40 years at Richard Stockton College

Herman J. Saatkamp Jr. became the fourth president of Richard Stockton College in June 2003. As the college prepares to celebrate its 40th year of teaching, he discusses the challenges of the present and plans for the future.

Q: You were raised in Tennessee, attended a Christian college (Carson-Newman College in Tennessee), got a master's in divinity, a doctorate in philosophy and are considered an expert on philosopher George Santayana. How did that background prepare you to be a college president?

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A: Good question, in a way sort of ironic, particularly with George Santayana. In 1912 Santayana retired from Harvard University because he thought Harvard was becoming too businesslike and therefore not fostering student learning and faculty scholarship. Keeping that in mind, I think, has given me a clear focus on what one does as a president and what one does at a college or university; that your principal focuses are student learning and faculty scholarship.

Q: As the founding editor of a 20-volume series on Santayana, what was it about him you found so interesting? And how has his philosophy influenced your own?

A: Santayana is a fascinating person: Spanish-American philosopher born in Spain, came to Boston when he was 9 years old, finished his schooling there and then went to Harvard and then taught at Harvard until 1912. One of the most significant features about Santayana's view is that there are certain conditions for living that you could call material conditions, and the college, university and business would be the financial conditions and the physical structures that make life possible. But that doesn't explain the value of life or what makes it worthwhile. And so, one of the central tenets of Santayana's outlook is simply: If you want to talk about the value of life then you look at something beyond just the material conditions for living to the values found in art, in the way you think, in human relationships, in the community you build and the values in those communities.

Q: What attracted you to Richard Stockton College?

A: I fell in love with it, I think, is the simplest explanation. I did not know much about Richard Stockton, or for that matter, the Jersey Shore. And so when I found that I was nominated, I contacted a couple of presidents in the area, talked with them, and then came for a visit. (I) stayed at Seaview, incidentally, on the visit and then went to Cape May, came back along the shore and decided to come over to the campus and look at it. Incredible campus, in such a natural parklike setting with all the lakes and pathways and trees and so on, just absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. And then what really was the turning point was meeting the faculty, staff, and students; faculty dedicated to student learning and a real focus on students themselves and the opportunities they can give to students.

Q: When you arrived, you talked a lot about creating partnerships and expanding Stockton's presence in the community. How well would you believe that has been accomplished, and what more would you like to do?

A: I would like to do a lot more. But we have done a number of things already. We've built the community partnerships in Atlantic City and the region. We have the Noyes Museum, Dante Hall, the Carnegie Center in A.C., we are expanding to Hammonton and southern Ocean County in Manahawkin and the southern part of this area. I think there is a sense in which a college can be seen sort of like a wheel: where the college is the hub and neutral group in which you then have spokes that go out to the various parts of the community. And the college is that which brings those community elements together, on neutral grounds for discussions, for building programs that work well together and providing economic development for the area, as well as, probably the most significant thing we do is, we provide alumni who live in the area and take leadership roles in the area.

Q: Stockton has been primarily an undergraduate liberal-arts college. Since you arrived, there has also been more emphasis on expanding graduate programs. How do you see the college evolving academically? Should it become more like a university?

A: No. Think of the College of William and Mary, Dartmouth College - they have graduate programs, doctorate programs, medical schools, etc. but they keep the name ‘college.' And the reason they keep the name ‘college' is the focus is on teaching and on the students. Often there is a standing story about universities: How do you define the difference between college and university? A university is one that has lost sight of students, and the college keeps the focus on the students. So even though we are growing, expanding ... the focus here and one of the reasons for retaining the name ‘college' is that our focus is on students and providing opportunities to students. We have grown. But part of the Stockton spirit that's been here since our founding is that one feels at home here, that faculty members know the students' names, that you know the families of the students and there is an incredible spirit on the campus that is homelike. You know that people can feel comfortable with each other, where you can address issues that are difficult issues, sometimes, but you do it with respect and joy.

Q: All of the state colleges, all colleges everywhere, are under pressure to control tuition and fees. Stockton is also in a period of costly expansion. How do you reconcile the two?

