Raising the Bar

Raising the Bar
10 years after the historic private gift, Rowan University reaches new heights
By Michele Dailey ’94

Henry Rowan likes to create things to meet needs; that’s what engineers, do, he says. It’s fortunate for the people of southern New Jersey that he’s good at it.

The University’s major benefactor and namesake, Henry Rowan first started something from scratch in 1954 when he and his late wife, Betty, created a company in the basement of their home. Today, Inductotherm Industries Inc. is a worldwide family of engineering and technology-based companies that designs and manufactures induction melting systems and other technologies, focusing primarily on the metals industry. It operates 57 companies in 20 countries around the world.

Nearly 40 years after his first startup, Rowan was at it again; he wanted to create something different, something that was needed. On July 6, 1992, he and Betty announced a gift of $100 million to Glassboro State College. With their historic gift, Rowan wanted to create an engineering school and to enhance the College’s entire educational program for the benefit of students and the southern New Jersey region.

In the decade since that pledge, the institution has blossomed, exceeding the expectations of even Rowan himself. That is saying a lot for a man who admits to being a perfectionist and does not settle for anything but the best.

The Rowan gift and Henry Rowan’s philanthropic example have changed everything, not just at Rowan, but across the spectrum of public higher education, according to Executive Vice President Philip Tumminia ’69. “Henry Rowan raised the bar for charitable giving to higher education in the United States,” Tumminia said. “I remember him telling me in 1992 that one of his goals was to get others with wealth to either match or exceed his gift.”

In fact, the largest gift made to any higher education institution prior to the Rowan gift was $105 million given to a private school, Emory University, in 1979. No gifts of this magnitude were made until 1992 when the Rowans announced their gift of $100 million to Glassboro State. Since then, 45 gifts of $100 million-plus have been made to education institutions. “Everyone benefits from higher education and today everyone benefits from Henry Rowan’s leadership in charitable giving,” Tumminia said.

Of all that’s been accomplished because of the gift, Henry Rowan says he is most proud of the success of University’s College of Engineering. But an overarching goal of Rowan’s was for the entire University to be enhanced. So far, he says things have turned out better than he had hoped. “They could have done a smattering of engineering that was required as part of my commitment and given it a lick and a pat and the rest of the money could have been absorbed into the institution generally,” Rowan said.

But that didn’t happen and for that, Rowan credits people at the University for making the gift really work. He praises Tumminia as being “the power behind the progress. I don’t think this would have happened without Phil’s effort,” Rowan said.

Tumminia, who was the college’s sole private fundraiser 10 years ago, initially approached Rowan for a $1,500 corporate sponsorship, which turned into what was then the largest private gift to a public college or university in the history of the United States. Rowan credits Tumminia for staying loyal to him and to the University instead of moving on when he gained renown as a successful fundraiser. “He stayed and took on the responsibility to ensure the gift was used properly and was worthwhile,” Rowan said.

Tumminia recalled his early conversations with Rowan. “I said to Hank that if he invested in Glassboro State, the result would be the emergence of a major regional institution,” he said. “Instead of being a good state college, we have the promise of becoming a prominent regional university.”

The gift not only created the College of Engineering, Tumminia said, but also “reinvigorated a lot of faculty and has brought a sense of pride to the student body and the administration. Our image has been significantly enhanced by the Rowan gift. You see it everywhere.”

Indeed, what was once a small state college known mostly for its teacher education program is now a comprehensive regional university that is fast gaining a national reputation. Rowan has embarked on an aggressive 10-year plan that is expected to earn it a national reputation for excellence and innovation and make it the public university of choice in the region.

Announced last October, the University’s transformational master plan includes the construction of a $41 million science building, a new home for the College of Education, a 400-bed residence hall, new athletic facilities and the expansion of Rowan’s performing arts facilities. The university also will undertake a $10 million landscape and campus safety improvement project, eliminate deferred maintenance and purchase land and property near the school for expansion.

Also, since the gift was made, Rowan was the first of New Jersey’s nine state colleges to offer a doctoral program and among the first to achieve university status.

When Henry Rowan gave us the money, he also gave us his reputation,”
said Farish. That credibility has encouraged others to support public-private partnerships, according to Tumminia. “We are a national model,” he said, “because Hank Rowan had the vision to see that mega gifts to public institutions make sense.”

Prior to the landmark gift, the University Foundation’s assets totaled $787,226; at press time, that figure was $97.2 million. This amount puts Rowan in the top five of 500 state colleges and universities nationwide in terms of endowment dollars per student.

“This places us in an unusual circumstance,” said Rowan President Donald Farish. “We’re in a position to provide national leadership for transformational gifts to colleges and universities. If we can succeed in our transformation, we can inspire other colleges to seek similar gifts.” Farish looks to the completion of work outlined in the master plan before he will say Rowan has “made it,” but he says that the University is headed in the right direction.

Anyone visiting campus can see the physical changes. But seeing isn’t always believing: the intangible changes may tell the best story of how truly transformed the University is and continues to be.

Rowan is now considered a top choice among prospective students, no longer relegated to “second choice” or “safe school.”

And regional industry is beginning to view the University as a technological resource for personnel—faculty consultants, graduates and interns—and myriad business needs and activities.

Most importantly, people think differently about Rowan. It has become a place where entrepreneurialism has taken over traditionalism, where pride has won over ambivalence and where standards have been heightened tenfold.

