Rider University
Rider University is a private
university located in
Lawrenceville, in
Mercer County,
New Jersey. The school's
Westminster Choir College is located nearby in the
Borough of Princeton.
The school was founded in 1865 as "Trenton Business College" in
Trenton and became "The Rider Business College" in 1897. After several renamings and mergers, Rider College moved to Lawrenceville in 1964. It affiliated with
Westminster Choir College in 1991, merged with Westminster in 1992 and became a university in 1994. Rider University ranks among the top private colleges in both
The Princeton Review and by
U.S. News & World Report.
There are 5,562 ungraduate and graduate students attending both full and part time.
[Rider at a Glance, accessed June 6, 2006]Athletic teams are nicknamed the Broncs. The school competes in the
Division I Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The intercollegiate sports program at Rider was started by coach
Clair Bee in the 1920s. One of the school's best-known athletic alumni is former
Notre Dame basketball coach and current
ESPN sportscaster
Digger Phelps, who played basketball at Rider from 1959 to 1963.
The university competed in
football until 1951, but has not had a football team since. The University decided that they did not want to pay the insurance of a sport with frequent injuries.
In 2005 Rider completed its state-of-the-art Student Recreation Center (The SRC). It contains an indoor track, pool tables, and about 30 workout machines, 10 with built-in TVs.
Rider completed a $16 million construction project in 2005 which included renovations to existing dorms, a new residence hall and a new student recreation center as part of three-step strategic development plan.
Its current President is, Dr.
Mordechai Rozanski who is Rider's 6th president. Dr. Rozanski became President on
August 1,
2003 following the retirement of former President, Dr.
J. Barton Luedeke.
*
Official Rider University website*
Official Rider University News Site
