It was mentioned in a recent thread that they wanted to rename Rutgers to the University of New Jersey but there was backlash from alumni so they stopped. I don't remember hearing about this. I would have loved and think it would make way more sense to name the school after the state than after some dead guy no one remembers.

I also didn't hear recently there has been some talk in New Jersey about renaming Rutgers because Rutgers owned slaves. A Trentonian writer supported the move.

https://newjersey.news12.com/story/42312...lave-owner

https://www.trentonian.com/news/change-t...c3dbf.html

On the other hand, the poll taken by News 12 in New Jersey had 79.5% say the name shouldn't be changed out of 6,996 votes.

I don't really want to get into the whole "owned slaves" issue. I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of. If nobody knows who the heck Rutgers is, they're an embarrassment to our conference and the name should be changed. It's not even like Clemson or Auburn and it's the city the school is from.

Before the scandal which wrecked his political career, NJ governor Jim McGreevey pushed to rename Rutgers the University of New Jersey (not to be confused with the current College of New Jersey or the original name of Princeton) to make it sound more important. It was bitterly opposed by the school and he relented.

(10-15-2020 11:38 AM)schmolik Wrote:  It was mentioned in a recent thread that they wanted to rename Rutgers to the University of New Jersey but there was backlash from alumni so they stopped. I don't remember hearing about this. I would have loved and think it would make way more sense to name the school after the state than after some dead guy no one remembers.

I also didn't hear recently there has been some talk in New Jersey about renaming Rutgers because Rutgers owned slaves. A Trentonian writer supported the move.

https://newjersey.news12.com/story/42312...lave-owner

https://www.trentonian.com/news/change-t...c3dbf.html

On the other hand, the poll taken by News 12 in New Jersey had 79.5% say the name shouldn't be changed out of 6,996 votes.

I don't really want to get into the whole "owned slaves" issue. I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of. If nobody knows who the heck Rutgers is, they're an embarrassment to our conference and the name should be changed. It's not even like Clemson or Auburn and it's the city the school is from.

This changing names thing is Absurd. It's been named Rutgers for nearly two hundred years! But now is the time to change it?

"I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of" The only opinion that should matter is the Alumni.

(10-15-2020 11:38 AM)schmolik Wrote:  It was mentioned in a recent thread that they wanted to rename Rutgers to the University of New Jersey but there was backlash from alumni so they stopped. I don't remember hearing about this. I would have loved and think it would make way more sense to name the school after the state than after some dead guy no one remembers.

I also didn't hear recently there has been some talk in New Jersey about renaming Rutgers because Rutgers owned slaves. A Trentonian writer supported the move.

https://newjersey.news12.com/story/42312...lave-owner

https://www.trentonian.com/news/change-t...c3dbf.html

On the other hand, the poll taken by News 12 in New Jersey had 79.5% say the name shouldn't be changed out of 6,996 votes.

I don't really want to get into the whole "owned slaves" issue. I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of. If nobody knows who the heck Rutgers is, they're an embarrassment to our conference and the name should be changed. It's not even like Clemson or Auburn and it's the city the school is from.

Being named after a state doesn't do anything for the football programs of two of the several schools you support-- Illinois and UConn. Why would it do anything for Rutgers?

While some schools have changed names over the pasts decade or two, it was mostly for academic/branding/enrollment purposes (ie. Memphis State becomes University of Memphis, SW Missouri State because Missouri State, etc.). I don't see where Rutgers needs this sort of push for academics/branding/enrollment. Further, I don't see why it would suddenly improve their football recruiting.

As to whether the university should be renamed because its namesake did not have the values that we hold sacred today, well- we have a lot of renaming of universities and states to do. I'll leave that argument for the politics board.

(10-15-2020 12:15 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Before the scandal which wrecked his political career, NJ governor Jim McGreevey pushed to rename Rutgers the University of New Jersey (not to be confused with the current College of New Jersey or the original name of Princeton) to make it sound more important. It was bitterly opposed by the school and he relented.

Yeah, and further, there was a bit of a fight with Princeton and Trenton State/TCNJ. Princeton may be good for a fight. But, there are murmurs that TCNJ is exploring dropping the “C” part, as something its president spoke toward at her convocation after her first year.

So, get the popcorn.

(10-15-2020 12:37 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 12:15 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Before the scandal which wrecked his political career, NJ governor Jim McGreevey pushed to rename Rutgers the University of New Jersey (not to be confused with the current College of New Jersey or the original name of Princeton) to make it sound more important. It was bitterly opposed by the school and he relented.

Yeah, and further, there was a bit of a fight with Princeton and Trenton State/TCNJ. Princeton may be good for a fight. But, there are murmurs that TCNJ is exploring dropping the “C” part, as something its president spoke toward at her convocation after her first year.

So, get the popcorn.

Wasn’t Rutgers formerly known as the State University of New Jersey? Wouldn’t they then be New Jersey State University?

