1930
During a fire at Ballantine Hall, the University's first gymnasium, the fire chief's hat disappears. Repeated pleas for its return by both the fire department and the president go unheeded. In the spring, fire again strikes; this time, at the Delta Phi house at 77 Hamilton Street. While battling the blaze, the fire chief opens a closet--and finds his hat hanging from a peg.

1932
The College Avenue Gymnasium is built on the site of the first intercollegiate football game.

Walter Spence, star of Rutgers' national-power swimming team, wins a medal in the Olympics, repeating the feat of teammate George Kojac, who had won a medal in the 1928 Olympics.

1933
Citing her failing health, Mabel Smith Douglass resigns as dean of the New Jersey College for Women and retires to her summer cottage at Lake Placid. Only weeks later, on September 21, she takes her boat out for her daily row on the lake but does not return. Her empty boat is found later in the afternoon, but searchers turn up no trace of Douglass.

1934
University College opens, with the goal of making higher education possible for older and working students.

1936
Knowing that the train of presidential candidate Alfred M. Landon is scheduled to travel through New Brunswick that night and suspecting Rutgers' top officials of being staunch Republicans, an undergraduate identifying himself as a Landon delegate informs President Robert C. Clothier that Mr. Landon would be delighted to meet him and his close associates at the platform during a 3 a.m. stopover. Clothier and his top brass, in formal attire, gather on the westbound platform. The train arrives, but it accelerates so rapidly through the New Brunswick station that Clothier and his band are nearly swept from the platform--much to the delight of students gathered on the opposite side of the track.

To ensure that faculty research is published, Rutgers University Press is founded.