The Rutgers 1000 is Baaaack!

I have lived in New Jersey practically all of my life.

The Garden State has been in fiscal crisis practically all of my academic life and my working life. I realized this almost thirty years ago, as a student taxpayer; the tuition at Rutgers tripled between from my freshman year to my senior year.

All that time the campus looked the same, the complaints about the campus were the same. The complaints about traffic, large lecture classes, deferred maintenance, and so on, were the same.

I know that the extra tuition I paid did not end up in the professor’s pockets; it was used to make up cuts in state aid. Higher education received a lower priority in a recessionary economy.

I did not like it; I paid triple the tuition to get the same education, but I learned to grit my teeth and bear it. So did my classmates; the alternatives were less attractive.

I know that the extra tuition did not support the football program. In the late 70’s, early 80’s, the team had started to play the major football schools. Rutgers had to play the major games on the road, or at Giants Stadium (sorry Jet fans) in the Meadowlands. Rutgers Stadium was too small to host the major powers on campus. It still is, even with twice the seating we had back in our student days.

I understand the economic arguments against stadium expansion—but Rutgers will not be taking the wraps of a new stadium today. Public construction projects have a bid process, a design process, a construction management process. We are talking about a project that will not be completed for two or three years. My major concern is that that Rutgers sticks to the budget; there won’t be any wiggle room for cost overruns.

A better economy, and a better football team, can pay it off. Ardent fans are willing to pay the price for success, now that they have a taste of how it feels to get behind a winning team.

What are the alternatives?

Play at the Meadowlands?

That’s less possible than it was thirty years ago; the current and future stadiums support two National Football League teams. There are only so many days that they will allow college football to tear up their field.

Two third of Rutgers alumni reside in New Jersey. The current Rutgers Stadium is, if nothing else, in a convenient location for alumni to fill the seats—and it brings them back to campus. The Meadowlands is far less convenient.

Rutgers allows 8,000 students to attend games free of charge; this is unique in college football. After I graduated from Rutgers in 1982, I went to graduate school at the University of Illinois, a school that had a Rose Bowl team. I paid $60 a season for my seats—in 1982. That was the same price for Rutgers Young Alumni—in 1995! The game ticket is still a bargain compared to other major college programs; the fans and the athletic department have made that so.

The Sports and Exposition Authority will not allow Rutgers students to attend games in an NFL stadium free of charge; the debt on that facility will not permit it.

Go “down league,” as the Rutgers 1000 has suggested in the past?

The opportunity to play for a national championship puts “meat in the seats.” I sincerely doubt that Rutgers would reverse direction after receiving three consecutive bowl bids and playing to capacity crowds.

Obviously, fans cannot count on the quality of play at season’s eve, but expectations for Rutgers football have risen higher. Optimism breeds enthusiasm, which fills the seats.

Who, at Rutgers, in the 21^st century, would be excited about a “Championship Subdivision” schedule, now that the Scarlet Knights have a chance at something better, something more likely to change the perception of the school for the better?

Alumni who graduated before me might be pleased; they were used to watching the Scarlet Knights battle Princeton. They should be careful what they wish for; Rutgers went 4-6 for the 1960’s against their in-state Ivy rivals. From 1960 through 1975, the last season Princeton won the big game, Rutgers went 6-9-1. From 1960 through 1980, the last year of the rivalry, the Knight’s record against Princeton was 11-9-1

So much for the good old days.

I’m not bothered by the resurrection of the Rutgers 1000; colleges need collegiality and all views on the football stadium debate, pro and con, should be heard. However, I have serious problems with messages like these (below).

Rutgers—a slum campus covered by asphalt and litter; deteriorating classrooms; mounting deferred maintenance costs that reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

400 courses have been eliminated. Hundreds of staff positions have been abolished. Key projects have been put on hold. Teams in Olympic and participatory sports have been eliminated.

These comments are no help to Rutgers, or the Rutgers 1000’s cause. They bury the very school they chose, inhibiting students they would like to see on campus from considering the school and, making things more difficult for fundraising and admissions.

Believe it or not, no prospective student or donor is drawn to bad news; they want to be part of something special.

Like an emerging football program.

If the views of the Rutgers 1000 had been in the majority at Rutgers, the university would have spared themselves the investments that they have already made in the football program.

Students and alumni certainly had enough time to voice discontent, long before Greg Schiano settled on the Banks of the Raritan. If anything, dissenting students and alumni could have staged a more significant protest by boycotting the football games, even while the team is winning.

Instead, there are more student fans than there are student seats and a waiting list of 9,000 ready and willing to pay for season tickets.