A: When I first came, one of my surprises was that New Jersey doesn't provide funding for buildings. The last bond issue in New Jersey for higher education was 1988. When we did a physical assessment of the campus we found ... we were 400,000 square feet short of the space needed to accommodate the students and the faculty that we had at the time I came. So clearly, we had to think about what we were going to do about that. I sought out an investment fund that's dedicated to buildings and capital expansion. That fund grew in a significant way since the eight years that I have been here. Out of that fund we were able to purchase Seaview (Resort). We were also able to build the fund so that when we take out debt ... the earnings off of that investment fund offsets the debt service on the bonds. So we have done this in a very thoughtful way, and a very responsible way. So the impact on students is considerably lessened, even though we are really expanding our offerings to students.

Q: The new $65 million Campus Center is very impressive. Why does a state college need such a showpiece structure?

A: You need it for your students and you need it for the community. Our students never had something like this. The buildings were built mostly in the 1970s, 1980s. ... We have added a few buildings since then. But there was never really a central part of the campus. Here, finally, we have a reception area where students and parents can come for admissions, where if there is any issue that a student needs (help with), there is one place to come. The important thing about it is, by having this we are vacating other spaces on campus and therefore can create faculty offices, classrooms, and other facilities that serve our students very well.

Q: Parking tends to be one of the biggest issues, biggest complaints. What is the future of parking at Stockton?

A: I tell the students they are not going to get a lot of sympathy from me about parking. They get a little (sympathy), but not a lot. I came from campuses where there were genuinely parking problems. One campus, Texas A&M, five miles long, even if you got a spot and got on the shuttle you'd be 30 to 45 minutes from your first class. At Stockton there is no place on the campus that you are not more than five to 10 minutes walking to a building. We have a shuttle that runs back and forth. No time of the day is our North parking lot full. So one can always park there and there is a shuttle that runs back and forth. Besides, it's healthy to walk. And we have more than enough parking spaces for the cars and the students that are here. We eventually want to put up parking garages. When we do that, then we will be able to complete the quad where the campus center is and the science building comes out to the side and we will have on the other side of that another academic building and a quad and a really new entrance to the campus.

Q: What has been your greatest challenge?

A: I think my greatest challenges have been the surprises of the very low state support for higher education. We live in a state that provides significant support for K through 12 - reportedly one of the top states for support of K through 12 - and yet we are the bottom of the list, or very close to it, for support for higher education. That is a real surprise, for a sophisticated state like New Jersey to not put a priority on higher education. So the challenge is: how do you live and how do you flourish in a state that desperately needs more higher education, more capacity for students, and do so in a way that is financially responsible?

Q: What has surprised you since you've been here?

A: The other very pleasant surprise is just how well the communities work together. A good example is when we had the hurricane evacuees show up on campus, 15 minutes notice, no support coming from any place else. And yet all the important elements - Stockton, AtlantiCare, Galloway Township, the Governor's Office - all came together. We were supposed to have 100 or so (people) for a couple of hours; we had 900 plus for nine hours. And it was not just the group working together but the community spirit that was there.

Q: What has been your greatest disappointment?

A: Oh boy, I don't know that I've had a greatest disappointment, quite frankly. We are about to launch our comprehensive campaign, (which) I think is going to be very successful. The 21st of September we will announce our goal. I think we are a young college and we haven't advanced very far in terms of development - raising external funds (is) probably going to be one of our bigger challenges. In terms of disappointments, I honestly can't think of any.

Q: How much longer do you plan to serve as Stockton's president, and what more do you want to accomplish?

A: Well, there is a lot more to accomplish. And the nice thing is that one recognizes that no one person accomplishes things in any institution or community. So everything is a team effort. My father worked full time until he was 76. I'm not quite there yet, and I'm not quite sure I want to work until I'm 76 - I am 68 now - but I'm going to be here for a while.

Q: Did you plan such a long-term commitment to Stockton?

