TCNJ

32 The College of New Jersey Magazine ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION A high school grAduAte At 15, Roscoe West emerged in 1910 from the Farmington State Normal School with a two-year degree in hand, stopping at Harvard for a bachelor's degree and an MEd. By 1930, he had taken the presidential reins at New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton. President Foster came to TCNJ in July after serving for six years as president of the University of Maine at Farmington, the successor to FSNS. Coincidence? Or is there some kind of imperceptible loop running between Farmington and Ewing, both born as teacher colleges? A little sleuthing unearthed this TCNJ-dominant Class Notes entry that West submitted to Farmington nearly 70 years after he graduated: I became head of the New Jersey State Teachers College in 1930. A new school was being built on a new campus. 1 It was opened in 1931. We occupied the new building 2 during the Depression years. Later we built many new buildings on a 200–acre campus. I retired in 1957, when there were 900 students. Now there are 8,600 students. I married in 1915. We had four children, who are doing well. We also have 11 grandchildren. My wife died in 1970, and in 1973, I remarried. My present wife is a former teacher who went to the old Normal School. West, who died in 1979, the year he wrote this, lives on at TCNJ in both Roscoe West Hall and the ever-popular Lions mascot, Roscoe. —RO TM: After a successful comprehensive campaign and capstone campaign raising more than $55 million for the college, what would you like to see happen in private giving going forward? KF: That's a magnificent first pair of campaigns — kudos to everyone who helped make them such a success. Going forward, we'd like to expand beyond alumni to include corporate partnerships, foundations with philanthropic arms, and non-alumni donors who recognize the impact of TCNJ on the state more broadly. TM: Do you see a special role for TCNJ in supporting our local communities of Trenton and Ewing? KF: Yes. This is our backyard, so I'm getting out and about to understand what the interests, plans, and strategies are for Ewing and Trenton so that we can think about what kind of a partner we need to be — through the curriculum, through urban education programs, through health programs, and through various kinds of service commitments we've made. I still have more learning to do in this area, but my intention is to deepen the coherence and the lasting value of our efforts with both communities. My background in urban planning and community development inclines me in the direction of caring a great deal about the community and our relationships, our borders, our footprint. And I absolutely look forward to keeping these relationships on the front burner for the college. TM: What does New Jersey get right about higher education? KF: The state's public colleges and universities have great alignment between the autonomy that is given to a president and what the state expects of that college. In some states, there's a tremendous amount of accountability for performance, but the presidents or President Foster now wears the mantle once held by Roscoe L. West. What else do they have in common? The University of Maine at Farmington. 1 The campus in Ewing 2 Green Hall West, bottom left, on the 1910 basketball team.

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