Building Community: The Experience of Mid-20th-Century Adult Students in University College at Rutgers University

• In Event: The Evolution of Higher Education in the Post-WWII United States

Abstract

An unexamined piece of Rutgers University history is the creation and expansion of University College, the degree-granting division dedicated to adult students - working men and women who commuted to campus and attended class as part-time evening students. The creation of University College is a story of opening access to higher education and creating a separate educational space for a new type of student, one that the university both enthusiastically and hesitantly embraced and brought into the Rutgers community. The focus of the paper is on the student experience at University College from 1948 to 1968. The paper will complicate our understanding of nontraditional university students during a pivotal moment of expansion and transformation in higher education history.

Author

• Teresa Delcorso-Ellmann, Rutgers University