Rutgers cuts ribbon on Honors College facility

Faculty, students and state representatives, including Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, gathered Friday in New Brunswick for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Rutgers University’s College Avenue campus in New Brunswick.Rutgers University President Robert Barchi said the new Honors College will help retain the best students within the state.

“The Honors College we’re dedicating today helps us keep the best and brightest graduating high school from leaving the state for their college education,” he said. “That’s what we’re talking about: How do we contribute to the prosperity of the state, the country and the world?”

In her address, Guadagno echoed Barchi’s sentiments.

“(The Honors College) is going to create the next generation of solvers (and) innovators, the next generation of children who will make sure the world’s problems are solved right here in the Garden State,” she said. “That I think is worth the time, the effort and is what, I think, we are teaching our children today.”

She also highlighted the efforts of Barchi and New Brunswick Development Corporation President Chris Paladino in establishing this new Honors College facility.

“(They) teach a lesson to the students that are going to be in this building for generations to come that they can do anything they want to do,” she said, “including fundamental change in New Jersey.”

Barchi also mentioned that these investments reach beyond the New Brunswick campus to the entire institution.

“The concept is not just (in New Brunswick); the concept is for the entire university,” he said. “This is the first, but Nancy Cantor and her team in Newark are in the design phase of a new residential college in Newark … and Phoebe Haddon and her team in Camden are doing the same thing to expand their Honors College.”

Barchi said Rutgers has developed a reputation throughout the country, and it is essential the institution lives up to those perceptions.

“Rutgers is recognized as one of the best research facilities in the nation,” he said. “Our facilities must live up to that.”