A: I did, actually. You can't accomplish much unless you have been some place for at least six years. So somewhere between your sixth and 10th year are your greatest accomplishments. At Stockton we've done a lot of what I might call internal changes and accomplishments. Sixty percent of the faculty that are here now have come since I came in 2003. We've changed the academic programs in a significant way, added ... a lot of graduate programs, but we've also added a lot of undergraduate programs. We've built buildings and facilitated educational programs and we added this incredible outreach to the community. Much of that, it took some time to build. Studies show that if you don't stay in a place six to eight years, you really have an incomplete career. After that you really need to begin thinking what's the next step and what keeps you energized and what keeps the campus going. The nice thing about Stockton is that we put together a strategic plan called 2020 ... so there is a lot to be done between now and 2020 in terms of buildings, outlooks, programs, facilitating work of faculty and the opportunities for students.

Q: What would you like your legacy to be?

A: The best way to answer that question is to ask someone 30 or 40, 50 years from now what their legacy is. I think it's not complicated. What I really would like is for my legacy to be that I made good judgments about facilitating the opportunities for student learning and for faculty scholarship.

Contact Diane D'Amico:

609-272-7241

DDamico@pressofac.com

Through its expansions over the years, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has emerged as a major player in business development in South Jersey.

The college conducts market research that provides information to businesses in the region, holds educational programming for business owners, and for eight years has hosted the Small Business Development Center at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

The center advises entrepreneurs and start-ups, and aids existing businesses seeking to expand or increase profitability.

"I've seen the tremendous growth in servicing the business community," said Israel Posner, executive director of Stockton's Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism. Posner has been at Stockton for 38 of the school's 40 years.

This role comes at an important time in the region's business history as Atlantic City seeks to reinvent itself as a unique tourist attraction in the face of growing competition from out-of-state casinos. In this role, information is important.

"Research can be anything from market research dealing with gaming or hospitality or tourism in the region. We might be looking at information that is relevant to the entire industry and the shoreline. We also might be working with individual organizations as well," Posner said.

Faculty have been involved in research, including perception of safety in Atlantic City and what factors contribute to customer loyalty in the area, Posner said.

In the spring, a tourism visitor profile study involved thousands of interviews with people from Boston to Virginia, Posner said.

"We asked what types of people visit Atlantic City and how do general tourists differ from people who search for casinos," Posner said. "We discovered the importance of arts and culture to the general traveler. And if you are trying to transform Atlantic City from a gaming-centric destination to a broader tourism destination, this research helps you determine the types of amenities you need to attract the general traveler."

Stockton's Levenson Institute also sponsors the annual Jersey Shorecast, in which local economics professors, tourism experts and others predict how businesses will fare in the upcoming tourist season.

Stockton's expansions led last year to the $20 million purchase of the Seaview Resort in Galloway Township. The facility is operated as a resort and being integrated into the college's hospitality management program training future business professionals in the region.

"Imagine that, the students who major in hospitality and tourism management have the opportunity to intern and reside at a first-class resort and also take classes at a first-class resort," Posner said.

Joseph Molineaux is the director of the Small Business Development Center at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The organization uses federal and state funding to aid businesses in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties.

Stockton has hosted the Atlantic City-based development center since 2003, Molineaux said.

"On any given year, we'll train anywhere from 1,000 to 1,600 individuals through our training programs," Molineaux said.

One-on-one counseling sessions average 500 to 700 unique users a year, he said.

"We've been really fortunate to have this kind of relationship with Stockton, especially in southern New Jersey where there is so much entrepreneurship," he said.

The programs help people develop and plan business plans and prepare to apply for business loans. New businesses can get help with a needs assessment and determining whether they have the capability to run such a business and the capacity to pay back any loans.

Existing businesses can get help reviewing past performance and isolating areas where they can improve, Molineaux said.

Tightening up costs. Looking for lenders. Developing more income streams. Even helping with Facebook and social media marketing.

"We're at the right place at a difficult time for small business. Having that role and understanding that role helps us reach out and reach as many businesses as we can," Molineaux said.

The center, Molineaux said, helps business people make good decisions.

