| 1970 |
In May, student activists take over Rutgers President Mason W. Gross’s office in the Old Queens building to protest the U.S. invasion of Cambodia |
| In September, the Rutgers Student Government Association published a satirical manifesto entitled “The Freshman Unhandbook” in the Rutgers Targum, introducing first-year students to campus life |
| 1970 - 1971 |
Rutgers English shifts the focus of its first-year English curriculum from literary criticism to basic composition |
| John J. Richetti joins the English department as an associate professor |
| 1971 |
Charles L. Busch, a wealthy investor from Edgewater, New Jersey, dies and unexpectedly leaves $10 million to Rutgers for biological research; in return, the University Heights Campus is renamed Busch Campus in his honor |
| Edward J. Bloustein becomes university president upon the retirement of Mason W. Gross |
| 1972 |
Rutgers College becomes co-educational |
| The university undergoes major structural re-organization and creates provosts for the Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick campuses |
| 1973 |
Marius Bewley, a beloved and distinguished professor of English, and a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, passes away in January; a Marius Bewley Fund is established to recognize student work |
| 1973 - 1974 |
The number of female undergraduates doubles from 544 to 1,323 |
| 1974 |
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Stanley Kunitz joins Rutgers English as a visiting professor of creative writing |
| 1975 - 1976 |
Rutgers English faculty struggles to adapt to larger class sizes resulting from a surge in student enrolment |
| Rutgers University football and basketball teams are undefeated |
| 1976 |
Paul Fussell, the John DeWitt Professor of English Literature, wins the National Book Award for Arts and Letters for The Great War and Modern Memory |
| The School of Creative and Performing Arts, later renamed the Mason Gross School of the Arts, was declared a separate degree-granting unit of the university |
| 1977 |
In his October 2 New York Times op-ed piece, Rutgers University President Edward J. Bloustein writes about renewed spirit on the Rutgers campuses that “reflect the beginnings of a new era” |
| Mason W. Gross, the sixteenth president of Rutgers University, dies on October 11 |
| 1977 - 1978 |
Paul Fussell is awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, becoming the sixth Rutgers English professor in the last seven years to receive a Guggenheim, joining John J. Richetti (1970), George Levine (1971), Thomas R. Edwards (1972), Richard Poirier (1974), and William Phillips (1976) |
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| 1978 |
The university begins to create a unified Faculty of Arts and Sciences; changes are completed in 1980 |
| Following a controversial legal battle, the Partisan Review moves from Rutgers University to Boston University, along with its editor-in-chief, William Phillips |
| 1979 |
The Library of America is co-founded by Richard Poirier |
| The university initiates a four-year general honors program named after Colonel Henry Rutgers |
