Information for New Jersey's Policy Leaders
February 2009
Campus News |
Service to the State |
People in the Know
CAMPUS
NEWS
University Announces $500M in Capital Projects
Rutgers has unveiled a $500 million capital construction program that will fund more than 20 new academic and student facilities on the Camden, Newark and New Brunswick campuses and is expected to generate 5,000 jobs. According to Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick, “The projects that are part of this initiative will enhance services and academic opportunities for Rutgers students while benefiting the regional economy.” Among the projects is a $25 million Institute for Health Sciences on the New Brunswick Campus, a $12 million in renovations to the recreational center on the Camden Campus and a $5.4 million to construct additional research laboratories in the Life Sciences Center on the Newark Campus.
Grassle Honored as Trailblazer by Franklin Institute
Frederick Grassle, who until recently was the director of Rutgers’ Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, will be among 8 named as trailblazers in science, business and technology by the Franklin Institute. Grassle, who led the first biological expedition to newly discovered deep-sea vents near the Galapagos Rift, off Ecuador and has had 12 aquatic species named after him, will receive a Franklin Institute Award in April. He is among elite company as previous Franklin Institute Awards, which date back to 1824, include Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, Jane Goodall, and Marie and Pierre Curie. Grassle now is a leader in the Census of Marine Life, an international project to study biodiversity in the oceans.
School Establishes Strategic Partnership
Rutgers’ School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) in Newark has formed a new strategic partnership in all areas of public performance management with Washington DC-based Public Technology Institute (PTI). Among the objectives of the partnership is developing next generation web-based training and information systems and programs and help bridge the gap between theory and practice through enhanced training and professional development certification programs. This arrangement allows SPAA to establish a presence in Washington, DC and an enhanced global presence with city and county technology leaders.
Camden Graduate Program Prepares School Principals
The Department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers Camden is involved with the Camden School District in an innovative partnership to prepare the next generation of school leaders in the City of Camden and across southern New Jersey. The Educational Policy and Leadership Concentration within the master in public administration (MPA) program at Rutgers–Camden is a unique program that draws upon and deepens the talent pool within the city schools in order to develop the district’s future administrators. The two-year, 42-credit program has a current class of 16 aspiring principals (selected from 120 applicants) and will graduate in 2010.
Professor Awarded Medal for Geochemistry
Nathan Yee, assistant professor at Rutgers whose research focuses on using microorganisms to reduce or mediate the toxicity of certain metals, has been selected by the European Association for Geochemistry as the 2009 Houtermans’ medalist. The prestigious Houtermans’ Medal is presented annually to a junior researcher (no more than 35 years of age) whose contributions to geochemistry are considered to be exceptional. The medal is scheduled to be presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Davos, Switzerland, this summer. Yee joined Rutgers–Newark’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2004 and moved to Rutgers–New Brunswick in 2006 with a joint appointment in the Departments of Environmental Sciences and Planetary and Earth Sciences.
SERVICE TO THE STATE
New Economic Report Available online
The post-recession economy that emerges for the United States and New Jersey will look very different from the bubble-driven experience of recent years, and success will depend on how well fundamental changes are understood, according to a new Rutgers economic report issued by Dean James W. Hughes and Professor Joseph J. Seneca of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. The
Sitar-Rutgers Regional Report also includes preliminary employment data for New Jersey for 2008, “a year best forgotten.” The full report is available at:
http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/reports/sitar/sitarfeb09.pdf.
Free Income Tax Assistance
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at the School of Law–Camden helps hundreds of low-income New Jersey citizens prepare their taxes—for free. Approximately 75 students have been trained to help in the preparation of federal and New Jersey state tax returns and residents can access these free services on the Rutgers–Camden campus. The VITA program is offered on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 7 p.m. through April 8, and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon on March 7, March 21, and March 28. For more details, contact Pam Mertsock-Wolfe at (856) 225-6406.
Writers at Newark Reading Series Continues
Critically acclaimed, award-winning author E.L. Doctorow will discuss and read from his works on March 25 from 5pm to 7:30 p.m., as part of the continuing Writers at Newark Reading Series at Rutgers. Doctorow’s talk will be in the Paul Robeson Gallery, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Newark. The series brings nationally prominent writers of fiction, poetry and nonfiction to campus and the readings and discussions are all free and open to the public. A complete schedule of this spring’s talks is at
http://www.mfa.newark.rutgers.edu/writersatnewark0809.htm.
PEOPLE IN THE KNOW
If you'd like to know more about:
Khmer Rouge Trials, Genocide as Tribunal starts in Cambodia, contact Alexander Hinton, an internationally known expert on genocide and an associate professor of anthropology and global affairs at Rutgers–Newark. Hinton is Director of the Rutgers Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and the person responsible for the establishment of the Documentation Center of Cambodia archive at Rutgers–Newark, which houses papers, photographs, films and other materials that provide a record of the 1975–1979 genocide. Hinton can be reached by email at
ahinton@andromeda.rutgers.edu or (973) 353-5255.
Earthquakes and Volcanoes, contact Alexander Gates, chair of the Rutgers University, Newark, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. In Alaska, a volcano is threatening to blow its top. Closer to home, the February 2 earthquake that hit Morris County startled thousands who live near the epicenter—and surprised many New Jerseyans who don’t realize that earthquake fault lines run beneath the Garden State. Gates was the Newark Museum’s chief advisor in developing its natural science exhibit, Dynamic Earth and can be reached at (973) 353-5034, (732) 331-5605 or by email at
agates@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Looking for Rutgers expertise on a particular topic? Browse the
Rutgers Speakers Bureau: http://ur.rutgers.edu/speakers/
For additional information and news, click on the following links:
Questions and comments, please contact
staterel@oldqueens.rutgers.edu