"Stockton is a great college to be associated with because they are growing, they're doing the same things we're doing with small businesses in their own model," he said.

Contact Brian Ianieri:

609-272-7253

BIanieri@pressofac.com

From its inception in the 1970s, the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has been a ribbon of glass-and-steel buildings weaving their way through the Pinelands.

"There was a very open relationship with nature," said art and architecture professor Kate Ogden. "There are open-air passages in between the buildings and a lot of natural light along these huge banks of windows."

But for all its clean lines and natural light, Ogden said the campus lacked a "masthead building," a public space for faculty and students to gather. "People got very tired of that International style of plain windows and no ornamentation," she said.

As the school diverges from its linear footprint in favor of a quad-based arrangement of buildings, however, its new Campus Center has not completely abandoned the old ideals.

Click the image below for a larger view of the Stockton Campus Center

"It's a take on that old style, but with a little more texture, more color and a greater variety of things going on," Ogden said.

Stockton President Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., said the Campus Center was designed to be a bridge between the college's past and future.

One of the most visible examples is the three-pronged tree motif that recurs throughout the building, etched in glass doors and used in the capitals atop each of the exterior and interior columns. And while Stockton's familiar nature-inspired logo has changed, Saatkamp said the old design still appears at the center of the new logo.

"We didn't need them, but it's allegorical," he said. "Here is a building that is really tied to the history of the institution."

Saatkamp said a reverence for nature - the Lodge at the Falls in Yosemite National Park provided inspiration for the Campus Center - can be found throughout the new building.

The cement-cast exterior mimics the look of stone, sustainably-harvested wood was used throughout the building's interior and expansive glass ceilings bring natural light into the building's core.

Perhaps most importantly, the Campus Center was constructed using sustainable building materials and techniques.

Project Manager Andrew Tucker, of the Princeton-based KSS Architects, said the school is pursuing a gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Signs scattered throughout the building inform students and visitors about the building's green landscaping, stormwater management, super-insulated roof and wall construction and sustainable building materials.

But the real achievement, Tucker said, is the Campus Center's "grand presence."

"The President wanted a building people would want to take their picture in front of," he said. "It feels grand, but at the same time I'd say the ... stone and wood panels on the inside makes you feel welcome."

Tucker said the central portion of the building, the Grand Hall, was designed to have the feel of a national park lodge, complete with a large stone fireplace engraved with images of the school's past, present and future.

"It's a big living room with big, fluffy furniture," he said.

Saatkamp said it was important to strike the right balance with the Campus Center because it will serve as the bridge between the new quad and the old college.

"The building will always be the Campus Center," he said. "Once the quad is built, it will become the center of campus."

Although she will miss some of Stockton's old ways - having a spread-out campus with people of many different vocations mixed together - Ogden said the new Campus Center does a good job of integrating elements of the college's past and future.

"The college really needed cafes and public spaces," she said. "That's one of the things that's going to be nice with new building - having a place for students and faculty to meet and eat and hang out in nice, beautiful spaces."

Contact Wallace McKelvey:

609-272-7256

WMcKelvey@pressofac.com

Stockton was never supposed to be known for sports - just a college in the middle of the woods and not too far from the shore.

Some think it was purposely planned that way.

The old story goes: When Richard Stockton College was built in the 1970s, someone was so vehemently against sports that even the pool was made too small for competition. Stockton started with just club teams, and had just an outdoor basketball court, outdoor tennis courts and one outdoor playing field.

But 40 years later, the Ospreys have 17 NCAA teams and a thriving intramurals program - none of which are swimming.

"They wanted it to be passive recreation. There wasn't that emphasis put on sports," athletic director Lonnie Folks said. "There are the old wives' tales. People talk about (the pool) and I just smile and let it go. It's a fun story to have around.

For a school that was supposed to be only passive in sports, it has made a mark on the national level. Two years after reaching the Final Four in Division III men's soccer, the Ospreys made it back and won a national championship in 2001 - the only NCAA team title in school history.