They could do what Sewannee does...it's officially, Sewannee, The University of the South. Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I do think UNJ would probably do more for the university in terms of branding. If you aren't familiar with Rutgers, you have no idea where it is, what it is, or that it is a major research institution.

(10-15-2020 12:49 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 12:37 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 12:15 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Before the scandal which wrecked his political career, NJ governor Jim McGreevey pushed to rename Rutgers the University of New Jersey (not to be confused with the current College of New Jersey or the original name of Princeton) to make it sound more important. It was bitterly opposed by the school and he relented.

Yeah, and further, there was a bit of a fight with Princeton and Trenton State/TCNJ. Princeton may be good for a fight. But, there are murmurs that TCNJ is exploring dropping the “C” part, as something its president spoke toward at her convocation after her first year.

So, get the popcorn.

Wasn’t Rutgers formerly known as the State University of New Jersey? Wouldn’t they then be New Jersey State University?

I don’t know what has more luster: NJU/UNJ or NJSU (edit: and SUNJ, like what Rutgers already uses). When TCNJ changed its name, Princeton sued them, iirc. I suspect a future name change for TCNJ carries far more issues, because it encroaches on either name, and it’s an internal state political fight. Not just between TCNJ and Rutgers, but also Rowan, who really could be NJ’s “second school.”

Who plants that flag and who plants it first over those names could be a mess. Not a total disaster, though, since TCNJ still has its name, even if Princeton doesn’t have to fully recognize it.

(10-15-2020 01:00 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  They could do what Sewannee does...it's officially, Sewannee, The University of the South. Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I do think UNJ would probably do more for the university in terms of branding. If you aren't familiar with Rutgers, you have no idea where it is, what it is, or that it is a major research institution.

This is what Rutgers currently does, the full title is Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

(10-15-2020 01:27 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 01:00 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  They could do what Sewannee does...it's officially, Sewannee, The University of the South. Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I do think UNJ would probably do more for the university in terms of branding. If you aren't familiar with Rutgers, you have no idea where it is, what it is, or that it is a major research institution.

This is what Rutgers currently does, the full title is Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Hmm, I never really heard that. It's always just Rutgers University. I think they should play up the New Jersey bit like Buffalo played up the New York branding when Danny White was AD there.

(10-15-2020 11:38 AM)schmolik Wrote:  It was mentioned in a recent thread that they wanted to rename Rutgers to the University of New Jersey but there was backlash from alumni so they stopped. I don't remember hearing about this. I would have loved and think it would make way more sense to name the school after the state than after some dead guy no one remembers.

I also didn't hear recently there has been some talk in New Jersey about renaming Rutgers because Rutgers owned slaves. A Trentonian writer supported the move.

https://newjersey.news12.com/story/42312...lave-owner

https://www.trentonian.com/news/change-t...c3dbf.html

On the other hand, the poll taken by News 12 in New Jersey had 79.5% say the name shouldn't be changed out of 6,996 votes.

I don't really want to get into the whole "owned slaves" issue. I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of. If nobody knows who the heck Rutgers is, they're an embarrassment to our conference and the name should be changed. It's not even like Clemson or Auburn and it's the city the school is from.

Purdue was also named after "some dead guy no one remembers."

So were Baylor, Butler, Bradley, Babson, Bentley, Case Western, Creighton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Drexel, Duke, Harvard, Hofstra, Johns Hopkins, Pepperdine, Rensselaer Polytech, Rice, Tufts, Tulane, Vassar, Wheaton, Yale, and many others. Baylor, Hopkins, Duke, Rensselaer, and Rice owned slaves. Yale was a slave trader. Rice even served on the Slave Patrol for a time, returning runaway slaves to their owners.

Purdue is a land grant school, just like Rutgers.
Purdue is in the Big Ten, just like Rutgers.
No one is arguing that Purdue should change their name.

(10-15-2020 01:27 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 01:00 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  They could do what Sewannee does...it's officially, Sewannee, The University of the South. Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I do think UNJ would probably do more for the university in terms of branding. If you aren't familiar with Rutgers, you have no idea where it is, what it is, or that it is a major research institution.

This is what Rutgers currently does, the full title is Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

I guess I heard that somewhere - perhaps Wiki - but I always equated Rutgers with basically being "New Jersey State University"

(10-15-2020 01:27 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 01:00 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  They could do what Sewannee does...it's officially, Sewannee, The University of the South. Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I do think UNJ would probably do more for the university in terms of branding. If you aren't familiar with Rutgers, you have no idea where it is, what it is, or that it is a major research institution.

This is what Rutgers currently does, the full title is Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Yup... SUNJ.

The College of New Jersey was the name of Princeton University for its first 250 years prior to changing to Princeton in 1896. The original name for Rutgers for its first 60 years was Queen's College.

They want to keep the name Rutgers because they don't want to be associated with New Jersey.

Wouldn’t Rutgers have to fight Duke for the University of New Jersey name?

