Rohrer College of Business students, Mike Lombardo and Kayvon Jahanbakhsh, are prime examples of how far an education here at Rowan can take you. Their small business, Topos Teas, was recently picked up by a local Whole Foods Market. #RowanPROUD

A beautiful fall day in the 'Boro. #PROFspective

Thanks to NBC10 Philadelphia for featuring The CAVE® on its latest "Best Of” Growing Greater Philadelphia episode!

The CAVE® is a room sized, virtual reality environment at the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University, where our students are developing an immersive, interactive, and navigable tool using 3‐D virtual reality systems for modeling flooding and remediation in cities in Southern New Jersey. #RowanPROUD

Dr. Luke Trusel, assistant professor of Geology in our School of Earth & Environment, led an international team of researchers whose work, recently published in the journal Nature, showed that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting at a historic rate. Runoff from that melt is causing sea level rise worldwide. Read more at https://bit.ly/2BTf3Wk.

As the season for interviewing for jobs and internships heats up, President Houshmand is launching a 100-day challenge to fill our Suit Our Students Career Closet with professional attire.

From now through March 10, Houshmand’s 100-day challenge is looking to stock the clothing closet in the Office of Career Advancement with 300 suits and dresses for our students to wear as they head out on job interviews.

Area residents wishing to donate to the 100-day challenge can arrange for items to be picked up by calling 856-256-4040 or emailing studentaffairs@rowan.edu.

Wishing our Profs near and far a very Happy Thanksgiving. We're certainly thankful for all of you.

“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” ―W. Clement Stone

Tag a Prof you're thankful for. 🦉💛 #MotivationMonday

Our nest 🦉💛

Students at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University visit veterans at the Home for the Brave in Camden to provide basic health care and education. At the Volunteers of America home, residents find help getting back on their feet, as well as a healthier re-start from working with the future physicians, some of them veterans themselves.

Rowan Cross Country not prohibited from using facilities.

There was an article published earlier today that misstated a longstanding university athletic facility use policy.

As is common at many institutions, the policy dictates that teams use our athletic venues one team at a time. The article explained in error that the Cross Country team was no longer allowed to use the track at the Rowan stadium.

The Cross Country team has a mixed practice schedule where it may do road work one day, followed by trail work on another and then track work on yet another day.

During the fall, in football season, the Cross Country team’s designated practice time to use the sports stadium is after the football team uses the facility.

Preferring not to schedule practice later in the day, the Cross Country coach has historically made alternate plans for the team to use Glassboro High School’s track, which is directly across the street from Rowan’s stadium.

There was a recent situation where the Cross Country team found the Glassboro High School facility was unexpectedly locked, so the team went into Rowan’s stadium to practice while the football team was still there.

The situation was addressed at an Athletics Department meeting on a subsequent day, however, by the time the clarification of the one-team-at-a-time policy was reiterated to students, it was interpreted as though the Cross Country team was being prohibited from future use of the facility. That is not the case. Each of Rowan’s athletic teams have designated schedules and ensured dedicate time.

With that said, there are times when athletes and teams may informally overlap in their use of a particular facility, however, the policy is one team at a time at each athletic venue.

Please feel free to contact officeofthepresident@rowan.edu regarding Rowan’s Athletics facility use policy.

SPORTS BRA ARTICLE RAISES QUESTIONS

A recently published article raised questions about the possibility of Rowan’s women athletes being restricted from wearing sports bras without shirts during training. The piece raises questions about the possibility of an inequitable protocol for women’s athletic apparel. I ensure you that the University and our Athletics program are committed to providing the most accommodating and fair environment for all of our athletes.
Rowan’s Athletic Department has had a longstanding verbal protocol that all athletes must wear shirts, even during practices. The verbal policy was adopted as a matter of keeping a level of standards throughout its men's and women's programs.

What led to the article and brought light to the verbal policy was a recent explanation of it to new staff, who then relayed the information to students. Having practiced all season in “sports bra” tops, many interpreted this as a new policy.

Not knowing the verbal policy existed and just becoming aware of it, Rowan’s administration has met with the Athletics Department and promises immediately to develop a written policy that allows women athletes to wear sports-bra tops without shirts during practices. Rowan Athletics will continue to follow NCAA guidelines for uniforms during competition. In the new formal policy, there will be no restriction of sports bras without shirts as practice apparel.

The University recognizes that while the verbal policy attempted to set standards, it could be misunderstood and does not accommodate today’s training practices across sports. We recognize this may stir debate within the University community and beyond. By clarifying our support of women’s athletics and its student-athletes, Rowan strongly affirms its commitment to ensuring that women are able to train and perform at the highest levels.
Please feel free to contact us with further thoughts or questions at officeofthepresident@rowan.edu.

