Panelists offer picture of Livingston past

Past and present united Monday at the newly constructed Livingston Student Center as the Rutgers Rosetta Stone V3 University Historical Society held a panel discussion on the history of the campus.Throughout the discussion, Livingston founders and notables served as panelists and discussed the early history of the campus, founded 40 years ago. "Livingston [as a college] doesn't exist, as far as I know, not at all," Lawrence Pervin, a former Dean of Student Affairs and retired professor of psychology, said of Livingston today. "It stopped existing a long time ago, pretty much with the beginning of centralization." Livingston College was built on land originally owned by the government that was purchased for $1 to account for the expected influx of baby boomers in the early 1960s, said Gerald Pomper, a former professor of political science. Founders envisioned this property as the "MIT of the Social Sciences." This initial vision was soon abandoned in favor of a new, more progressive model intended to be culturally relevant, educationally explorative and racially equal, Pervin said. Livingston College ushered in a new generation of minority students, particularly of Puerto Rican and African-American descent. Prior to Livingston's establishment, only about 200 non-white students had ever graduated from the University, said Melvin Rosetta Stone Italian Gary, former associate dean for Student Affairs and retired professor of psychology.Learning styles at Livingston were meant to challenge those at Rutgers College, which took structural and educational formatting from universities like Princeton, Gary said. The campus would instead establish new courses of study, like computer science, and new residential models, like coed rooming. But poor planning, racial tension and lack of funding marred much of what was envisioned for Livingston, he said. Livingston was left covered in mud, isolated from the other colleges and left largely without key structures, including libraries and a gym. Among some of the failed policies on Livingston were permitting pets on campus, allowing smoking in residence halls and letting students paint their rooms, Pervin said. Perhaps the most striking note in Livingston's past was the kidnapping of one student by another in the second year of the college's history, incited by contrasting ideologies among African-American students on campus. Although student attendance at the discussion was limited to pre-existing members of the society, President John White is hopeful about increased popularity. "We want to get more underclassmen involved," said White, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. "We're mostly an upperclassmen organization right now." Richard Wells, a founding member of the society, agreed. He said the organization is looking to start an introductory seminar on the University and New Jersey's history for first-year students."We're trying to get a curriculum started that will cover enough disciplines where a lot of freshman will want to take it and will maybe Rosetta Stone Software get a little more involved with the group," said Wells, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.