Dr. Seneca addresses University Senate
Rutgers never better, says Dr. Seneca
Archived article from Feb 4, 2000
By Douglas Frank
Noting that Rutgers is entering its "fourth century of service to people of this colony, this state, this nation, this community of nations," Joseph J. Seneca, university vice president for academic affairs, said that "the institution, from my perspective, has never been better."
His remarks came Jan. 28 in his annual address before the University Senate on the state of the New Brunswick campus, during which he spoke briefly about the institution as a whole.
"The environment is propitious for us to move the institution further and to draw to it the resources and the people that make it the special, major public higher-education institution that is embodied and envisioned in our strategic plan," Seneca said.
As in other institutions, the success of each unit ensures the success of all of us, Seneca said. But he added that at Rutgers, "Our strategic plan also reverses that maxim and says the success of all of us enriches the success of each of us."
"Rutgers, in the new century, stands tall among its peers," asserted the senior Rutgers academic official, noting that last year's $60 million in fund raising, more than 25,000 undergraduate applications for admission, and $165 million in research contract grants and awards to the faculty were "all-time records."
"Each year Rutgers gets better by these macromeasures of the breadth and accomplishments of the university and shows that it is an institution that is on the move," said Seneca.
He pointed to a "trinity of initiatives" that are focused around the guiding principles of the strategic plan -- RUNet 2000, the Strategic Resource and Opportunity Analysis (SROA) and Reinvest in Rutgers.
"All three new initiatives of the president over the past years support, complement and build the strategic plan. They provide support for the core of what we are about as an academic institution."
Seneca listed numerous accomplishments of the New Brunswick campus and schools including:
--Four new major courses introduced by top faculty this year designed to teach science to nonscience majors.
--An undergraduate research fellowship program in which 45 students are working with faculty mentors.
--A National Science Foundation grant that enables talented graduate students and advanced undergraduates in science, mathematics, engineering and technology to serve as teaching fellows in K-12 schools.
--A new six-year Pharm.D. degree.
--Three major new centers for the Bloustein School dealing with work force development, brownfields and transportation.
--Establishment of the new Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience.
--The silver anniversary of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.
--A Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring, one of five nationally, to Douglass College.
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