The College of New Jersey history

The College of New Jersey was established on February 9, 1855, by an act of the New Jersey Legislature mandating the creation of a state normal school, making the New Jersey State Normal School the first teacher training institution in New Jersey and the ninth in the United States.

Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., opened in 1868 and was the first American university to be divided into colleges offering different degrees.

When Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876, it was divided administratively into an undergraduate college and a graduate school.

But English universities founded after 1879—commonly called “red brick” universities—have no colleges.

In 1925, the first four-year baccalaureate degree program was established.

In 1928, a suburban tract of 210 acres (85 ha) was purchased in Ewing Township, New Jersey and preparations were underway to relocate the college.

Its first academic program leading to a master’s degree, in elementary education, was offered in 1947.

The enactment of the Higher Education Act of 1966 paved the way for TCNJ to become a multipurpose institution by expanding its degree programs into a variety of fields other than education.

In 1996, in a move spearheaded by Harold Eickhoff, The College of New Jersey adopted its current name.

TCNJ was also awarded, in 2006, a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, an honor shared by less than 10 percent of colleges and universities nationally.