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• 1 media/not lost.JPG 2019-05-11T01:03:47+00:00 Bunce's Story 12 image_header 2020-01-26T04:05:42+00:00

  According to the Whit, Bunce was not always known by its current name (LaSassa, 1). When the school initially opened, Bunce was known as the Administration Building. The lack of personalization with the building's orignal name shows the absence of a connection to the University. Names have always been a way to give place meaning. People tend to name buildings after meaningful experiences that happened there or individuals who impacted it. At the beginning, there was no history to our school, and so there was no meaningful name that could be given to it. The name eventually changed to College Hall, but it was not until after the retirement of Edgar Bunce, Rowan's second president, that Bunce’s name became set in stone. Bunce had an tremendous impact on the school, from “liberalizing” some of the stricter rules implemented by President Savitz to constructing better policies in hopes of “get[ting] more men to enroll at the university” (LaSassa, 1). 
  
  When looking at Rowan in 2019, the university may appear to bear little resemblance to the normal school that opened its doors ninety-six years prior. Similarly, the 236 students that made up the Glassboro Normal School’s first-year roster would have no idea when they walked into class for the first time on September 4, 1923, of the dynamic changes that would eventually become a part of their simple, little school (Bole, 35). After Henry Rowan’s “gift,” the school began its conversion to becoming the engineering school it is known as today. If Mr. Rowan had not offered up his gift to Rowan, perhaps the school would not have been able to expand the way it did. It would almost certainly not have morphed into an engineering school. Money is always going to be the controlling factor, and the fact that Rowan’s gift was offered solely to produce an engineering program shaped the future of the University’s history. It was out with the old and in with the new, and that meant Bunce, the oldest building on campus, was destined to be left behind. And it was, to some extent. Bunce became the home for a good portion of the humanities majors. Religious Studies, Philosophy, English, Foreign Languages, and Theater majors all carved out their own tiny nook within the halls of Bunce because they did not belong anywhere else. The physical geography of the university changed as it expanded, and within this new layout, it was the STEM buildings that could be found at the center. Bunce, and its cast of misfits majors, became outsiders.