New home for Cornwall Center
Archived article from May 12, 2003
By Mike Sutton
The unassuming but attractive brownstone at 47 Bleeker St. in Newark blends seamlessly with the architectural style of its neighbors. It hardly looks, at first glance, like the nerve center of the next phase in the Newark campus's 40-year effort to help revitalize the city.
The building, which officially opened May 1, is the new home of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, a dynamic program to investigate and tackle the issues confronting both Newark in particular and America's cities in general.
Named for Joseph C. Cornwall, founding chair of the Fund for New Jersey, the center seeks to advance research and discussion among scholars of metropolitan life and contribute to the resolution of pressing public policy issues through information campaigns and programs to revitalize neighborhoods. The Fund for New Jersey has provided $2.4 million in funding for the center since it was created in 2000.
Speaking for the members of the Cornwall family, John Cornwall, Joseph Cornwall's son and a trustee of the Fund for New Jersey, said, "We are thrilled to be here to celebrate the opening of the new building. The center's goals coincide with so many of the historical concerns of the fund, such as empowering the citizenry with the tools for social improvement."
Marc Holzer, chair of the public administration department and head of the Cornwall Center's executive committee, noted, "Our main thrust is building on the powerful connections between the campus and the city communities. As an urban university, Rutgers–Newark has a major responsibility for doing its part to contribute to the quality of life in both Newark and in the metropolitan area around the city. The citizens of this city are our neighbors and our colleagues. We don't ever lose sight of that."
Holzer said that the Cornwall Center's new building will create a nexus that would permit researchers in disparate disciplines to join forces in a far more centralized and coordinated way than had been possible previously. The center also will provide critical funding for research into the social dynamics that make an urban area thrive.
"The Cornwall Center provides a unique link between the urban research interests of the faculty and the needs of Newark and the northern New Jersey metropolitan area," observed Provost Steven J. Diner. "It helps us attract the very finest urban scholars to our campus at the same time that it fulfills our urban mission."
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