(10-15-2020 03:22 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-15-2020 11:38 AM)schmolik Wrote:  It was mentioned in a recent thread that they wanted to rename Rutgers to the University of New Jersey but there was backlash from alumni so they stopped. I don't remember hearing about this. I would have loved and think it would make way more sense to name the school after the state than after some dead guy no one remembers.

I also didn't hear recently there has been some talk in New Jersey about renaming Rutgers because Rutgers owned slaves. A Trentonian writer supported the move.

https://newjersey.news12.com/story/42312...lave-owner

https://www.trentonian.com/news/change-t...c3dbf.html

On the other hand, the poll taken by News 12 in New Jersey had 79.5% say the name shouldn't be changed out of 6,996 votes.

I don't really want to get into the whole "owned slaves" issue. I just think the name of the school should be something the university, the state of New Jersey, and the rest of the Big Ten should be proud of. If nobody knows who the heck Rutgers is, they're an embarrassment to our conference and the name should be changed. It's not even like Clemson or Auburn and it's the city the school is from.

Purdue was also named after "some dead guy no one remembers."

So were Baylor, Butler, Bradley, Babson, Bentley, Case Western, Creighton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Drexel, Duke, Harvard, Hofstra, Johns Hopkins, Pepperdine, Rensselaer Polytech, Rice, Tufts, Tulane, Vassar, Wheaton, Yale, and many others. Baylor, Hopkins, Duke, Rensselaer, and Rice owned slaves. Yale was a slave trader. Rice even served on the Slave Patrol for a time, returning runaway slaves to their owners.

Purdue is a land grant school, just like Rutgers.
Purdue is in the Big Ten, just like Rutgers.
No one is arguing that Purdue should change their name.

Pretty sure Baylor had a president, Burleson, who waxed poetically about spreading the blood of martyrs across the plains of Texas in defense of the Southern Cause and then later changed his views and advocated for free public education to freed slaves and spent a great deal of time advocating for their care.

People are products of their time and capable of both good and bad. To my knowledge, nobody has ever built a statue or held a memorial for someone they viewed as evil. People are nuanced. The mob abhors complexity and the left has fed this witch hunt for the last decade +. I think it was just 2015 when Yale had that employee make relatively innocuous statements in response to an email about being mindful of what to wear on Halloween and then the employee was ultimately forced to resign. Appeasement works as well today for the modern left as it did for the allies when dealing with Hitler.

Playing up "New Jersey" isn't a new idea, although they haven't been consistent about it over the years.

Rutgers started using "New Jersey's Team" as a slogan in 1984. At that time, they put NJ above Rutgers on the helmet. One end zone said "State University," the other said "New Jersey." The center of the basketball court got ridiculously wordy, with "The State University" and "of New Jersey" surrounding the word Rutgers.

Sports articles would use the occasional reference to "the state university," or sometimes "New Jersey's state university." New Jersey pride was riding very high in the 80s.

Bill Cosby and Gov. Kean each did commercials touting the state (though these days, The Cos isn't a great endorsement). New Jersey and You - Perfect Together

Closer to the present, during Greg Schiano's first run as coach, there was a TV commercial with him and James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," with a fan coming up to them talking about his great work and "the Jersey thing going on," the semi-obvious twist that he was talking not about the Sopranos, but Rutgers football.

Schiano took it the other way, making his recruiting grounds "The State of Rutgers," which was New Jersey, the nearby states, plus others like Florida in particular.

Rutgers IS New Jersey's college team, so I'm all for promoting statewide interest. But I think there's way too much invested in the Rutgers name to change it.

(10-15-2020 07:19 PM)NJMark Wrote:  Playing up "New Jersey" isn't a new idea, although they haven't been consistent about it over the years.

Rutgers started using "New Jersey's Team" as a slogan in 1984. At that time, they put NJ above Rutgers on the helmet. One end zone said "State University," the other said "New Jersey." The center of the basketball court got ridiculously wordy, with "The State University" and "of New Jersey" surrounding the word Rutgers.

Sports articles would use the occasional reference to "the state university," or sometimes "New Jersey's state university." New Jersey pride was riding very high in the 80s.

Bill Cosby and Gov. Kean each did commercials touting the state (though these days, The Cos isn't a great endorsement). New Jersey and You - Perfect Together

Closer to the present, during Greg Schiano's first run as coach, there was a TV commercial with him and James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos," with a fan coming up to them talking about his great work and "the Jersey thing going on," the semi-obvious twist that he was talking not about the Sopranos, but Rutgers football.

Schiano took it the other way, making his recruiting grounds "The State of Rutgers," which was New Jersey, the nearby states, plus others like Florida in particular.

Rutgers IS New Jersey's college team, so I'm all for promoting statewide interest. But I think there's way too much invested in the Rutgers name to change it.

That’s a tad ironic that Cosby was in advertisements for Rutgers since he played for their rival Temple.

(10-15-2020 04:04 PM)ChrisLords Wrote:  They want to keep the name Rutgers because they don't want to be associated with New Jersey.

Better to remain Rutgers and be thought mediocre than to expressly reference New Jersey and remove all doubt.