Campus News

Alma mater for Rutgers University rewritten with gender-neutral lyrics

After a decades-old debate over the arguably sexist lyrics in its alma mater, Rutgers University has rewritten part of the 140-year-old song “On the Banks of the Old Raritan,” according to the Newark, N.J., newspaper
The Star-Ledger.

The lyrics, which once began with “My father sent me to old Rutgers/And resolved that I should be a man,” have been changed to “From far and near we came to Rutgers/And resolved to learn all that we can.”

At the time the original lyrics were written, Rutgers was an all-male school. Now half of the university’s students are female.