Upsala College was a private college in East Orange

East Orange, New Jersey

East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the city's population 64,270, making it the state's 20th largest municipality, having dropped 5,554 residents from its population of 69,824 in the 2000 Census, when it was the state's 14th most...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, USA, founded in 1893. Construction of the campus started in 1900. The college closed in 1995, after several years of financial problems.

History

The school was founded on the initiative of the Swedish-American Augustana Synod and immigrant Swedes, and received its name partly in reference to the historic University of Uppsala

Uppsala University

Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...

 in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and partly in memory of the Meeting of Uppsala

Uppsala Synod

The Uppsala Synod in 1593 was the most important synod of the Lutheran Church of Sweden. Sweden had gone through its Protestant Reformation and broken with Roman Catholicism in the 1520s, but an official confession of faith had never been declared....

, which had taken place in 1593 – exactly 300 years before the founding of the college – establishing Lutheran Orthodoxy

Lutheran Orthodoxy

Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the...

 in the country after the attempts of King John III

John III of Sweden

-Family:John married his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland , house of Jagiello, in Vilnius on 4 October 1562. In Sweden, she is known as Katarina Jagellonica. She was the sister of king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland...

 to reintroduce Roman-Catholic liturgy. (Upsala is an archaic spelling variation of Uppsala, replaced in the early part of the 20th century by the version with two Ps, except in some proper nouns which have retained the old spelling.)

The college originally opened in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and later moved to Kenilworth, New Jersey

Kenilworth, New Jersey

Kenilworth is a Borough in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,914.Kenilworth was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on May 13, 1907, from portions of Cranford and Union Township, based on the...

 in 1898 before settling in East Orange in 1924.

The school maintained high academic standards for many years, gaining a fine reputation as an excellent small college, with a vibrant campus life. Unfortunately as the surrounding community's crime rate increased, the student enrollment at the college declined throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s. However, the college remained committed to the city of East Orange, and chose not to move to land donated to the school in rural Sussex County. Once the decision was made to stay in their current location, Upsala worked hard to boost its sagging enrollment, but it was to no avail, and the school closed its doors at the end of the 1995 academic year.

After the school was closed, the campus was sold to the East Orange School District

East Orange School District

East Orange School District is a comprehensive community public school district serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from the city of East Orange, New Jersey...

, which built a high school on the site's eastern half and sold the western portion to the City of East Orange.

Modern day

The property and buildings on the West Campus were neglected, left to deteriorate and became a serious eyesore. All structures suffered acts of looting and vandalism and one building was lost to fire. The surviving West campus buildings were demolished in the Spring of 2006. Today, the Western site has been redeveloped for upscale housing.

The East campus became East Orange Campus High School

East Orange Campus High School

East Orange Campus High School is a public high school located in the city of East Orange, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in grades 10-12, located in the former campus of Upsala College. The school is part of the East Orange School District, classified as an Abbott...

, a public secondary school operated by the East Orange School District

East Orange School District

East Orange School District is a comprehensive community public school district serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from the city of East Orange, New Jersey...

. Former East campus buildings Beck Hall, Puder Hall, Viking Memorial Hall (gymnasium) and College Center survived to be incorporated into the new high school.

Upsala's campus radio

Campus radio

Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...

 station, WFMU

WFMU

WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...

, remains in operation; a nonprofit company known as Auricle Communications purchased WFMU's license shortly before Upsala went bankrupt.

Notable graduates

Some notable graduates of Upsala College include Allen Klein

Allen Klein

Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...

, the businessman whose controversial career involved him with both The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 and The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

, and Vin Scelsa

Vin Scelsa

Vincent Anthony Scelsa, better known as "Vin," was born on December 12, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He is the host of a freeform radio show known as Idiot's Delight....

, the radio DJ who created the "Idiots Delight" freeform radio program. Scelsa did his first broadcasting at Upsala's campus radio station, WFMU

WFMU

WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...