Even through pouring rain and hours away, alumni and family still made the trip to support the team as they won the crystal trophy.

"I think athletics has brought more of notoriety to the school," said Stockton men's soccer coach Jeff Haines, who has been with the school for 17 years. "I think that makes all of us proud because we're doing a good job to promote the college."

While the men's soccer team has the only team title, Kim Marino won an individual track and field title in 2003. Marino was the first woman to win the Division III championship in pole vaulting, the first year the event was added.

Others have come close.

The women's soccer team hosted and played in the 1995 NCAA Final Four. The men's basketball made two runs at a national title. In 1987, the team reached the Final Four and in 2009, Stockton was the national runner-up.

All those times, fans and members of the community supported the team, even traveling as far as Virginia to watch the Stockton men compete in the national championship game even though it was during spring break.

"There were staff members who hadn't seen a game all year who went to the national championship. Students were altering their spring break plans," Folks said. "That was really an opportunity to see that people get it. People understand what we do here."

Even though Stockton was not supposed to be known for sports, officials certainly brought in people that were internationally known.

The first two athletic directors for Stockton were Olympic medalists: Don Bragg (1960, gold medal) and G. Larry James (1968, gold and silver).

In the 1990s, the Ospreys became a training ground for many top-level teams.

Stockton hosted a camp for the U.S. women's basketball team before the 1992 Olympics, where they went to win a gold medal.

The school hosted Saudi Arabia's training camp before the 1994 World Cup and 1996 Olympics, and hosted a match between USA and Saudi Arabia before the 1994 World Cup.

In 2000, the Stockton Athletic Center was erected and marked another change in the sports scene. The school opened a 70,000-square foot multi-purpose recreation center with an NCAA competitive basketball court and practice courts for basketball, volleyball, tennis and soccer.

"It really makes you feel good about what we do in athletics," Folks said. "I don't think anyone envisioned 40 years ago that Stockton would be where it is now."

Contact Susan Lulgjuraj:

609-272-7187

slulgjuraj@pressofac.com

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - The legends started as soon as the college did. Before, even.

Did the state of New Jersey overpay, grossly, for the 1,600 acres of forest that would grow into Stockton State College - now Richard Stockton College of New Jersey?

That's one of the tales that traces all the way back to the college's roots in the Pinelands. So is the story on how the most-scenic, generally best-loved hangout on campus, the languid Lake Fred, got its name.

The official version is that it was already called that when the state bought the Galloway Township property in 1969 - Fred was just the name of a former lake owner.

But Dan McMahon, the first editor of Stockton's newspaper, The Argo, says the truth is that there was a student who used to spend a lot of time around the lake, admiring its beauty and occasionally enjoying a smoke - that wasn't necessarily tobacco. The nature-lover's name was, yes, Fred.

"So people just began calling it Lake Fred," says McMahon, 64, who lives in Brigantine. "It kind of became known as Lake Fred by common usage."

Tony Marino, an original faculty member, adds that there's more to the story. The Lake Fred namesake had a girlfriend named Pam, and Stockton has another lake - now generally known as Lake Pam.

Marino, 69, of Egg Harbor Township, was also there for the birth of another campus legend.

The office of Stockton's first president, Richard E. Bjork - which happened to be in a converted hunting cabin, across the lake from the first new campus building - burned down one night in the midst of a controversy between the administration and faculty. And at the time the fire was discovered, the faculty was in a strategy meeting on campus.

"We were talking about striking, or censuring the president" when somebody burst in with news of the fire, Marino says. "I remember a voice yelling out, 'At least we all have alibis.'"

Bill Daly has also been there, and telling Stockton's story, from the start. Daly, now 72, of Port Republic, remembers going out regularly and speaking to local community groups about everything a new college could do for South Jersey and its students.

That speaking role may have had something to do with the fact that Daly, a political science professor, usually wore a shirt and tie to work - which wasn't common at an institution often known locally as the "hippie college," Daly says. But he flatly denies the legend that he owned the only tie on the campus in those early days.