Thank you,
Ali A. Houshmand
President, Rowan University

ESPN and Special Olympics named Rowan Unified Sports one of five 2018 national champion banner schools at a huge pep rally and exhibition basketball game. The first program of its kind in the nation, Rowan Unified has brought Special Olympics athletes and Rowan students together for soccer and basketball seasons for nearly seven years.

Knowledge is power. #ElectionDay

Congrats Rowan Field Hockey...NJAC Champs!!! https://www.rowanathletics.com/news/2018/11/3/field-hockey-defeats-tcnj-2-0-for-njac-title.aspx?path=fhock

ICYMI: Yesterday, U.S. Senator Cory Booker & Rep. Donald Norcross discussed issues with our student military personnel. Read more at https://bit.ly/2yH970T .

Happy Halloween Profs! 🦉🎃

Crisp air, blue skies, vibrant leaves. We 💛 fall on campus.

ESPN is coming to our campus this Saturday to recognize Rowan Unified Sports as one of the most elite and successful Unified Sports programs in the nation.

We are the only university in the U.S. to be named among the Top 5 Unified Champion Schools for 2018. #RowanPROUD

Hosted earlier this month by the Rowan University College of Education and co-sponsored by the College and the New Jersey Department of Education, this Convening brought together 150 educators in the nation—many of them giants in the field—to address the lack of diversity in teaching ranks in U.S. schools.

Thinking back to Homecoming Weekend. Can't wait to do it all again next year!

📷: Rowan University Athletics

ICYMI: One week ago, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University hosted its first Research Day, welcoming 130 researchers from throughout Rowan University to present on topics as far-ranging as bioengineering, biomedicine and music therapy.

Nationally known speakers addressed physicians, faculty, residents and medical students as well as undergrad and graduate students exploring solutions and making discoveries.

Message from President Houshmand:

Today our Rowan community met to discuss Monday’s incident in which Glassboro police pulled over two of our students on our main campus. The stop distressed the two students and triggered great concern and an impassioned response from the Rowan community and more, including numerous emails from parents, alumni and others.

More than 300 Rowan University students, administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and friends attended the forum in the Student Center, which was a follow-up to the email we sent on Wednesday regarding the incident.

We held the forum to address the specific incident and broader issues of student relationships with law enforcement, especially for students of color. I hope you agree the forum was a good first step.

Thank you to everyone for your insights and feedback, your questions and suggestions. As those of you who attended know, I pledged my commitment to hear and respond to your concerns, many of which reflected great pain and ongoing fears. I especially appreciate the commitment of the SGA; Division of Student Affairs; and Office of Social Justice, Inclusion and Conflict Resolution to foster conversations, define challenges and encourage change and improvement.

I look forward to all of the Rowan family and our borough neighbors working together to enable everyone to study, work and live in a more safe, secure and inclusive environment. To that end, our next steps include continuing to meet with the borough, the students involved, SGA and Student Affairs to formulate a plan in order to learn and grow from this experience. We look forward to meeting with many groups and expect to invest much time in collectively finding solutions to the concerns voiced today.

We will update the Rowan community about future forums and advances coming from these gatherings. Meanwhile, should you have other suggestions you would like to share, please officeofthepresident@rowan.edu. We want to hear from you. We need your input.

Yours truly,

Ali A. Houshmand

President

As many of you no doubt have heard from friends or seen on social media or television, Glassboro police on Monday pulled over two Rowan University students on our Glassboro campus.

The police determined on location that the students were not involved in the incident that resulted in the vehicle stop.

While Glassboro is still investigating the circumstances that led to officers stopping our students, the manner in which they made the stop has troubled some of the University community.

We recognize that this event has shaken many members of our Rowan family, including those who witnessed the stop. Since Monday, University officials have been working with the students involved in the incident, including offering services to those impacted by the stop.

The incident also has sparked a broader conversation about race relations, specifically in the area of law enforcement. Our administration, including our Public Safety leadership, welcomes this dialogue as we continue to work to ensure all of our students, employees and guests not only are safe but also receive equitable treatment. Rowan’s leadership has been working with the Student Government Association to address not only what happened on our campus but also facilitate a dialogue about the ongoing national conversation concerning race and law enforcement.

Please join us on Friday, Oct. 5, at 11 a.m. in the Student Center ballroom to discuss this critical topic during an open forum co-sponsored by Rowan SGA and the Office of Social Justice and Inclusion.

If you have questions or would like to share your concerns, please email officeofthepresident@rowan.edu or call 856-256-4100.

When you're here, you're home. 🦉

Now accepting applications for Fall 2019. Become a Prof: https://bit.ly/2pqx4nV

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded $3.4 million to our CREATES team for infrastructure research in the Arctic region. This award is the largest ever made to a researcher on our main campus. #RowanPROUD