ATLANTIC CITY — In the fall of 1971, I was headed for the first step in my journey to adulthood — a naïve, barely 18-year-old college freshman who was part of a grand new experiment in education, Stockton College. Forged in the idealism of the 1960s, the liberal arts college was offering a blend of traditional and alternative education in an idyllic setting at a pristine wooded area in Pomona. However, that first semester, the brand new college campus was not finished and the first Stockton students, about 1,000 of us, had our initial taste of college life at a musty, worn out hotel on the Atlantic City Boardwalk: the Mayflower.
It was not exactly how one imagines college life, but by January the campus was finished and the years that followed featured an education that has served me well in my career, as it has for Atlantic City Weekly’s publisher, Lew Steiner, a fellow member of the original class. We both worked at the college newspaper, The Argo, a foundation that shifted to the pages of the paper Steiner started in 1974, The Whoot!, which continues to thrive today as Atlantic City Weekly.
From those modest beginnings, Stockton College of New Jersey has turned into an educational juggernaut, now with about 8,000 students and 271 full-time faculty members and a much-expanded campus. The school has been ranked among the Best Universities/Master’s in the North (2010) by U.S. News and World Report for four consecutive years. From original president Richard Bjork to Peter Mitchell, Vera King Farris and current president Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., Stockton has continued to thrive as a visionary institution.
Stockton President Herman J. Saatkamp: “For our students enrolled in programs involving the arts, the facility provides an opportunity to explore ideas and concepts in the visual arts in a manner we previously could not."
Continuing a longtime collaboration and advancing mutual educational interests, The Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey today announced a partnership resulting in the largest gift in the history of the College.
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