History
The College of New Jersey was established on February 9, 1855 by an act of the New Jersey Legislature mandating the creation of a state normal school, making the New Jersey State Normal School the first teacher training institution in New Jersey and the ninth in the United States. Prior to this, then-Governor Rodman McCamley Price had actively promoted the notion of founding a training institute for New Jersey's teachers, and helped to mobilize support among influential state leaders:
| “ | I recommend the establishment of a school for the education of teachers, similar to the schools established in many of the states, which are deemed to exert a most useful and beneficial influence in the cause of education in public estimation. | ” |
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—Rodman McCamley Price, statement, January 1855, |
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For the first 73 years, the school was located in Trenton on Clinton Avenue. Beginning in 1925, the institution offered its first four-year baccalaureate degrees, and engaged on a transitional program of expansion. In 1928, a suburban tract of 210 acres (0.8 km²) was purchased in Ewing Township, New Jersey and preparations were underway to relocate the College. The first building erected on the new campus was Green Hall, built in traditional Georgian colonial style. The majority of buildings now on campus reflect Green Hall's architecture. In 1996, in a move spearheaded by Harold Eickhoff, The College of New Jersey adopted its current name.
Programs in graduate study were instituted in 1947, followed by accreditation from various national associations in the 1950s. The enactment of the Higher Education Act of 1966 paved the way for TCNJ to become a comprehensive institution by expanding its degree programs into a variety of fields aside from the education of teachers. By 1972, 70 percent of entering students were selecting non-education majors.
- Names over the years
- 1855 — New Jersey State Normal School
- 1908 — New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton
- 1929 — New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton
- 1937 — New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton
- 1958 — Trenton State College
- 1996 — The College of New Jersey
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