. Diner.  “Involvement with our host city and research that supports the well-being of our larger society helps us teach and advance knowledge more effectively,” he observes, “while at the same time  we make our community and the world better.”

“The Rutgers Newark MFA Program, a ranked program since our beginning semester, welcomes the honor of this recognition,” says Phillips. “Our faculty truly mentor excellent, very diverse, students, while our Writers at Newark Reading Series this year hosts four Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison,” she explains, noting that it is the basis “both of MFA courses and exciting outreach to Newark, including the Newark High Schools Program and the Newark Public Library Readers Group,” adding,  “Literature can change the lives of writers and readers, and our ‘Real Lives, Real Stories’ program recognizes that empowering possibility.”

Washington Monthly’s rankings are a way “to measure and quantify how well individual colleges and universities were meeting their public obligations in the areas of research, service, and social mobility,” according to the magazine’s website. When the magazine published its first ranking in 2005, “the idea was to upend the traditional notion of a college guide. Instead of asking what a college could do for you, we asked, “What are colleges doing for the country,’” notes the website.

Other universities in Washington National’s top 20 listing include Harvard, Georgetown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, the College of William and Mary, Syracuse and the University of Chicago. A full list is online at http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2010/national_university_rank.php

The 2011 MFA Rankings in the September/October 2010 issue of Poets & Writers evaluated data such as participants’ evaluations of their poetry, fiction and non-fiction programs, funding and selectivity.  Other colleges with MFAs in the 
top 50 include Sarah Lawrence College, Boston, Notre Dame, Brown, Syracuse and Purdue universities, Pennsylvania State/University Park campus, and the University of Iowa.  A complete listing is at   http://www.pw.org/content/2011_mfa_rankings_the_top_fifty_0.

 These two rankings follow on the heels of the 2011 listings published by  U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Rutgers, Newark, as one of America’s “A-Plus Colleges for B Students” among national universities.  U.S. News defines these as institutions where “nonsuperstar” high school students can thrive academically.  The publication again designated Rutgers, Newark, as the nation’s “Most Diverse” national university, an honor it has held annually since 1997, the first year that U.S. News & World Report began ranking student ethnic diversity.  In the classification of Best National Universities, Rutgers, Newark, is listed in the top tier, at 143 of the 262 national universities.

Last year Rutgers University, Newark was named one of the 25 “best neighbor schools” in the “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships.” The survey recognizes colleges and universities that work to spur economic expansion, cultural renewal and other improvements in their host cities. Last year the campus was named to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement, and in 2006, it was selected by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as one of among a small pool of U.S. colleges and universities for the foundation’s Community Engagement Classification. The Carnegie Foundation placed Rutgers us in the foundation’s Outreach and Partnerships category, recognizing its ability to collaboratively apply and provide institutional resources that benefit both campus and community.

ABOUT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, NEWARK 

Rutgers-Newark is home to the Newark College of Arts and Sciences, University College, the Graduate School-Newark, Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, the School of Law-Newark, the College of Nursing, the School of Criminal Justice, the School of Public Affairs and Administration, and extensive research and outreach centers, including the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience. Approximately 12,000 students are currently enrolled in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered at the 38-acre downtown Newark campus.

Media Contact: Carla Capizzi
973/353-5263
E-mail: capizzi@rutgers.edu