Apr 13, 2007 4 min read

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) – Rutgers. Not long ago, in much of the country, that word would have gotten you little more than a raised eyebrow. It’s somewhere in the Northeast – Maine, maybe? Delaware? Must be some little private school.

The recent underdog successes of Rutgers’ football and women’s basketball teams made it hard to overlook New Jersey’s 50,000-student state university. And last week, Don Imus made it just about impossible.

The pain of the slur the radio host used to describe the women’s team is still fresh, but the grace with which the players and students handled the situation has won the university accolades from across the nation. And with all the new attention, donations to the university are up, more students are applying, and merchandise with the school’s trademark bright red “R” is seemingly everywhere.

“You can’t pay for publicity like this,” said Shalonda Tanner, a Rutgers alumna who works as a recruiter for university. “The class and dignity of those women brings more positive publicity to us.”

Students at Rutgers’ central New Jersey campus say they’re prouder than ever of their school. The controversy that erupted when Imus referred to the predominantly black women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” has brought different racial and ethnic groups together, they say.

The school’s newfound prominence began last fall with the unexpected success of Rutgers’ football team, a perennial doormat.

The team went 11-2 and won the Texas Bowl.

Then the women’s basketball team defied expectations and made it to the national final this month before losing to Tennessee. A day later, Imus opened his mouth, and Rutgers was in the news for a very different reason.

At a press conference Tuesday, the players and head coach C. Vivian Stringer talked about how much Imus’ comments hurt and how they planned to meet with him. They stopped short of calling for him to be fired.

MSNBC dropped the TV simulcast of the Imus’ program Wednesday; CBS fired him Thursday.

The players’ response was hailed as an example of how to respond to adversity. The New York Daily News ran a photo of the team on its front page under the one-word headline “Dignity.”

More attention came Thursday with a team appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” where Stringer said MSNBC’s decision “shows that we do have moral fiber. And people are speaking up.”

“The success of the teams and the outstanding job the women’s’ basketball team did at the press conference raised awareness of the institution,” university spokesman Greg Trevor said. “It opened a window, and people around the nation are looking in through that window.”

They apparently like what they see. Last year, Rutgers received a record number of applications, more than 40,000. This year’s applications are running 7 percent ahead of that.

And through January 2007, donations to the Rutgers Foundation are up a whopping 35 percent over the same period last year, school officials said.

Rutgers is relatively selective for a big state university. It accepts about 60 percent of the students who apply, and more than half of those it admits were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

Meanwhile, the university’s “R” logo is popping up in more places as school pride grows throughout the Garden State and elsewhere. Marybeth Schmutz, assistant director of the university’s trademark licensing department, said sales of Rutgers merchandise are up more than 30 percent in the last year.

“You can’t walk into a Kohl’s or a Target or Modell’s without seeing Rutgers stuff,” she said. “We are getting new designs sent to us by people interested in selling Rutgers products every single day. It’s huge for us, and it’s still growing.”

While the school’s athletic success gave Rutgers wide exposure, it seems the Imus controversy has made an even bigger impact. Cienai Wright, a junior from Washington, D.C., likened the Imus fallout to the way people came together after a disaster.

“Even though this is a negative, it’s coming out like a positive,” she said. “I have never been more proud of my school.”

Chantal Borroum, a junior, relishes the opportunity to put Rutgers’ true face forward.

“If you call me a nappy-headed ho, I have to show you that I’m not,” she said. “We already knew we were great. Now it’s our chance to let everyone else know it, too. People all over the country are realizing there’s this school out there called Rutgers.”

On the Net:

http://www.rutgers.edu/