By: Olivia Armstrong, Follow South Jersey Staff
GLASSBORO, N.J. – Rowan University celebrates their 100 year anniversary all year long. The university has already held events and has many more upcoming events for staff, students, alumni, parents, and more.
The celebration actually began at the 2023 commencement and the University started putting up signs everywhere so it could be more appreciated. Some people and students thought that Rowan changed their caps and gowns to brown and gold for the 100 year celebration, but they are actually staying that way! The change was just a coincidence.
Joe Cardona, Vice President University Relations, who has three degrees from Rowan, and has been at Rowan for 28 years is very excited about the celebrations that have taken place, as well as upcoming events.
“This is just the beginning of the events, the celebration will go all the way until next summer,” Cardona said.
There are events held weekly, examples of some of the events are; lectures from different colleges, picnics, carnivals, and homecoming which has already taken place. Homecoming had an amazing turnout of people that were just happy, happy to be there, and happy to celebrate.
The Rowan University centennial website has more information regarding their events. On top of that the university is getting ready to send out a letter talking about their centennial history in a 360 page book with over 1000 photos that will be getting published soon.
Rowan has a very active alumni association, and homecoming is the biggest time of the year for alumni which was held the week of October 9, 2023. Another big alumni event for the college of education graduates will be a big alumni dinner, and gala in the spring to celebrate their own 100 year anniversary. The college of business just celebrated their 40 year anniversary last spring with a dinner gala which had a great turnout of alumni.
According to Cardona, the student life has been eager to celebrate this anniversary.
“Students like to root for something bigger than themselves, so what the centennial celebration does is show students understand their place in the university,” he said.
Cardona thinks that the four years that you are in college is where you meet your people, start your career, and that it’s a key part to one’s life, so students that are understanding that want to be apart of this celebration so in upcoming years they can look back and see how far they have come.
Another event that the university held was a picture of students, alumni, and staff forming a 100 on Bunce Green. Rowan sent out an email to the students, the staff and the alumni just to put the message out there to see if anyone would come and 900 people showed up.
Not only is this a celebration of the university, but also a time to reflect on Rowan’s impact and how their research lifts the entire economic region. In the last decade they have doubled enrollment and went from 11,000 to 22,000 students. All of these have large economic impacts because people get paid more because there are more students, more people move to Glassboro to work at the university, businesses grow and go to Rowan for career fairs. Their economic impact is $1.3 billion in New Jersey,
“When you look at us, not only are we a research university, front end on health care and education but now economic impact,” Cardona said.
Rowan University’s centennial celebration will continue all year long. While the centennial celebration is seen as a time to reflect on everything that has been done and accomplished, it is also a look forward to seeing where they will be in 10-15-20 years. There has been so much change and many things accomplished, and that is something they celebrate.
For more information on upcoming events, check out Rowan University Centennial Celebration website at https://sites.rowan.edu/centennial/ to learn more about the history and upcoming events.
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