In the annual intercollegiate competition to score the top commencement speaker, Rutgers rules. It scored the president of the United States, on no less auspicious an occasion than the university’s 250th anniversary. NJTV News Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron sat down with Rutgers University President Robert Barchi the day after and asked what having the first sitting president ever to deliver a commencement address at Rutgers meant to him.
Aron: Tell us a little about the president’s visit and what it meant to Rutgers.
Barchi: Oh I think it was a high point of our 250th year anniversary, having the president of the United States here, recognizing Rutgers as the place where it all comes together. Recognizing Rutgers as a pivotal point and one of the original universities of this nation.
Aron: Did you have any interaction with the president?
Barchi: Well I had a chance to meet him and had a chance to welcome him to the university when he first came. We had a few minutes to speak but his schedule is pretty tight.
Aron: Some people couldn’t get in. I read in the newspaper that it was so crowded that some people who intended to be there couldn’t get in. Is that true?
Barchi: Michael, I think at the end of the day everyone who wanted to come was able to get a ticket. We had to be careful about how quickly we could get them out because we weren’t sure how many people would actually need the ticket to be there. But in the end we had tickets for everybody.
Aron: How is Rutgers these days?
Barchi: I think Rutgers is on a roll. I think we’re at a different place than we were before. When I go out and talk to the alumni one of the things I tell them is it’s not your same old Rutgers. It’s not what it used to be. It’s a much bigger university. It’s now a full spectrum university with a health sciences component. It is being recognized nationally for what it is, one of the very best public research intensive universities in the country. I think our student profile is rising as we have that recognition. The average SAT scores of a Rutgers student has gone up 50 points in the last four years which is a truly remarkable distance.
Aron: Is there tension between access to Rutgers and excellence at Rutgers?
Barchi: That’s a balance we always have to pay attention to. We are committed to access and affordability. So we’re looking for the best and brightest students to come here but we want to make sure nobody is denied admission to Rutgers because they can’t afford it. Or because they have some other impediment for the opportunity to be here.
Aron: The president acknowledged that you may be one of the most diverse or the most diverse campus and university in the country.
Barchi: Yes, that is absolutely the case we are among the most diverse in the nation. As I pointed out — my comments at commencement — one of every four graduates were first in their family to go to college. That’s remarkable and many of our students here, two or three languages spoken around the kitchen table. Again, remarkable.
Aron: You created an honors college here. Does that mean that there’s a two tiered Rutgers? You either get in at the honors college level or at the regular level?
Barchi: Now it wasn’t intended to be a two tiered system at all. It was responding to the fact that in New Jersey we lose every year close to 30,000 of our best and brightest high school students who leave this state for education elsewhere. We are the number one exporter of high school talent in the nation and part of the problem is that we don’t have the programs in New Jersey to keep them here or to attract them. So one of the things that I set out to do when I came was to create an honors college that would be attractive to the best and brightest students in our state and also to students from other states around the nation. I think it’s been very successful. We had our first class of 500 students — actually 550 over subscribed — come in last year. We just completed our enrollment for this year with an incredibly high quality, diverse and interesting group of students who add to the experience of the student body. They spend their first year in the honors college and then they move out to residences across the university but they’re taking classes with everyone. So, the educational experience that students get, which comes as much from their colleges as they do from their professors, is enriched by having these students here.
Aron: Bob Barchi, thanks so much.
Barchi: Thank you for talking with me.