Rutgers University Board of Trustees. Special Committee on Reorganization Records

Since 1766, Rutgers University had been governed by the Board of Trustees, a committee of 30 members, funded through tuition, gifts, and state aid. In 1955, the University noted a large increase in college-age students expected over the next ten years. Dependent on the State Legislature to allocate funds as they saw fit, the Board of Trustees sought a more solid means of ensuring continuing state aid in support of their curriculum.

The Special Committee on the Reorganization of the Board of Trustees was established to explore methods of reorganization, including the controversial subjects of Rutgers becoming the state university of New Jersey, the question of the optimum number of Trustees on the Board, and the effects of governance with the establishment of the Board of Governors to oversee the activities of the University. The Committee, commissioned February 18, 1955, remained a functioning unit of the Board of Trustees until May 1956, when the proposal for reorganization was signed into law by Governor Robert Meyner. Lansing P. Shield was appointed to chair of the new committee. John Bosshart was elected to be the secretary. Other members of the special committee were Dr. Robert A. Cooke, Mrs. Charles Brower, Mrs. Edward Katzenbach, Mrs. John Moxon, Mr. Nichols, Mr. Shanks, Mr. Frederic W. Smith, Mr. H.A. Smith, and Mr. Tracy S. Voorhees.

To begin, the Committee obtained facts regarding the current administration of the university, including enrollment and facilities use statistics as well as estimates for the coming decade, financial accounts and property values, college age population estimates and state laws. They also accumulated similar statistics from comparable colleges and universities in the Northeast, choosing to discount statistics and organization of universities in the western United States on the grounds that their political situation was too different to apply to New Jersey state politics.

The committee solicited personal opinion, both through a confidential poll of Board members and through a request of the chairman of the Special Committee for the Reorganization of the Board of Trustees for written reports of personal views. Dissenting views have been retained in full. All views were recorded in excerpts which are part of the records, however the full text of each opinion is not. In addition, personal correspondence from opposing members of the Committee more fully explains their reasoning.

On November 11, 1955, a plan of reorganization was submitted to the Board of Trustees at a special meeting. Rutgers University faculty approved the plan 300 to 1. Alumni groups and other campus organizations also passed resolutions approving the plan. A bill was introduced into the Senate making Rutgers the official state university of New Jersey and establishing a Board of Governors, selected partly by the governor and partly by the Board of Trustees, to oversee the administration of the new institution.