Department History

The Office of University-Community Partnerships (OUCP) at Rutgers-Newark has a dynamic history grounded in principles of education, service, and community building. Founded in 2001, the department originally was engineered to provide quality information and customer service to the campus community and to off-campus inquirers and visitors, as well as to provide conference and event planning expertise to faculty, staff and community organizations. In 2005, the department was designated the Office of Campus and Community Relations to reflect its increasingly prominent role in advancing broader institutional efforts to strengthen ties between Rutgers and Greater Newark.

In 2010, the department was officially renamed the Office of University-Community Partnerships. OUCP maintains its initial mandate for engaging faculty, staff, student, and community partners to create greater collaboration and cooperation internally and externally in a way that infuses teaching, learning, scholarship, service and engages and develops the civic agency, talents, and capacities of all invested partners.