1950

Rutgers merges with the College of South Jersey and its School of Law to create the Camden campus.

1952

Prof. Selman Waksman (RC'15), director of Rutgers' Institute for Microbiology, wins the Nobel Prize in medicine for research which led to the discovery of streptomycin—the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis.

1956

Rutgers and the State enter into a compact (the "Rutgers law of 1956," NJSA 18A:65-1 et seq) whereby Rutgers becomes the state university and an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey. The Board of Governors, with 6 of its 11 members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, and 5 of its members appointed by the Board of Trustees, is created to manage the University.

1958

Angered by the state's lack of financial support, 700 students from all three campuses march on Trenton in Rutgers' first organized student protest.

1959

New Jersey voters approve the first of three higher education bonds. The bonds, along with federal funds, give the University more than $200 million for an unprecedented program of capital expansion.