The Rutgers 1000 leadership might argue that those waiting to buy tickets should reconsider their priorities; that would be consistent with their mission.

Even if that denies thousands of fans access to an activity, in which they want to participate.

Rutgers to Reorganize Alumni Association for the Better

From time to time, I write about Rutgers, the state university I know best. Rutgers is a very good school; U.S. News ranks my alma mater as one of the nation’s top 20 state universities–and quirky enough to be interesting to an education writer.

Rutgers is the state university of New Jersey; those four words follow the name in all school marketing, so people know for sure. Purdue, the College of William and Mary and most recently, the flagship campuses of the State University of New York are the only national public institutions that do not include the name of their state.

Rutgers University’s flagship campus in New Brunswick has been an exercise in organized disorganization for 35 years. The organized disorganization has preserved and protected the identities of four federated colleges, the first of which traces it’s roots to colonial times.

 Before 1972, Rutgers College, the oldest school, was all-male. Livingston, a liberal arts college founded to address issues of social change in the late sixties, was the only co-educational institution. Students in agriculture, engineering and pharmacy affiliated with Rutgers, Douglass or Livingston for their housing.

Things got only more confusing after 1972: the ag school became Cook College, another liberal arts school while Rutgers College became co-ed, and competed directly with Livingston for students—and resources. Today the Livingston campus provides housing for Rutgers College students, as well as their own and Douglass College is less a college than a residence life option for women.

No other flagship state university is organized the same as Rutgers. If had enrolled at the University of Maryland, for instance, I’d start as a University of Maryland student with an undeclared major and then apply to attend the school of business, journalism, education and the like. Even after I declared my major, I’d still be a University of Maryland student who’d become a University of Maryland alumnus, a Terrapin for life.

Not so at Rutgers; I’m a Rutgers College graduate, so I’m invited to join an association that includes the largest subset of Rutgers alumni—but not every one of them. I also get solicitations to the business school’s alumni association because I have a Rutgers’ MBA—and they invite undergraduate business students to join. I’m also solicited by the graduate public policy school, because I took their undergraduate courses for my bachelor’s degree. There’s no university-wide association that all Rutgers alumni can be a part of—and that’s damn silly.

Instead of one large association, I get hit up by three small ones that have overlapping memberships. I threw in the towel—joined none of them—and gave the same money to the Touchdown Club, the group that supports the football team. Why? Because the activities are fun and most of them are free. I love college football. I’m a season ticket holder, the activities are all informal, and I get discounts to buy licensed football apparel. I get a lot for my money—a lot more than I’d get from the alumni associations.

Rutgers got the message; the university administration wants to consolidate 19 separate alumni associations on three campuses into one. They will allow any of the legacy groups to soldier on, but there will be better-coordinated services for alumni within one association. This is necessary at a time when alumni desire services from the university, such as personalized Web content, continuing education and career services— that are not and never could be, managed by alumni relations.

What would I like to see from a single Rutgers alumni association?

• Membership for Rutgers’ parents; they want their children to succeed and they are in a better position to support the university while their son or daughter is starting life after college. There are also more “helicopter parents” then there have ever been in college communities. Development officers could use that to the university’s advantage.
• A Founder’s Week; there should be a huge celebration of the university’s history and accomplishments each year with events for students, alumni, their families and of course, parents. I didn’t know that November 10 was Rutgers’ Founder’s Day, until this year, twenty five years after I received my bachelor’s degree. That’s a good time to plan a Founder’s Week; it’s after midterms and before Thanksgiving. It’s also the best week to host a Homecoming football game.
• Low cost family events; alumni who graduated between 1980 and 2000 are not only in careers, they are likely raising families. It’s very difficult to attract them to campus events where their children cannot participate. Besides, a university should expose children of alumni to their campus at an early age; admission to Rutgers is a worthwhile goal.
• Customized Web content; I want to know about events and subjects of interest to me. Rutgers is a treasure trove of news, but my interests are very specific.
• An alumni career services office in New York City, to complement the campus career centers.
• A master discount card, as the students have, to shop at campus stores online and offline, as well as with participating merchants. Combine that with a hotel discount that students can also use, as well as discounts on Rutgers’ sports tickets for the teams that have no waiting list.
• Online networks for alumni to contribute their time to admissions and career development.
• The Rutgers print magazine delivered to my door each month, with a calendar of events—with alumni and family discounts.

Rutgers has over 360,000 living alumni, and they have considerable buying power. It’s time for Rutgers to put that buying power to work. Alumni might not need another credit card, or insurance policy, but they are willing to support family-oriented events and quality services they can actually use.

So, for the new association, whatever it may be called, I suggest that they be guided by these words: School spirit and family values.