Helyar Woods, the Rutgers Display Gardens, and the college research farm are set amid highly urbanized and industrialized central New Jersey. Lipman, Bartlett, Martin, Thompson, Waller, and Blake are buildings that preserve the memory of the famous scientists and scholars of the college's past. Cook College created the first collegiate department of environmental sciences m the country. Its mandate is to improve the quality of life of all New Jersey citizens. The experiment station, a separately budgeted research and extension unit, is the largest research unit within Rutgers.
Specific research responds to identified needs of the state.
The station sponsors programs with faculty from throughout the university who are trained in a wide range of scientific disciplines and who conduct research at the leading edge of their fields. Since 1914, RCE county faculty and staff and state specialists at Cook College have provided educational and technical assistance throughout New Jersey's twenty-one counties. RCE programs address pressing urban problems as well as rural issues. Expanded food and nutrition education, youth at risk, and urban gardening programs help improve the quality of life of city youths and families. Programs in sustainable agriculture encourage producers to grow crops in a manner that is economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable.