Highland Park:, 1977-1990

Summary: The Friends of the Rutgers Ecological Preserve (FREP) was formed by Louis Chandler specifically to save the Rutgers Ecological Preserve from land development plans decided upon by University officials. Student activist Sue Kozel became involved when she saw the need to form a coalition of people both within and outside the Rutgers community (members included Rutgers administration, faculty, and students and townspeople from Edison, Highland Park, New Brunswick, and Piscataway) to save land that adjoined Rutgers and town properties.

The subseries Earth Day, 1990, includes broadsides, brochures, clippings, correspondence, fact sheets, pamphlets, press releases and texts of speeches documenting local activities in support of the nation-wide promotion of environmentalism in the late 1980s.

The subseries Environmentalism, 1984-1990, includes brochures, fact sheets, and Eagleton Institute and New Jersey Institute findings documenting the FREP-organized tour of the Exxon oil spill at Arthur Kill.

The subseries Hazardous Waste, 1974-1990 (1988-1990), includes newspaper clippings documenting environmental pollution on the Buell Brook site, (1980-1989); correspondence, an Environmetal Protection Agency (EPA) report documenting hazardous waste code violations, legislation, the minutes of public hearings, newspaper clippings, press releases and the texts of speeches about the safety of the Rutgers Gamma Greenhouse, (1987-1990); and broadsides, correspondence, fact-finding reports, fact sheets, newspaper clippings, press releases and safety checklists documenting plans for a proposed toxic waste incinerator, (1988-1990).

The subseries S-2100, 1956-1991 (1988-1990), arranged alphabetically after general clippings arranged chronologically, includes correspondence, fact sheets, internal memos, minutes generated by the Rutgers administration, alumni, faculty, students, state and local politicians, and members of the surrounding local communities, newspaper clippings, press releases, items about rallies, reports and research notes documenting the struggle to prevent land development in the Rutgers Ecological Preserve area. Much of the material was generated by FREP's interaction with the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), wherein the concern the concerns of environmentalism and housing overlap. Topics include the Mt. Laurel housing decision and the Sunshine Law, and feature materials from the Highland Park and Piscataway municipalities.