Livingston Legacy Award

[See also the page listing Honorary Members of the Livingston Alumni Association, who were named between 1981 and 1999.]

The Livingston Legacy Award was established in 2009. The award recognizes faculty and staff who played a key role in the establishment and growth of Livingston College and its mission, and who have contributed to the overall Rutgers and global communities.

2009 Honorees

MARIA CANINO EDWARD G. ORTIZ GORDON SCHOCHET
Maria Canino Edward G. Ortiz Gordon Schochet

MARIA CANINO: Founder and retired chair of the Rutgers Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies.

EDWARD G. ORTIZ (1931-2010): Retired associate professor; chair of the Rutgers Department of Urban Studies and Community Health. Memorial and obituary.

GORDON SCHOCHET: Professor emeritus of political science and the last member of the Livingston planning group who was still on the active teaching faculty.


2011 Honorees

JEROME AUMENTE LEROY HAINES (LC’71) GERALD POMPER LARRY RIDLEY
Jerome Aumente Leroy Haines Gerald Pomper Larry Ridley

JEROME AUMENTE (1937-2023): Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Rutgers School of Communication and Information; Founding Director Emeritus, Journalism Resource Institute, Rutgers University; and former Chair, Department of Journalism & Urban Communications program at Livingston College. Aumente on the Livingston College journalism legacy. Remembrance of Aumente.

LEROY HAINES (LC’71): Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life at Rutgers’ Livingston Campus. Haines honored at 2012 Rutgers Human Dignity Awards.

GERALD POMPER: Board of Governors Professor of Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics of Rutgers University (Emeritus); former Chair, Livingston College Political Science Department.

LARRY RIDLEY: Chairman of Livingston College’s Music Department from 1972-1980, and one of the architects of the college’s renowned jazz program.


2013-2018 Honorees

ROGER COHEN (RC’65) W. CAREY McWILLIAMS MICHAEL GREENBERG WELLS HAMILTON KEDDIE
Roger Cohen Wilson Carey McWilliams

Michael Greenberg Wells Hamilton Keddie
2013 Honoree 2015 Honoree 2018 Honoree 2018 Honoree

ROGER COHEN (RC’65) (1943-2022): A professor emeritus of Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information (SC&I); originally taught in Livingston College’s Department of Journalism and Urban Communication.

WILSON CAREY McWILLIAMS (1933-2005): A distinguished political science professor at Livingston College and Rutgers University, and a prolific author. Read tributes from his protégé, Patrick Deneen, and his daughter, Susan McWilliams, and a remembrance from his student, Leonard Klepner.

MICHAEL GREENBERG: Professor of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

WELLS HAMILTON KEDDIE (1925-2006): Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.




Jerome Aumente Remembered; Was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Founder of Livingston College’s Department of Journalism and Urban Communications

Jerome AumenteWith sadness, we join the Rutgers School of Communication & Information in announcing the passing of Jerome Aumente on February 13, 2023, after a long illness.

Aumente was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information (SC&I).

He was born on September 23, 1937, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He earned his undergraduate degree at Rutgers-Newark in 1959 and graduate degrees at the Columbia University School of Journalism and at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow.

Aumente spent time in Europe and then worked for a decade at newspapers, including The Detroit News. He returned to Rutgers in 1969 to become a faculty member at Livingston College. At Livingston College, he founded and directed the Department of Journalism and Urban Communications, as well as the Urban Communications Teaching and Research Center.

He was the founding Director of the Journalism Resources Institute (JRI) and was the founder and former Chairperson of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. Both units are in the School of Communication and Information, one of the first interdisciplinary schools founded in the United States, which he helped design at the request of the university provost.

He was Special Counselor to the Dean of SC&I from 2000 to 2015. The Journalism Resources Institute conducted nearly $5 million in projects, and trained over 14,000 print and broadcast journalists under his direction, with over $2 million in media training and journalism projects in Central and Eastern Europe. The JRI under Aumente’s leadership had special projects in international affairs, journalism. and mass communications, new media technologies, health, medical, and environmental coverage, media and law, evaluation of professional training of journalists, business, and financial journalism.

Aumente had extensive experience in the international training of journalists; joint curriculum development with universities internationally and in the United States; as a trainer in health communication, the internet and newer media technologies; investigative and enterprise reporting; and in business, economic, and financial reporting.

In 2011, the Livingston Alumni Association (LAA) honored Aumente with its Livingston Legacy Award. The award recognizes faculty and staff who played a key role in the establishment and growth of Livingston College and its mission, and who have contributed to the overall Rutgers and global communities.