Stockton University


Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of the New Jersey state system of higher education. The university was named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the Declaration of Independence. Founded in 1969, Stockton accepted its charter class in 1971. At its opening in 1971, classes were held at the Mayflower Hotel in Atlantic City; the campus in Galloway Township began operating late in 1971. Nearly 10,000 students are enrolled at Stockton and it is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

History

In November 1968, New Jersey approved a $202.5 million capital construction bond issue with an earmarked $15 million designated for the construction of a new state college in Southern New Jersey. In 1969, a tract was selected for the campus in the heart of the Pine Barrens in Galloway Township. The trustees named the school South Jersey State College; they later renamed it as Stockton State College, to avoid confusion with Rutgers College of South Jersey.
As construction began to run behind schedule, in 1970 the trustees realized they needed an alternative location for the first class in 1971. They selected the historic Mayflower Hotel in Atlantic City as the temporary campus. Classes began on schedule with the commencement of the first academic year in September 1971. The college took shape as 1,000 students, 50 of whom were Educational Opportunity Fund students; 97 staff, and 60 full-time faculty took over the former resort hotel. By December, occupancy of the first phase of the new campus construction took place, with the transfer of classes and offices to Galloway Township during the winter holiday period.
Accreditation of Stockton State College by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools was first granted in December 1975. In July 1991, the college was re-accredited unconditionally for another 10 years by the Middle States Association Commission on Higher Education, and Middle States accreditation was reaffirmed most recently in 2012.
In 1978 the US Congress passed legislation creating the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, the first such designation in the nation, to protect the area's ecology and aquifer, which serves the large metropolitan region. In 1988, the United Nations designated it an International Biosphere Reserve, in recognition of its importance.
Stockton continued to grow rapidly. Housing II opened in November 1981. With the opening of the N-Wing College Center & Housing III in February 1983, Stockton State College achieved a high student-residency rate among New Jersey state colleges.
In 1993, the college's name was changed to the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Rochelle Hendricks, New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education, approved Stockton's petition to become a university on February 13, 2015. On February 18, 2015, Stockton's Board of Trustees voted to change the former college's seal to reflect the new name, Stockton University. The Executive Committee of the New Jersey Presidents Council, which represents the presidents of the state's public, private and community colleges and universities that receive state aid, had also voted for the change. In February 2015, the college was awarded University status and was officially renamed Stockton University on February 18, 2015.

Presidents

In the 2010s, the university completed several major building projects and other initiatives. The new Campus Center opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 7, 2011. The 154,000-square-foot building was designed as a green, sustainable building that would be an inviting, inclusive and exciting gathering place for the entire community.
Stockton opened a new $39.5-million Unified Science Center with state-of-the-art equipment in September 2013. The 66,350-square-foot, three-story facility expands Stockton's School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, which graduates over 20 percent of all the math and science majors at New Jersey's public colleges and universities.
Construction of the $33.2 million Unified Science Center 2 and a $15.2 million classroom building were completed in 2018,creating three sections of a new Academic Quad and entrance to the university.

Seaview Resort

In August 2010, as part of its expansion of its tourism and hotel management program in the School of Business, Stockton announced plans to purchase the nearby Seaview Resort & Golf Course. On September 1, 2010, Stockton completed the deal for $20 million. In 2010, Stockton established the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism, part of the Stockton School of Business in Atlantic City at Stockton's Carnegie Center.
In September 2011, the first students moved into Seaview, which was operated as a hotel by Dolce Hotels and Resorts, an international hospitality organization. The two golf courses were managed by Troon Golf. Students in Stockton's Hospitality and Tourism Management Studies program as well as other students lived there and worked and learned from top professionals in the hospitality and tourism field, which is integral to the Southern New Jersey economy.
Stockton University officially completed the sale of the Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club on July 31, 2018 to KDG Capital LLC of Florida for $21,070,000. The hotel retained the name Seaview Hotel & Golf Club. Dolce Hotels and Resorts by Wyndham will continue to manage the hotel while Troon will continue to operate the two 18-hole golf courses.