Still, some people clearly believed that one. Daly remembers a visit from a student - one he didn't know - who asked to borrow a tie from Daly. The kid explained that he had to look presentable for a court appearance, and when Daly asked why the kid came to him, the student said it was simple: Daly was the only person anybody ever saw wearing a tie on the campus.

So Daly loaned it to him - sort of: "I never saw the student, or the tie, again," he says, laughing.

There are many more Stockton legends and mysteries. Was Patty Hearst in the area during her kidnapping saga? Was the college's old logo a pair of barely disguised peace symbols?

And those bits of campus lore are the subject of an annual panel discussion, "Stockton Myths and Legends," scheduled this year for Oct. 13, in Alton Auditorium. Michael Hozik, the professor who started the sessions five years ago, says the program is free and open to the public. It's pretty popular too - maybe even on its way to becoming a campus legend.

Contact Martin DeAngelis:

609-272-7237

MDeangelis@pressofac.com

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - People who see entertainment inside the Stockton Performing Arts Center for the first time may remember the venue itself as much as who they came to see.

Entertainers look up at the audience and vice versa in the 550-capacity Stockton PAC as it features a sharp vertical rise.

The Performing Arts Center opened in October 1976 and is adjacent to "K" wing on the Richard Stockton College campus here. Michael Cool, its current director, started working at Stockton in 1977, but began his tenure as the PAC's director in 1989.

Cool doesn't know the reason why the PAC was built the way it was. He heard two explanations over the years.

First, it was difficult to launch new programs when the PAC was built. All of the colleges in the state university system had to agree. There was some resistance, so one theory is the center was built like a lecture hall to navigate around this problem, Cool said.

Second, there may have been a limited footprint to build the PAC on because the construction was in the Pinelands, Cool said.

The PAC's listening experience is better than many other theaters, Cool said. There have been tons of theaters build that as soon as they open they need to close down and renovate to improve the sound, Cool said.

"That happened to Carnegie Hall after it went through one of its renovations not that many years ago... We get lots of compliments from musicians about our sound. They like playing in the hall. They like that rake down to the stage," said Cool, who used the word rake to mean the degree of deviation from a horizontal plane. "Obviously, they will joke about it. We'll go along and tell them they need to be out in time for the knee surgery at 10:30 p.m."

A dance or movement company, for instance, MOMIX or Pilobolus, instantly realizes there will be a very different perspective to what they are doing in the PAC versus many other places they performed. For dance companies, the crowd will not have the perspective the choreographer intended. The dance troupes work well with it, and the audiences love to be able to see the dance from that perspective, Cool said.

Of all the artistic disciplines, music works best in the PAC because of the acoustics of the way it was built, Cool said.

"It has different surfaces up there. The curtains in the back of the room help absorb some of the sound. If you look above, there are catwalks, and there's a trapezoid that was originally designed for lighting instruments, but those things were work well in terms of reflective surfaces to get the sound out into the room. For things like when an orchestra performs here, we do have a music shell that we bring out," Cool said.

Marc Baylin, president of Baylin Artists Management in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pa., has had several of his artists booked into the PAC, including Danu from Ireland and The Turtle Island Quartet from San Francisco.

"The arts center at the college is a wonderful asset for the college and a great asset for the community down there. There really isn't anything like it," said Baylin, who has seen several performances over the years at the PAC. "If it weren't for Michael, none of these artists, not just these artists, but all the other artists that come into that area, they wouldn't go. There would be no place for them to go."

PAC patrons will be in for a surprise soon.

The lobby area is being renovated, and the new lobby will allow visitors a better view of the outside of the PAC and a better appreciation of the architect's original vision. When the renovations are complete, the PAC will be joined by new bathrooms, a new box office, a wine bar, and the art gallery will move into a space previously occupied by a pool for better synergy between the PAC and the art gallery, Cool said.

Contact Vincent Jackson:

609-272-7202

VJackson@pressofac.com

A look at the presidents throughout the history of Richard Stockton College:

Richard E. Bjork

1969-1978

Stockton's founding president did not want Stockton to be just a regional state college. He wanted the college to strive for a statewide and even national reputation and is credited with pushing to name the college after Richard Stockton rather than one of the more geographical names favored by some trustees.

