Index of:
Previous Issues
Current Stories
Got News

Preparing The Class For Life's Lessons

NJIT Staff and The Star-Ledger Contributed to This Article

A tour of the NJIT campus gives a hint of the impact that a veteran college president has had on his school.

And, since Saul K. Fenster joined NJIT, in 1978, at least 15 buildings have been constructed on the Newark campus, the acreage has doubled, and a fifth residence hall is going up at the former commuter college.

When asked what impact he believes he's made, Fenster mentioned the bricks, mortar and other visible signs of accomplishments.

A Manhattan native who spent most of his childhood in the Bronx, Fenster admits he anticipated becoming a college president, owing to what he terms "a very strange phenomenon" of always imagining himself in the next-level post. When he applied for his current position, Fenster envisioned what he could do at the former Newark College of Engineering.

But, even Fenster - called "NJIT's energy" by his assistant Betty Manente - might not have imagined all that has been realized in the past 23 years. From having almost no funded research, NJIT now is one of 200 national research universities in the United States and one of New Jersey's three state research universities. Associated with that, a number of other things happened - enrollment increased from 5,000 to nearly 9,000 full- and part- timers. From having nearly no outside funded research, NJIT, which has a total $190 million budget, now enjoys a total research budget of $45 million, meaning that 25 percent of its total activity is research. The university also went from having nearly no endowment to one pushing $60 million.

Also, NJIT has doubled the land on which it's located, adding some 15 new buildings. And, for three consecutive years, it has been designated by a national computer magazine as the most computing-intensive public university in the America, topped only by two private schools.

"Looking back, someone may say I played a pretty big role in building this university," said Fenster, who holds undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering. "I have a passion for the fact that education, in general - and higher education, in particular - is transformational, not only in the life of one person, but for whole families. I see myself in every youth, first-generation in particular. If the family income is $20,000 and as an NJIT graduate they can earn about $60,000, that will change their life and their family's. That's touching, personal to me."

Boasting one of the country's largest computer science and information systems programs and the newly created College of Computing Sciences, NJIT also has an accredited School of Management and, with Rutgers, a doctorate program in management. NJIT has the nation's fifth largest school in architecture and the Albert Dorman Honors College, which challenges 500 gifted students

back to top| Home