In January, Rutgers unveiled two new high-tech classrooms it hopes could become more common across its campuses. Equipped with cameras, high definition video screens and 32 microphones, the lecture halls allow the university to put one professor in two different classrooms.  The "immersive synchronous lecture" initiative is aimed at easing students' reliance on the Rutgers bus system. Or, as administrators like to say, "moving ideas instead of people," said Paul Hammond, Rutgers' director of digital initiatives.

U.S. News and World Report ranked the women’s and gender history graduate program at Rutgers as the best in the country. In addition to having the highest academic ranking, the department was among the first to recognize women’s history as an academic discipline.