Not many people get the chance to create a college and Bjork admitted the opportunity was "seductive."

"I saw it as fun," he said in a 1978 interview.

In 1969 he warned the Rotary Club to be prepared for an influx of social activist students and faculty who would question everything. Still, he also said he would not tolerate disruptive dissent and complained that too many colleges had become too permissive.

In 1970 he fought with groups opposed to the Galloway site as too close to the airport and not conducive to construction.

While recruiting in 1970 he promised a non-traditional "now" university with low-rise, simple, modern buildings.

"We don't want to engrave the desires of one generation of students too deeply in stone, because the next generation may need something different," he said in a speech in 1970. "You might say we'll have rubber walls."

He oversaw the construction of those first buildings, low-rise structures that blended into their environment. He touted a college that would be woven into the fabric of the county and not be a majestic island in the middle of the community.

Bjork could be controversial. In 1973 he denied contract renewals to some faculty angering the union and students who threatened to strike. A cabin used by Bjork as an office was burned by a group claiming to be radical students, though picketing students denied knowing the group.

In 1978 he left to become chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges. He died in July 1984 at the age of 53.

Peter M. Mitchell

1979-1983

Peter Mitchell arrived from Seton Hall University in 1979 promising to use the resources of Stockton to benefit the entire community. He also said that during its second decade the college would transform itself into a more "traditional higher education facility" according to a speech he gave in 1979 to the Kiwanis Club of Atlantic City.

"Stockton was an experiment in higher education and as such must be willing to change," he said in a 1979 interview. "Those who shaped the school put new ideas into practice. Some of them worked and some of them didn't"

He said the students, many of them the first in their families to attend college, needed more guidance and new course requirements were adopted. But he said he also wanted the college where students could learn and make mistakes before entering the reality of the working world.

"College should be a place where students can be idealists," he said.

The relationship between Mitchell, the trustees and the faculty was often tenuous. The appointment of a white woman librarian over a black male generated a state investigation that found no racism, but left bad feelings. But he also increased the percentage of minority students and employees.

There was some progress. In 1980 the college set up a health services program, and set up a branch of New Jersey Public Television. More housing was built, but Mitchell also faced an ongoing struggle to control tuition amid reduced state support.

He left in 1983 to become vice chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents.

Vera King Farris

1983-2003She began her career as a scientist, but she left the lab in 1983 to work under the public microscope as a college president.

Vera King Farris spent 20 years running the biggest experiment of her life. Over the years, Farris and Stockton became almost synonymous.

"I really came here for the long term," Farris, an Atlantic City native, said in an interview on her retirement in 2003. "I had other opportunities, but I wanted to give back to the community."

In a way, Stockton and Farris were a perfect match. The small state college was young and still had a reputation for being nontraditional. She was also a woman, and a minority, both rarities among college presidents.

Farris was smart, charming and promised creativity, innovation and flexibility. She wore eye-catching hats, occasionally carried a parasol, and could be just as funny as she was tough.

An interest in Jewish studies germinated with her mother, Ida E. King, who was horrified when Farris told her about the Holocaust. Farris helped establish the Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton and in 1989 announced the Ida E. King chair in Holocaust studies in her mother's memory. She even took Marcia Fiedler's Hebrew I class, taking the tests and writing papers along with students.

Being bright, motivated and determined were qualities Farris developed very young, she said. Growing up poor in Atlantic City, she understood early that she was smart and that education was her ticket to a better life. She worked two jobs to help support her family, graduated third in the Class of 1954 at Atlantic City High School and went to college on a scholarship.

Scraping to make ends meet, and her gratitude to those who helped her, made Farris a champion of student scholarships and affordable tuition. She steadily increased full-time enrollment, minority enrollment and the SAT scores of those accepted to the college.

She saw herself as an agent of change. "You have to welcome change, embrace it and make it your own," she said.