, which began in 1958. The volunteer staff bought the broadcasting license from the bankrupt school in 1995 and continues to operate the freeform station independently.

In fiction, the protagonist of Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...

's 1997 novel American Pastoral

American Pastoral

American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a Jewish-American businessman and former high school athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle class life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960s, which in the...

, Seymour "Swede" Levov, and his wife, Dawn Levov, are graduates of Upsala.

Morad Shophet, co-founder of Axiom Real Estate, a privately held investment and development company headquartered in Los Angeles.

Richie Roberts

Richie Roberts

Richard M. "Richie" Roberts is a former detective, Essex County Prosecutor and is currently a defense attorney. He is most widely recognized for the arrest, prosecution and later defense of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas....

 former New Jersey police detective and defense attorney. He is most widely recognized for the arrest, prosecution and later defense of Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

 drug lord

Drug lord

A drug lord, drug baron or kingpin is the term used to describe a person who controls a sizable network of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they might never be directly in possession of something illegal, but are insulated from...

 Frank Lucas

Frank Lucas

Frank D. Lucas is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1994. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district, the largest in the state and one of the largest in the country, stretches from the Panhandle to the fringes of the Tulsa suburbs—almost half of the state's land mass.-Early...

. He is portrayed by Russel Crowe in the film American Gangster.

New York Daily News television critic Kay Gardella

Kay Gardella

Genevieve C. "Kay" Gardella worked at the New York Daily News for nearly sixty years.Born in then heavily Italian-American Belleville, New Jersey, Gardella joined the Daily News as a copygirl two years after graduating from the now-defunct Upsala College...

.

Ottawa University

Ottawa University

Ottawa University is a private, non-profit, faith-based liberal arts college located in Ottawa, Kansas. It was founded in 1865 and is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA...

 Dean of Education and Professor of Political Science Karen Mitchell.

Anthropology professor John Langston Gwaltney

John Langston Gwaltney

John Langston Gwaltney was an African-American writer and anthropologist focused on African American culture, best known for his book Drylongso: A Self Portrait of Black America.-Academic background:...

 earned his B.A. at Upsala.

WFAN

WFAN

WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...

 personality Jerry Recco

Jerry Recco

Jerry Recco is the morning sports anchor on all-sports radio station WFAN in New York City for the Boomer and Carton show. He's been with the station since 1997. As of 2009, Recco also reports sports in the morning for WFAN's sister station all-news WINS...

 attended but did not graduate due to the closing of the school.

Joe Piazza, Executive Vice President of Sysco Foods Atlanta. Also the all-time interceptions leader for Upsala Football.

Television and film

The derelict college campus was featured as a demolition project – used resources recovery – in the "Coal Miner" episode in season 2 of Dirty Jobs

Dirty Jobs

Dirty Jobs is a program on the Discovery Channel, produced by Pilgrim Films & Television, in which host Mike Rowe is shown performing difficult, strange, disgusting, or messy occupational duties alongside the typical employees. The show premiered with two pilot episodes in November 2003...

, a popular show on the Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

. It initially aired on August 8, 2006.

The 2001 film Riding in Cars with Boys

Riding in Cars with Boys

Riding in Cars with Boys is a 2001 film based on the autobiography of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, about a woman who overcame difficulties including being a teen mother to earning a master's degree from the span of 1961 to 1986. It stars Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, and James...

was filmed on the campus.

External links

• Jim Coleman's website on Upsala College
• Bill Taebel's website on Upsala College
• Upsala photographs on Flickr.com
• I nya Uppsala. Bref från Carl Sundbeck (Swedish, "In New Uppsala. Letter from Carl Sundbeck"), article in the Swedish periodical Hvar 8 Dag, 3:36 (1902).
• City of East Orange - Press Release: Groundbreaking Ceremonies for Woodlands at Upsala
• Website of former Upsala College radio station