Rutgers Glee Club edits Alma Mater
The 140-year-old alma mater underwent a change Friday, when Patrick Gardner, director of Choral Studies, announced revisions to the first verse of “On the Banks of the Old Raritan.”
The song used to begin with, “My father sent me to old Rutgers / And resolv’d that I should be a man.” But the first line has been changed to, “From far and near we came to Rutgers / And resolved to learn all that we can.”
The Rutgers University Glee Club sang the new revision for the first time at the New Student Convocation on Aug. 31 and Gardner said it was well accepted.
“A professor came up to me and said, ‘so I no longer have to sing that I’m a man,’” Gardner said.
The Glee Club sang the new version officially after the announcement Saturday at the Rutgers-Arkansas football game.
Gardner, director of the Glee Club, said he spent four years writing the new lyrics, trying to make them gender-neutral so any Rutgers student would feel included.
“The whole 20 years I’ve been a professor, the issue has been on the table,” he said. “One half of the University has been singing that they want to be a man.”
He said the change was far from being his decision, but the Glee Club was heavily involved in discussion as well.
“Over the past four years, there has been a lot of discussion over the Glee Club members. … Our own members aren’t comfortable singing the old lyrics,” Gardner said.
Marc Romano, uniform manager for the Glee Club, said the group had heated debates about the possible changes whenever Gardner brought them up.
“We’ve had pretty intense discussions about it, while most people were for the principle of the change, the major problem was making sure it was a seamless change. ... It definitely has been a long process, but it’s nice that we’ve been able to discuss it as a group and say that we’re all in support for it,” he said.
Since the song is public domain, Gardner said there is no process for changing the alma mater.
Howard Fuller, a member of the Glee Club at the time, wrote the song in 1873 and the Glee Club has changed it throughout the years.
“The alma mater has to be ever changing. It is an ever-evolving entity that has to update with the times,” he said.
Austin Tamatus, president of the Glee Club, said the club tries to be mindful of the messages in the songs they sing. They think about the meaning of the alma mater both in historical and current context.
“Because of [that], it’s necessary to change the lyrics, meaning and spirit of the music to all of Rutgers and not leave it as some historical reference,” said Tamatus, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.
The new lyrics were displayed on the LED strip circling the stadium Saturday at the Rutgers-Arkansas game.
According to nj.com, in the 1980s, “my boys” was changed to “my friends” to reflect the changing times.
“Twenty years ago, I would have said [changing the lyrics] would have been problematic,” Gardner said. “But we changed it from ‘my boys’ to ‘my friends,’ it changed again, and it was moving forward with a revision that would sing well with us performers and would fit with current students.”
Romano, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, said after seeing a few articles posted about the change online, he saw some comments that have been negative. He said there was some negative feedback at the football game this past weekend as well.
“As we were beginning the song, we could hear some boos, but then it changed over to applause as we finished the alma mater,” he said.
He said the negative feedback is minimal compared to the amount of support they have received, especially within the past year or so when they have been talking about this change.
“As a member, I think it’s a positive and necessary change,” Romano said. “The alma mater represents the University as a whole and since our founding, we’ve changed drastically, especially with being coed. We want something that is all encompassing and inclusive because that’s what we represent here with the vast diversity.”