But change at Stockton has not come without controversy. She had tenure battles with faculty who criticized her management style and said her claim of faculty collaboration applied only to those who agree with her. Still, some admired Farris' support of innovation, saying she encouraged creativity and collaboration.

"I've got no second thoughts," she said on her retirement. "I believe in leaving the stage while they're still applauding."

Farris, who would never give her age, died in November 2009.

Herman J. Saatkamp Jr.

2003-present

As Stockton enters its fifth decade, its reach has extended far past its 1,600-acre campus. Saatkamp has taken Stockton into Atlantic City with the Carnegie Library building and a lease agreement for Dante Hall. A branch campus in Hammonton is under development, graduate programs have grown, and enrollment at about 8,000 is beyond what Richard Bjork envisioned with his estimate of 7,500 back in 1969.

Stockton's programs have also expanded. The college has now embraced its location in a tourism-centric environment, buying the Seaview Resort which is still privately run, but is also being incorporated into the college's hospitality management programs.

The campus itself has been transformed by the construction of a new Campus Center that is not just a building, but a formal center and gathering place for students and a message about the mission of Stockton to teach students to dream big, but also to live in and appreciate their environment.

Saatkamp is already focused on the College's plan for 2020. A new science building is under construction. He is kicking off a capital campaign this month to raise money for more construction. At 68, he has no immediate plans to retire.

"You don't really accomplish much until you've been at a place at least six years," he said.

A new college began taking root in a section of densely wooded pine forest in 1969, but it wasn't long before a wide-reaching mandate from the state would restrict the ability for Richard Stockton State College to build on its property as it pleased.

But the Pinelands Act ultimately fueled Stockton's educational and cultural identity unique to any school in New Jersey - an environmentally focused curriculum and campus that was years ahead of the "green movement."

The school sits on 1,600 acres, but the Pinelands Act restricted the school's development footprint to only 400 acres, leaving vast stretches of land and wetlands untouched. Stockton's collective mindset ultimately became one of creative growth and how best to use its space while exposing students to multiple environmental attributes. That mindset influenced students, generating a unusual level of student environmental activism typically seen at West Coast schools such as the University of California, Berkeley or The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.

"We are literally carved into the pinelands," Stockton spokesman Tim Kelly said. "That is just totally unique, probably in the entire world, to have a campus like this, in the middle of protected pinelands."

Stockton, nicknamed the College in the Pines, developed a hallmark curriculum of environmental science and policy, with expansive sections of undeveloped campus as an outdoor classroom. Buildings were to be no taller than the tree line and renewable energy was used, including a geothermal heating and cooling system, well before it became mainstream. A nearby marine field station gave students the ability to learn from the local environment rather than textbooks and laboratory collections.

One of the more recent projects completed was expanding the school's Nacote Creek marine sciences field station and there are plans to apply for additional grants to further develop the station's lab space, station manager Steve Evert said.

Last year the school agreed to preserve an additional 170 acres and, as a result, the Pinelands Commission said the school could develop an extra 151 acres of its property. But for a growing school that amount still requires Stockton to be creative in how it uses its space. Future development plans now call for ripping up parking lots and turning them into a park-like quad setting and building parking garages beneath new buildings to maximize space, Kelly said.

Late one April evening, a group of undergraduate students went for a wetlands hike in the dark to help count the number of frogs in ponds on the edge of the school's property. To get there, entomology professor Jamie Cromartie drove over narrow sandy roads carved through the dense forest - all on the school's property. The data students collected was added to more than a decade's worth of similar information also collected by students over the years. The moment was one of many where students and faculty use the undeveloped acreage as a learning opportunity.

Cromartie, who has taught at Stockton for years, said the school's environmental focus provides a critical level of education for those students who ultimately move on to work at state agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Protection. Other students have gone on to be world-class research biologists because they had the chance to study the pine barrens up close during their first years of higher education. "The Pinelands Act certainly saved for us a huge amount of living laboratory," Cromartie said.

Contact Sarah Watson:

609-272-7216

SWatson@pressofac.com