Rutgers Day Coming, Free, Rain or Shine, on April 28

Is your calendar like mine?  I'm already working on my summer plans.  I have to know in advance what I'm going to do and when.  So I guess it isn't too early to remind you that Rutgers Day is coming... it's one month away!  Put it on your calendar, because there is lots to do! 

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers Day, Rutgers University’s annual welcome to the people of New Jersey, is coming, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. 

Rutgers Day will include nearly 500 events, exhibits and activities on the flagship campus in New Brunswick and Piscataway. There will be plenty to stimulate the minds and senses of New Jerseyans of all ages, and all programs are free. Visitors will be able to flex their creative muscles; sample music and culture from around the world; and mingle with Rutgers students, scientists, poets, philosophers and other scholars. 

Parking is free and buses will be available to shuttle among the College Avenue, Douglass, George H. Cook and Busch campuses. Each campus will offer visitors a rich menu of sights and sounds.  

The College Avenue Campus, the heart of Rutgers, will celebrate the imaginative power of the arts and humanities with particular emphasis on activities for children. Puppet shows, story book readings, and arts and crafts activities will showcase educational fun. Visitors can stage a “getaway” to the ocean, outer space or an exotic locale by having their photos taken against a “green screen;” preschoolers can curl up for stories at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum; and student organizations will help kids make bracelets and other crafts as they explain their commitment to the community. If you’ve asked yourself about the meaning of life or the nature of existence, you can stop by for a complimentary cup of coffee at the Philosophy Café, where students and faculty from what is widely recognized as one of the top philosophy departments in the English-speaking world will encourage your intellectual quest. There will be brawn as well as brains, and style as well as sheer fun: Visitors can cheer on Olympic weight lifters and watch competitive ballroom dancing. 

Busch Campus is for science lovers and those whose inclinations lean toward practical business. Psychology students and faculty will help visitors understand the workings of the human mind with quizzes, illusions and interactive demonstrations. The ever-popular Faraday Children’s Lecture will open the minds of young people to the excitement and romance of physics. Visitors can explore the largest university-based cell and DNA repository in the world, courtesy of the Department of Genetics. Engineering students will send a robot through an obstacle course and display their formula racing car. The Rutgers Business School has a full menu of events, from games of skill organized by the Little Investment Bankers, a student organization whose members are headed for careers in finance, to DJ

Kinsanity, who will play music while visitors learn more about the Rutgers Business School. Finally, visitors can take in the Scarlet & White football game – a one-hour scrimmage that caps off the Scarlet Knights’ spring practice.  

On the Douglass Campus, visitors can search the Big Dig – the Department of Anthropology’s mock archaeological dig – to learn how an excavation works and make stone tools and arrowheads. They can register to vote at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, or create a comic strip with themselves as the superheroes. In addition, the 38th annual New Jersey Folk Festival will feature the music and culture of Bulgaria, as well as a wide variety of folk music from Celtic to Gospel. 

On the George H. Cook Campus, visitors can meet Seeing Eye puppies, create rain barrels and learn about their role in water conservation; visit baby farm animal; and watch as a sculptor creates art out of ice with a chainsaw. The Cook Campus also is the home of Ag Field Day, which has been held on the same spot, rain or shine, for more than a century.

Rutgers Day is sponsored in part by Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. For more information go to http://rutgerstoday.rutgers.edu.