in front of Savitz Hall overlooks Route 322 In the early part of the 20th century, there was a shortage of adequately trained teachers in the
state of New Jersey. It was decided to build a two-year
Normal school in the southern part of the state to counter the trend. Among the candidate towns, Glassboro became the location due in no small part to its easy access to
passenger rail as well as its offer to donate of land to the state to build the Normal school. The 1917 purchase price of the property was raised by the residents of the town and used to purchase a tract that belonged to the Whitney family, who owned the local
glassworks during the 19th century. In 1923, the Glassboro Normal School opened with a class of 236 students, 226 women and 10 men, arriving at the train station in front of Bunce Hall. With the evolution of teacher training, the school became a four-year program in 1934; in 1937, the school was renamed The New Jersey State Teachers College at Glassboro and became
co-educational shortly thereafter. The college was one of the first in the country to begin programs for teachers for
reading disabilities and
physical therapy in 1935 and 1944, respectively. Glassboro State began to develop a reputation as a leader in
special education. After several years and the return of
soldiers from
World War II, the college was able to expand its enrollment from a wartime low of 170 in 1943 to an expansion of several additional campus and academic programs over the next 15 years and became Glassboro State College in 1958.
Hollybush Summit The
Cold War Glassboro Summit Conference between U.S.
President Lyndon Johnson and
Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin took place from June 23–25, 1967, in
Hollybush Mansion on the campus of then–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. Then–college president Thomas E. Robinson was given just 16 hours' notice of the decision to hold the summit at GSC and, despite the lack of advance notice, converted his on-campus home into a secure location for the leaders of the world's superpowers.
After the summit The campus hosted hard rock band
Black Sabbath's first U.S. concert on October 30, 1970. Peaceful
student protests occurred during the
Vietnam war as they did at other campuses, but never required the college to close the campus. The college made national news during "Spring Weekend" in 1986, due to a loud party atmosphere primarily off campus around the Beau Rivage townhouses and The Crossings apartment complex in which police from several municipalities were called in to break up the parties. The event led to Glassboro State College's ranking as the #28
Party School in the nation in the January 1987 issue of
Playboy magazine. Though the alcohol-fueled Spring Weekend was canceled by then–President Herman James, a non-alcoholic version continued for several years, Glassboro State College remained known for its hard-partying culture. However, in 1988, there began one of the biggest crackdowns in school history. As a result of the drinking death of freshman James Callahan at
Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, Herman James decided to make GSC an example for the rest of the state colleges and universities to follow. He invited the
New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABC) to the school. He began shutting down off-campus parties and placing undercover agents in the local liquor establishments. This prompted
Morton Downey Jr., who was based in
Secaucus, New Jersey, and very popular at the time, to do an untelevised show focusing on the drinking age and the classic argument that an eighteen-year-old can go off to war and die for their country although they cannot legally buy and consume beer. The following year, the ABC did not return, and the partying atmosphere that Glassboro State College was known for returned in earnest and continued into the 1990s and early 2000s.
University status In 1992, president Herman James oversaw the development of Glassboro State College into what would eventually become Rowan University. This transformation came about because of what was then the largest single gift to a public college or University in history. Industrialist
Henry M. Rowan Jr., a graduate of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology class of 1947, and his wife donated $100 million to the college, which later changed its name to Rowan College of New Jersey in his honor. The gift stipulated that the college open a College of Engineering, allowing the college to expand its course and curriculum offerings to the point that it became a full-fledged university, achieving that status in 1997. This status was given by the State of New Jersey based on Rowan University's doctoral degree program, the
Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, and the numerous master's-level programs in education and business. Following James' retirement as president in 1998,
Donald J. Farish was chosen to succeed him and began further expansion on the Glassboro campus, opening a modern Science Hall in 2003 and a building to house the College of Education in 2005. In addition, acquisitions during the beginning of Farish's tenure as president led to the development of a tract of land bordering
US Route 322 and
State Route 55 as the West Campus. In 2006, two Rowan University students were found guilty for serving alcohol to minors at an off-campus party that resulted in the death of a 16-year-old male. Rowan promised to follow up with its own penalties.
