Rowan University is a public university located in Glassboro, New Jersey comprised of 43 buildings. There is also a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School with the mission to train public school teachers. The land tract originally belonged in part to the family who owned the Whitney Glass Works during the 1800s. It opened with more than 200 young women entering to begin their training. The school became New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro in the 1930s, and later became Glassboro State College in 1958, gaining a national reputation in the fields of reading and special education. During the 1970s, it grew into a multi-purpose institution, adding programs in business, communications and engineering, among others. It was renamed Rowan College of New Jersey in 1992 after Henry and Betty Rowan gave $100 million to the school, at the time the largest gift to a public college. It became Rowan University in 1997 when it achieved university status.

School

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Enrollment at Rowan from the fall semester of 2005 shows 8,120 undergraduates (6,853 full-time, 1,267 part-time), 1,218 graduate students, 59 doctoral students and 89 post-baccelaurate certification candidates ^*. It is divided into a Graduate School and six academic colleges: Business, Communication, Education, Engineering, Fine & Performing Arts, and Liberal Arts & Sciences. A moderately-priced, high-quality institution, Rowan is ranked by US News and World Report in the "Top Tier" of northern regional universities. Kiplinger's named Rowan one of the "100 Best Buys in Public Colleges and Universities" and the Princeton Review included Rowan in "The Best Northeastern Colleges."

South Jersey Technology Park

On April 10, 2006, the school along with private organization, Lincoln Property Company, will break ground as the newest installment of the school's West Campus. The 188 acre site will be reserved for the South Jersey Technology Park which will serve as an establishment for science and technology companies. ^*

Athletics

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A member of the NCAA in Division III, the sports teams at Rowan University have been moderately successful on a national level. The football team is regularly a contender for the national title, having gone to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl five times (1999, 1998, 1996, 1995, 1993) and the national semifinals in 2005, 2004, 2001, 1997 and 1992. The women's field hockey team won the national championship in 2002 and had a perfect season of 21 wins and no losses. The men's basketball team has made the Division III National Championship Tournament 12 times, winning the national title in 1996. The men's soccer team has made the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament 24 times, resulting in 7 trips to the national semifinals. Rowan men's soccer has won national titles in both 1981 and 1990, finished second in 1979 and 2000, and third in 1980, 1985 and 1998. Rowan hosted the Division III National Championship Tournament Final Four for men's soccer in 2000 and Women's Lacrosse in 2002. Rowan competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

West campus

On March 20, 2006, President Donald Farish announced a joint venture between the university and Major League Soccer to construct a new athletic complex based around a 20,000 seat soccer-specific stadium on property owned by the campus at the intersection of U.S. Route 322 and New Jersey State Route 55. The stadium itself is planned to be complete for the start of the 2009 MLS season. The project is proposed to be completed with little to no cost to the university or the state of New Jersey. However, critics counter that the Rowan West project is already costing taxpayers almost one million dollars a year in lost ratables (property taxes). The project is to be built on land that was seized through eminent domain. Furthermore, Route 322 and Route 55 would likely require expensive upgrades to handle the large volume of traffic that events at Rowan West would draw.

Major League Soccer has not yet decided whether Rowan will receive an expansion team or a relocated team, nor has it decided whether the team will be named for Philadelphia or New Jersey. ^*

University student organizations

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12% of men and 7% of women belong to a fraternity at Rowan University. There are 75 University sanctioned student clubs and organizations on campus.

National Fraternities: Alpha Chi Rho (NIC) Alpha Phi Alpha (NPHC) Alpha Phi Omega (Service - Co-ed) Delta Chi (NIC) Kappa Alpha Psi (NPHC) Kappa Sigma (NIC) Lambda Theta Phi (NIC, NALFO) Omega Psi Phi (NPHC) Phi Kappa Psi (NIC) Phi Kappa Sigma (NIC) Sigma Pi (NIC) Phi Beta Sigma (NPHC) Tau Kappa Epsilon (NIC) Theta Chi (NIC)

National Sororities: Alpha Epsilon Phi (NPC) Alpha Kappa Alpha (NPHC) Alpha Sigma Alpha (NPC) Delta Phi Epsilon (NPC) Delta Sigma Theta (NPHC) Delta Zeta (NPC) Lambda Theta Alpha (NALFO) Phi Sigma Sigma (NPC) Sigma Gamma Rho (NPHC) Sigma Sigma Sigma (NPC) Theta Phi Alpha (NPC) Zeta Phi Beta (NPHC)

Inactive Fraternities: Alpha Phi Delta; Delta Kappa Epsilon; Sigma Phi Epsilon; Zeta Beta Tau

There are a myriad of other Chartered Clubs including national award-winning programs such as Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the local PRSSA, and the student newspaper, The Whit.

Admissions

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Students entering the University in 2003 had a mean SAT I range between 1,080 and 1,280 and were ranked in the top quarter of their high school classes. 82% had a high school GPA of 3.0 or above.

Famous Events

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The Cold War Glassboro Summit Conference between U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin took place on June 23-25, 1967, in Hollybush Mansion at Glassboro State College. The college was chosen because of its location equidistant between New York City, where Kosygin was making a speech at the U.N., and Washington, D.C.

Black Sabbath's first American gig was played at Glassboro State College on October 3, 1970 ^*.

Riots took place during Spring Weekend 1986. As a result, Glassboro State College was ranked as the #28 Party School in the nation in the January 1987 issue of Playboy magazine. Coincidentally, in that same issue of Playboy, the Epsilon Eta chapter of Zeta Beta Tau was also named one of the Animal House Contenders, for being evicted 4 times in 3 years.

In March 2006, Omarosa from the TV show The Apprentice appeared at Rowan to give an hour-long presentation entitled "Being Successful." Roughly 35 minutes into the lecture, a student threw water balloons at her from the third floor. The balloons missed her but Omarosa walked off, cancelling the rest of the presentation.

Notable alumni

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• Betty Castor, Florida politician and former president of the University of South Florida
• Joseph Checkler, journalist for Dow Jones and publisher of the popular baseball blog Liners, Sliders and Scoops
• Robert Hegyes, actor and former co-star of Welcome Back, Kotter known for his role as Juan Epstein. Robert was a professor at his alma mater in the early-to-mid 1990s.
• Tia Bella, former Vivid Entertainment porn star, is a member of the Epsilon Mu chapter of Tri Sigma at Rowan University. ^*
• Jessica Boyington, Miss New Jersey USA 2006

External links

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• http://www.rowan.edu/
• Keith and Shirley Campbell Library
• Rowan University Foundation
• Rowan University Clubs
• Rowan University Fact Sheet (PDF)
• West Campus Plan

Sea-grant universities | Universities and colleges in New Jersey