The Rowan Contribution

The Rowan Contribution

Rowan University of Glassboro has a unique history of transition. Since its
establishment as normal school in 1923, to becoming Glassboro State College
in 1958, no change has had a greater effect than the generous donation
made by the Rowan’s. A donation of one hundred million dollars was made to then
Glassboro State College by industrialist Henry Rowan and his wife, Betty
Rowan, becoming the catalyst for a huge move forward to university-status
in 1997. At the time, their donation to the school was the largest sum of
money ever awarded to a college or university. The school was immediately
named after the noble donor’s name. Due to this great monetary gain, vast
expansion in courses, majors, and broader array of education were possible.
Rowan University has changed drastically since its modest beginnings as a
normal school. From the time the donation by Henry Rowan and his wife was
conferred, Rowan University has made monumental strides in academic growth
befitting a university.

The Rowan donation was made in 1992 to Glassboro State College, allowing
many possible changes. Michele Daily wrote a published article of Henry
Rowan in Rowan magazine in the spring of 1997, the same year it had
become recognized as a university. Henry Rowan had always been an entrepreneur
and businessman, and took upon himself a challenge: donating one hundred
million dollars to a college. According to Henry Rowan himself, “I was
intrigued with a small college in South Jersey that had limited stature in
educational hierarchy because I knew it [the gift] could make a difference”.
With the donation came one of two academic-related conditions
Rowan appealed to the college: introducing an engineering school. Following
the formation of the engineering school, rapid changes followed boosting
Rowan University’s reputation.

Although the focal interest of the pledge was to start an engineering
school and a scholarship fund program for South Jersey residents for Rowan
University, progress had yet to begin. Following a fast trend of
renovations, Rowan University caught considerable notice of the nation due
to its endowment, and received many contributions from organizations such
as the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the New Jersey Commission
on Science and Technology, and the Rowan University Foundation. These
groups have given approximately eight million dollars to the school.
Ultimately, these transformations facilitate the students’ capacity to
receive an education. New commuter parking lots, modernized education
buildings, and increase in scholastic selection have been introduced in
the last decade.

Entering the twenty first century, Rowan University exhibited six
competitive schools, as well as the Cooper Medical School of Rowan
projected to open in 2012. Utilizing the funds from the Rowan pledge,
as well as local and government contributors, the school boards initiated
multitudes of increased academics. For example, Rowan University boasts its
upcoming medical school to be the only establishment in New Jersey
other than the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to provide
medical degrees. Rowan University has quickly gained tread within the
upper tiers of state colleges. College Board has listed Rowan University as a
school that “consistently appears on the Best Colleges lists of U.S. News
and World Report, Kiplinger's and Princeton Review”. In less than twenty
five years, radical improvements have lifted the local Glassboro State
College into a choice higher learning institution with a growing
reputation.

Numerous educational improvements for Rowan University in approximately the last
few decades are trailed back to the jumpstart Henry and Betty Rowan’s one
hundred million dollar contribution. The school considers itself a
“selective, highly ranked, medium-sized public institution”. Currently,
Rowan University encompasses over eleven thousand total students and over
twelve hundred total school staff and faculty members. Future
advancements can be accredited to the efforts of students, college staff, and
overall school-body, but the initiator of all the progress made today may not
have been feasible without Henry and Betty Rowan’s contribution.