Photo by Hope Patti
Ramapo College celebrated its 47th birthday on Wednesday in the Grove with cake, sandwiches, carnival games, caricature artists and a photo booth. The Founder’s Day celebration honored Ramapo’s accomplishments and founding faculty.
“Why are we all gathered here today? Well, it is without a doubt that it has been 47 years of hustle and of innovation here at ‘Po,” said Christian Saeboe, SGA secretary of programming. “Our latest milestones: the opening of the Anisfield School of Business building in 2007, the state-of-the-art Adler Center for Nursing Excellence in 2015 — and they are only two testaments to this college’s constant efforts of raising the bar.”
The event also held a positive outlook for Ramapo’s future.
“I’m so happy to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the school of my choice. It will be interesting to see what they do for the 50th,” said Jess Lowrie, junior.
President Mercer thanked and acknowledged the Board of Trustees at the event.
“I want to pay special mention to two of our trustees: vice-chair Bill Dator, who played an integral part in founding the site for the college more than 47 years ago, and A.J. Sabath, who is the single alumn on the Board of Trustees who himself will be 47 years old in less than a week,” said Mercer.
The president also thanked Paul Elovitz, Michael Fluhr, Joe Johnson, Peter Scheckner and Eddie Saiff who are founding faculty members still working at the college.
“These founding faculty, along with many others, have helped to educate our 36,003 alumni. That’s a pretty impressive number,” said Mercer.
“At the 2016 service awards reception last week, we honored 115 employees: 18 of them celebrating five years employment, 30 celebrating 10, 25 celebrating 15 years, 22 celebrating 20, five celebrating 25 — and those individuals were also inducted into the quarter century club. We had eight celebrating 40 and five who were celebrating 45 years of employment with Ramapo.”
Mercer also added to Saeboe’s list of Ramapo’s accomplishments.
“As Chris has mentioned, over the last decade Ramapo has seen a tremendous growth in facilities, not just the Anisfield School, but also the Bradley Sports and Recreation Center, the Overlook and Laurel Residence Halls, the Sharp Sustainability Education Center, the Salameno Spirituality Center and as he mentioned, the Adler Center for Nursing Excellence,” said Mercer.
He also mentioned the upcoming library construction project.
“I’m happy to announce that the Library Rehabilitation and Learning Commons addition is underway. We’re already working with the architects,” said Mercer.
Students were welcomed to enjoy the afternoon by the arch, participate in games and dance with Fledge.
“I like the variety of events they have here with the photo booth and carnival games and stuff,” said Ali Castellucci, junior.
“Happy Birthday Ramapo! Now let’s cut that cake,” ended Mercer.
hreasoner@ramapo.edu
