The Sound of a School on the Rise
On June 13, the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music officially opened its doors. Alumni and friends returning to campus will not find a shrine to a single artist, but something far more ambitious: immersive exhibitions, archival collections, performance space, and programming that make the case for American music as one of the great art forms of human expression.
As Bob Santelli ’73, ’14HN, puts it: Springsteen is the narrator—not the story itself. And what a story it is, spanning 250 years of American history, from Colonial-era ballads to hip-hop, from spirituals born in the crucible of slavery to the folk anthems that carried working people through the Great Depression.
This issue of Monmouth magazine reflects the richness of that story and the many ways music threads through life at this University. Music appreciation abounds in our classrooms and research, in the Tuesday Night Record Club’s decade of album conversations, and in the personal stories of students and faculty for whom music is not background noise but an academic lens and a way of understanding our interconnected world.
The opening of the Center coincided with another milestone. This year, for the first time in our history, Monmouth University has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a National University—joining Princeton, Stevens, and Seton Hall as the only private universities in New Jersey on that list. Together with our Carnegie Research College and University designation,
our Middle States reaffirmation with 12 commendations, and a fundraising campaign that has far exceeded its $175 million goal, these milestones tell a clear story: Monmouth has entered a new chapter in its institutional history.
The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music is, in many ways, the most vivid expression of this chapter. It was built entirely through private philanthropy, with no long-term debt, and with no tuition dollars. Its grand opening was preceded by two extraordinary concerts at the OceanFirst Bank Center that brought together some of the most globally recognized artists—a signal of what this Center, and this University, are now capable of attracting to our campus in West Long Branch.
I am so proud to usher in this new era at Monmouth alongside so many deeply committed alumni, friends, and community partners. None of this happens without you. Thank you for your enduring support of our University.