RBS Is Open

I have showed various stages in the construction of the new center for the Rutgers Business School ("RBS") in the office building 1 Washington Park. The completed center is now open. It has a wide, landscaped sidewalk outside the new glass-fronted entry pavilion.

I wasn't clear as to whether there was a Newark center for the RBS before this, and tried to do a little online research on the topic. One of the first things I found is a .PDF file with some general information. I was a little irritated to find errors in logic and grammar on the first page of text.

By combining our proximity to a wealth of industry and multidisciplinary emphasis, I look forward to leading Rutgers Business School to taking on even more of an integral role within New Jersey and the world beyond while we become recognized as a premier business school.

"By combining ... emphasis" has nothing to do with "looking forward". "Our proximity" should have been matched by "our" or "a" multidisciplinary emphasis; without an "our" or "a", the reader is led to look beyond the "and" for a "with" ("combining A with B"). That first bad passage was only one full sentence from the next, whose wrongness is not disputable.

With more than 270 degree programs to partner with, RBS is uniquely capable of delivering cutting-edge multidisciplinary curricula that combines [sic] the mix of Business, Science, and Technology skills required by today’s leading corporations.

How about English skills? Aren't they required too? "Curricula" is plural, so takes "combine", not "combines".
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Within the one sentence between those two passages, Rutgers is described as "the nation's [not, mind you, "Nation's", tho Business, Science, and Technology are all capitalized] "eighth oldest institute of higher education". Wouldn't "institution" be better there?

The glass façade of RBS contrasts with both the plantings outside and the ornate masonry façade of the Newark Public Library just beyond, looking south on Washington Street. The Newark Museum is a block and a half farther down the street.

In any case, Wikipedia says RBS has been around since 1929 (which would have to be in New Brunswick, because Rutgers did not annex the University of Newark until 1946). Now RBS's Newark building has a grand entrance to its new highrise digs opposite the northern end of Washington Park. The R-N website has foto galleries on offer. The wider Rutgers-Newark campus ranked, according to a survey by U.S. News & World Report, first in the Nation (for the second year in a row) as regards the diversity of the student body. A September 8th Star-Ledger editorial says:

The university is nothing less than a model mosaic, showing us, and the world, how we fit together.

A news crawl and stock ticker, in red, offer constantly updated info about the world and economics.

There is educational value in such a student body. A girl I went to high school with became very unhappy with the small college she chose, Ursinus in suburban Philadelphia. She had bought into the idea, then being promoted, that you didn't have to go to a big school, or a college with a big name, to get a great education. She, however, became disillusioned when she realized, too late, that a large part of the education that college kids get is from interaction with other students, and a small student body on an isolated campus did not afford the opportunities for personal growth that a larger student body in a larger community would have given her. She observed that the big-name colleges get their good name from the quality not only of their programs and facilities but also of the students they attract.

This picture shows a bit more of the highrise office building in which the new RBS facilities are housed. Note that the glass front ties the building into the city thru reflections.

The present chancellor admits aloud that Rutgers-Newark wasn't always attuned to the city around it, but once held itself aloof as a "fortress". He suggests that it is now more involved with and part of the cityscape. The notion of parts of Newark having to be fortresses apart from and defended against the surrounding city is part of the mentality that created the Gateway Center complex, with interior, elevated walkways connecting the buildings directly to one another without the need for anyone who worked within the Center to descend (in more ways than one) to the city sidewalks. But separating foot traffic from vehicular traffic, as the skyways do, is a good thing, and providing all-weather walkways is also a good idea in a city with weather as changeable as ours. The issue is not internal walkways, which the ubiquitous mall culture treasures, but the attitude of people toward the city. Gateway Center is not fortified, and the all-weather skyways provide a welcome passage from Mulberry Street right thru to Penn Station for everyone who cares to use them. Duluth, Minnesota also has all-weather skyways — and needs them even more than we do. It's a weather thing, not a fortress thing.