Last Saturday, before the annual Rutgers Football spring game, there was a groundbreaking event that was arguably more important for the future of student - athlete success. The groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Gary and Barbara Rodkin Academic Success Center.
The Rodkin’s donated a total of $15 million dollars towards the R B1G Build fund in order to get this project done. The Center will not only play a role in helping over 700 student athletes achieve academic success, but it will also house the men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse programs too.
After the groundbreaking ceremony we caught up with Rutgers Athletic Director Pat Hobbs to discuss the new Rodkin Center, future projects and more.
“It’s an enormously important asset for our students athletes first,” Hobbs told TKR. “We care about their academics. Our students have done remarkably well, but now to have an academic success center that is dedicated to them. It means that they will have a home to go to for academic support, career development and all of those things that the non-athlete experiences will be over here for them."
A little over a week ago, Rutgers Athletics announced that the R B1G Build campaign goal of raising $100 million dollars was finally completed with the help of a few donations from current Rutgers coaches.
“At the beginning of this campaign, we said that we have to be all in,” said Hobbs. “When we say all in, that means all of us. Chris (Ash), Steve (Pikiell) and many of other coaches have made contributions to the R B1G Build, as well as senior staff. I think that’s what it means, we are all committed to this success and we all have to put our shoulders to this wheel. So to have those guys to take us over the top is just fantastic.”
The next athletics project set to be completed at Rutgers University is the football teams locker room, which is on pace to be completed in August.
“The football locker room will be done by August,” he said. “It has been demolished, there is already work going on, and the floor has been poured. We are almost at the point of us finalizing the order of the lockers now. Every thing is a rush, we are going to do it the right way, but there is an urgency for what we have to do.”
While AD Pat Hobbs doesn’t know exactly what will be next to be upgraded or built at Rutgers, he does have a plan in place to make some upgrades for Bainton Field in the near future.
“The list is long,” said Hobbs. “We will take a long look at the next piece of this and see what makes sense. We are going to try to do things in a way we can benefit the most athletes to set them up for success, whether that be academically or athletically. Then eventually we will take a look at our venues and see what we can do there.
“I think the next step is we will probably replace the field (Bainton) this year. We need to do that, the field is old. We would love to get some lights on the field soon. However, it is going to take support. We need folks to step up and be supportive, but we can do anything if folks are all in.”
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