West Campus On March 20, 2006, Farish announced a joint venture between the university and
Major League Soccer (MLS) 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
Route 55. Although the stadium was planned to be complete for the start of the 2009 MLS season, New Jersey's 2006 budget problems resulted in cutbacks in funding for the infrastructure upgrades required by increased traffic related to an MLS team. When plan fell through, the stadium project was relocated to nearby
Chester, Pennsylvania where the MLS's
Philadelphia Union now play their home matches. The northern portion of the West Campus expansion currently contains the South Jersey Technology Park as well as room for future expansion; the southern portion of the West Campus expansion will accommodate both academic and athletic facilities. The university in 2015 opened a site across from the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University with practice fields for
football,
soccer,
field hockey, and
lacrosse. Transportation between the two campuses will be provided with both shuttle service and improved bike paths, as well as improvements to Route 322 itself. On a vast site, adjacent to the West Campus athletic fields, the Inspira Medical Center complex opened in late 2019.
South Jersey Technology Park Rowan University broke ground for the South Jersey Technology Park (SJTP) on April 10, 2006. The
New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) gave Rowan University $5.8 million to combine with $1.5 million from the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, $1 million from Samuel H. Jones, and $1 million from Rowan itself. SJTP is planned to be a site which will serve as an establishment for science and technology companies as well as academics. It is planned to have 25 buildings to provide competitively priced Class "A" facilities for budding entrepreneurs, start-up and established companies. SJTP was incorporated as a
non-profit corporation with its own board of directors. The first building, the Samuel H. Jones Innovation Center, has been leased completely out, and the revenue will help build a second building. The Tech Park's first incubated business, SocialReach, has successfully graduated into its own offices in
Philadelphia. The second planned building will be approximately divided between research and technology labs and offices. On August 12, 1996, 22-year-old Cindy Nannay was fatally shot outside Bozorth Hall by her estranged boyfriend, who then killed himself. Nannay was so afraid of Scott Lonabaugh, 27, that when he arrived on the campus to see her, she asked friends to accompany her to the parking lot, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's office said. As her friends looked on, Mr. Lonabaugh shot Ms. Nannay twice with a shotgun and then shot himself in the head, prosecutors said. Both died at the scene. Eleven years later, in 2007, another student was murdered on campus. Sophomore Donald Farrell, 19, was robbed and beaten to death by unknown assailants while walking behind the Triad dormitory. A reward of $100,000 has been offered for information leading to the capture, arrest and conviction of the assailants. In an effort to find Farrell's assailants, television stations in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City aired reports on the murder, and ''
America's Most Wanted'' twice featured segments on the incident. Following Farrell's murder a new campus security initiative was undertaken, starting with a 14-point plan proposed by President Farish. The plan included hiring additional security staff, adding more fully trained police officers, starting a student patrol program, an expansion of the Safe Walk and Ride program, improving lighting in and around campus, installation of
CCTV cameras, and changing security and police coverage from an 8-hour to a 12-hour shift.
Cooper Medical School It was announced on June 26, 2009, that Rowan would be partnering with
Cooper University Hospital to create a new four-year medical school to reside on Broadway in
Camden. Rowan was chosen by governor
Jon Corzine to house the new medical school primarily because the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was not in a financial position to fund the creation of the school, for which Rowan issued $100 million in bonds. The new school would require no new funding as $28 million would be diverted from UMDNJ
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, which will no longer be associated with Cooper University Hospital after the opening of Cooper Medical School. Opening in 2012 with an entering class of 50, It was the first new medical school in New Jersey in at least 30 years. The Cooper Medical School of Rowan University was granted preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education on June 10, 2011.
Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act In January 2012, a state advisory committee proposed a plan to merge Rowan with the
Camden campus of
Rutgers University (which would have been separated from Rutgers) under Rowan's name. The project was opposed by the Rutgers governing boards, faculty, students, and alumni, and by others in the state. Legislation passed in June 2012 rejected the idea of a merger, though it did include provisions for a loose collaboration between Rowan and Rutgers-Camden limited to research and teaching in the health sciences. This legislation, the "New Jersey Medical and Health Sciences Education Restructuring Act" (A3102 & S2063), enacted several essential changes to Rowan: • Rowan University was granted Research University status and was granted increased state funding.
Student deaths and mental health support The university faced criticism for not providing more mental health resources and support for students after four students committed suicide between 2019 and 2021. Following the student deaths in 2019, the university expanded its resources better accommodate students' mental health, including bringing the number of counselors employed to 17 and partnering with TogetherAll, a 24/7 mental health support network. Additionally, the university received a $3 million grant in 2019 to start The Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program after their success with bringing in local therapy dogs to help students with anxiety and stress. == Academics ==