Atlantic City campus

The university has built an Atlantic City campus at the Boardwalk and Albany Ave, with student residences overlooking the beach and Boardwalk. Stockton University Atlantic City opened fall 2018 with more than 500 residential students and more than 1,800 students taking courses in the new Academic Center, built on the former site of Atlantic City High School.
The project is a public-private partnership with Atlantic City Development Corp., or AC Devco, a non-profit modeled on New Brunswick Development Corp., which expanded Rutgers' New Brunswick campus.
The project includes a parking garage topped by new offices for South Jersey Gas, with 879 parking spaces for use by the university, South Jersey Gas and the public; and an academic building that can accommodate up to 1,800 students. In Atlantic City, the university operates the Dante Hall Theater and the Carnegie Library Center.
Funding sources for the Atlantic City campus include $50.4 million in bonds from the Atlantic County Improvement Authority from proceeds of almost $70 million in tax credits issued by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority; $17 million from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority ; state bond funds for higher education construction; and $18 million from Stockton.
In December 2014, Stockton had purchased the shuttered Showboat Atlantic City hotel and casino for $18 million, with plans to develop a full-service residential campus awarding undergraduate and graduate degrees and other professional training programs. The former resort, dubbed the "Island Campus", would have been converted casino and employee spaces into classrooms, cafeteria space and offices for faculty and staff. Several floors of hotel rooms would be renovated into student housing, while the remaining rooms would be operated as a hotel. The House of Blues would be modified to house the school's performing arts programs.
Soon after, it was publicly disclosed that Trump Entertainment Resorts held a covenant to the property, preventing the site from being used as anything other than a casino. It was through this covenant that Trump Entertainment Resorts prevented Stockton's plans to open an Atlantic City campus on the Showboat property. President Saatkamp came under fire for making the purchase despite knowing about the covenant. The university reached a deal to lease the property from investor Glenn Straub, who planned to purchase the Showboat. Straub later sued the university to prevent Stockton from backing out of the deal. Stockton sold the Showboat property to Bart Blatstein in January 2016.

Academics

Stockton's academic programs provide opportunities for study in fields including Criminal Justice, Psychology, Environmental Science, Biology, Business, Historical Studies, and Literature. Additionally, courses are offered in emerging fields such as Computational Science, Tourism and Hospitality Management, and Homeland Security. Stockton also offers a Doctor of Physical Therapy program. The Division of Continuing Studies in the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies provides credit-bearing and non-credit certificate programs, CE approved continuing professional education for health sciences, human services and business professionals, and a growing number and variety of community education offerings.
Stockton's academic programs and faculty have been recognized by such nationally recognized organizations as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, the National Science Foundation, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Pulitzer Prize committee, the United States Air Force Academy, and the Fulbright Program.

Student life

Stockton's Division of Student Affairs is organized to provide comprehensive programs and services to more than 8,500 students, including about 2,900 students who reside in university facilities. These programs and services are intended to enhance campus life and enrich the academic programs of Stockton.
Stockton University is home to more than 130 official student clubs and organizations including a Student Senate. The Office of Student Development oversees all student clubs and organizations.
There are student media organizations, including the Argo, a student-produced newspaper. WLFR 91.7 is the FM radio station licensed to Stockton in 1984.SSTV Ch. 14, Stockton Student Television, is Stockton's on-campus television station. Stockpot Literary Magazine is an annual literary publication featuring art, poetry and writing of Stockton students and alumni. The Stockton yearbook is an historical record of the academic year.

Greek life

Fraternities
Sororities
Service fraternities
Stockton has six housing units on campus. Housing II and III are complexes of traditional three-story residence halls, while Housing I, IV and V are all apartment-style complexes of varying architectural character.
The Housing I, IV, & V apartment style complexes all vary in layout, furnishings, sizes, pricing, and student privacy. Rooms in all residences are completely furnished and include beds, desks, bureaus, wastebaskets, lamps, telephones, air conditioning, carpeting, and curtains. Cable TV and telephone service are also provided. Single rooms are open to new students on a limited basis.