One of the people keeping Henry Rowan abreast of progress at the University is his daughter, Virginia Rowan Smith, a University trustee since 1993. “Being involved in this transformation—and the University truly has undergone a transformation—has been extremely rewarding from two perspectives, that of a family member, and that of a member of the school’s governing board,” Smith said. “The response of the staff, the faculty, the students and indeed everyone connected to the University was a wonderful tribute to my parents. Not only were people excited about the possibilities, but everyone came together as a team, recognizing countless opportunities.”

President Farish agrees. “The Rowan gift allowed us to think expansively about the future,” he said. “We’re building real momentum. Ten years from now, this University will be truly transformed.”

At first, the most transformed aspect of Rowan’s academics was the creation of the engineering program. James Tracey, founding dean of the College of Engineering “was the ideal charismatic dean to get the College of Engineering started,” Henry Rowan said. “His contributions have been incredible.”

While Rowan and others credit Tracey with the initial success of the engineering program, he, in turn, credits the faculty with prestigious academic credentials for having the courage to come to a school that had no program, no building and no students. “People said it would be difficult to attract good faculty,” Tracey recalled. But in addition to the instant credibility the University received from the Rowan gift, “there were a lot of bright, young professors who agreed that engineering education needed to be improved but they couldn’t do it where they were,” Tracey said. “When we talked to them about what we wanted to do here, they said this was just the opportunity they were looking for.”

Tracey retired from the University in July 2000, after the first class of engineers had graduated, acknowledging that he had done what he’d come to do. As for his experience at Rowan, he says: “There are few things in one’s life that surpass your expectations; this was one of them.”

The unique engineering program he and the faculty developed lives on. It includes a project-based engineering curriculum with hands-on, company-sponsored projects beginning in the freshman year; focuses on entrepreneurship (students can receive up to $2,500 per semester if they come up with an original invention they want to build and market); strong communication skills (students have to write and present papers at every step); small classes; and an open-door policy among faculty.

Those open doors hang in Rowan Hall, a state-of-the-art facility Henry Rowan praises for its beautiful setting and technological excellence. “It is a masterpiece,” Rowan said. “It has class and prestige and is attractive to good students.” And attracted they are. Students who have the academic credentials to go to any number of prestigious engineering schools have chosen Rowan and their success speaks for itself.

Amol Shah, who enrolled in the first class of Rowan engineers in 1996, graduated with top honors in 2000 and this May earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Stanford University. Shah credits Rowan’s strong hands-on engineering education, focus on communication skills and entrepreneurism and dedicated faculty for his success. “Looking back, I realize how important that balance was,” Shah said. “I learned that if I can’t sell my ideas to others, I’m not going to get anywhere.” Shah is now a lead software engineer for Quest Communications in Denver, Colo.

Stanford is just one of many prestigious schools to which engineering graduates have been accepted. According to College of Engineering Dean Dianne Dorland, a third of the students who’ve graduated from Rowan engineering have been accepted and enrolled at graduate schools including MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell and Virginia Tech.

Dorland, who came to Rowan from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, agrees that Rowan is a very different type of educational venture in the engineering realm. “You absolutely will not see this elsewhere. Rowan engineering has taken the emphasis in excellent undergraduate engineering education to a new level,” she said.
As she sees it, her role is to help the program grow and mature “into a nationally renowned college of engineering.”

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Anthony Marchese, one of the first faculty members hired, says that the entrepreneurship focus “goes all the way back to Henry Rowan. This program is not just to educate kids from South Jersey so they can get jobs, but for them to go out and create jobs in South Jersey.”

This entrepreneurial and technological focus is having a ripple effect on the entire University, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for engineering and technology initiatives.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority recently awarded Rowan $6 million to construct the Technology Center, the initial phase of a Technology Park Rowan plans to build. The Center will provide a site for companies to pursue the commercialization of products they’ve created as well as give faculty and students in many disciplines the space to conduct more federal- and state-funded research projects.

Trustee Smith agrees that the region has recognized the opportunities that Rowan’s transformation offers. “The response of the state legislators, the people of Glassboro and the alumni all confirm the importance of Rowan University to the southern part of the state and to its business community,”she said.

Long before making the gift, Henry Rowan knew that “a dollar put into education has a lasting effect for generations. People are able to produce more value for themselves from the knowledge they gain and society benefits from that knowledge.”

So far, the “results of the gift and the changes in the educational capabilities at RU have enhanced that philosophy a little bit,” he said.

Tumminia, who now calls Rowan not just a major donor, but a friend, says 10 years have proven the consequences of everyone setting their sights higher once Henry Rowan set the example. “We convinced the legislature that an incentive bill matching major gifts was a good idea. We led the way for truly significant public-private partnerships in education. But most important of all,” he says, “because Hank Rowan raised the bar and challenged us, Rowan University is able to exceed the limits of publicly funded adequacy and encourage everyone to expect more and achieve more.”

In the nearly 50 years since Henry Rowan started Inductotherm, he’s helped create another success story in southern New Jersey, one he’s confident will benefit the region for years to come. He has no regrets. “To give away the results of my life’s work and make no difference would be almost criminal,” Rowan said, reflecting on what might have happened if he’d donated $100 million elsewhere. “What a pleasure it is to see others benefit from our success.”

Michele Dailey was assistant director of college relations when the Rowan gift was made. She is currently a freelance writer living in Haddonfield.