president in December 2002 and stepped down in June 2012. His tenure was highlighted by two far-reaching initiatives: the reorganization and strengthening of undergraduate education on the university's largest campus, New Brunswick, and the passage of state legislation to merge nearly all of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey into Rutgers. In 2004, McCormick launched a campuswide discussion of the university's responsibility to undergraduate students, insisting that they receive the full benefits of the university's mission as a research university. In 2006, the university's Board of Governors approved his plan to reorganize the undergraduate colleges on the New Brunswick campus into a School of Arts and Sciences and School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, eliminating contradictory admissions and curriculum standards among these undergraduate colleges and emphasizing faculty-student interaction. Some students and alumni criticized the plan, arguing that it sacrifices Rutgers' unique institutional history and culture. The plan went into effect during the 2007–2008 academic year. In January 2011, McCormick praised the recommendations of the New Jersey Higher Education Task Force, which proposed merging Rutgers with the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and two other units of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. A year later, in January 2012, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and a medical-education advisory committee appointed by Christie endorsed the merger proposal but also called for the merger of Rutgers' Camden campus into Rowan University. The final bill maintained the Camden campus as part of Rutgers while increasing the number of UMDNJ units being absorbed into Rutgers to include all but University Hospital in Newark and the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford. The legislation, signed by Gov. Christie and approved by the Rutgers governing boards in 2012, took effect July 1, 2013. McCormick's tenure was noted for his efforts to broaden and deepen the university's connections with New Jersey. He targeted research areas of particular interest to the state (transportation, nutrition, homeland security, climate change), and in 2008 announced Rutgers Against Hunger , an initiative to stock food banks in the state, provide consumer education on nutrition, and help community organizations fight hunger. In 2009 he launched Rutgers Day , an annual public event highlighting Rutgers academic, research, cultural, and recreational programs. In 2008, McCormick established the Rutgers Future Scholars Program in conjunction with a series of initiatives designed to increase the diversity of the university population. Each year, a