Ranking and special recognition

Stockton University has been ranked in tier 1 among the nation's top public colleges and universities in the 2015 survey of America's Best Colleges, for the seventh year in a row. In the annual survey by U.S. News & World Report, Stockton University is ranked as 9th among public Regional Universities of the North and 41st among private and public Regional Universities of the North.
In the past, Stockton had been classified as a national liberal arts college. U.S. News & World Report revised its categories early in 2007 and classified it among Regional Universities and Public Schools.
U.S. News & World Report also named Stockton as one of the top six in the North as part of its 2014 report.
Stockton was cited as one of the in 2015 by The Princeton Review and featured in The Princeton Review’s .
Military Times, an organization comprising the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times, named Stockton in its listing, ranking it #24 on the list of four-year schools.
In 2019 Stockton was ranked #35 in Regional Universities North by U.S. News & World Report. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence. Stockton also ranked tie #17 in Best Colleges for Veterans and #9 in Top Public Schools in the North.

Academic

Stockton is an environmentally friendly campus featuring a geothermal heat pump, fuel cells, and photovoltaic panels. In 2002, Stockton installed a 200 kW fuel cell at an initial cost of $1.3 million. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities provided a grant to cover most of the cost of the unit, with Stockton paying only $305,000. South Jersey Industries also provided a rebate of $710,000 for the unit. The fuel cell provides just under 10% of the total energy for the campus; Stockton has the lowest energy cost per student among universities in New Jersey.
Stockton achieved national LEED certification for its new sustainable design. In 2006, the F-Wing expansion, including classrooms, offices and an atrium received the prestigious LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Stockton's commitment to environmentally responsible design has resulted in "green" initiatives that have both saved energy and decreased greenhouse gas emissions. These include the development on campus of one of the largest geothermal heating and cooling systems in the world. The geothermal systems incorporate seasonal thermal energy storage so that waste heat or winter cold can be collected when seasonally available and stored for use in the opposing seasons. A borehole thermal energy storage system was installed in 1994 and is used for heating the older half of campus, with waste heat collected from air conditioning equipment there. In 1995 a fuel cell and photovoltaic panels were installed buildings to generate energy.
An aquifer thermal energy storage system, the first of its kind in the United States, began operation in 2008. The ATES system reduces the amount of energy used to cool Stockton's newer buildings by storing the chill of winter air in the water and rock of an underground aquifer, and withdrawing it in the summer for cooling.
In 2008, Stockton approved an agreement with Marina Energy LLC for the installation of solar panels on The Big Blue athletic center roof to generate electricity. Marina Energy is a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries. Stockton paid nothing for the equipment and signed a 10-year agreement to buy the generated power. In 2009 the job was completed.
As part of the capital plan, Housing V was built in 2009 to accommodate the rising demand for student housing. It incorporates geothermal heating and cooling using closed-loop technology, for a total of 450 tons cooling capacity. To eliminate the possibility of groundwater contamination in the event of a leak, freeze protection is provided in the circulating fluid. The design accommodates future solar thermal heating systems. Sustainable design includes landscaping: upper-story deciduous trees were planted along the south-facing facades of the residence halls to provide shade during the summer months, but allow the warmth of the sun to reach the buildings during the winter. This design received the "Green Project of Distinction" award from Education Design Showcase.
Stockton's next green project was the largest single building project in its history. Designed and built according to the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Gold Standard in sustainable design, the new Campus Center, completed in 2011, provides of space for dining, bookstore, pool, theater, lounges and offices.
It will use 25% less energy than standard construction, and 40% less water. Other features include low-emitting adhesives, sealants, paints and coatings. Additional "green" features of the building include a storm water-collection system to irrigate an on-site "rain garden" landscaped with indigenous and adapted plant species. It also has a sophisticated energy management system for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting.
In 2013, Stockton received approval from the to administer the state's first comprehensive forest management plan on public land. Stockton actively manages more than 1,500 acres of forest on its campus, benefiting the local wildlife populations, protecting the campus against fire and pathogens and providing recreation such as hiking and wildlife viewing.

Athletics

Team mascot is the Osprey
In 2010, Stockton College entered a partnership with the South Jersey fine arts center Noyes Museum wherein Stockton would supply funds for needed repairs, and Noyes would provide access to their collections to Stockton. The partnership grew, and eventually the Noyes Foundation which ran the museum entirely ceded its assets and control of the museum to Stockton from 2016-2017. The Museum is currently without a permanent home after the closure of its original 1983 location in 2016, but its collection is displayed in Stockton's Seaview resort and golf club as well as Stockton's Kramer Hall in Hammonton, as well as two sites in Atlantic City.

Notable people

Faculty and staff