Kean University Opens New Campus Center in Union Focused on First-Gen Students

Kean University opened a new campus center on its Union campus this month, bringing academic advising, tutoring, and career services into a single building specifically designed around the needs of first-generation college students, who make up a majority of Kean's undergraduate population.

The center replaces a patchwork of offices that had previously been spread across three separate buildings, a layout university staff say made it harder for students unfamiliar with college systems to find the help they needed. The new building includes drop-in advising hours, a dedicated financial aid help desk, and a career closet providing free professional clothing for internship and job interviews.

"A lot of our students are the first in their family to navigate financial aid forms, add-drop deadlines, or office hours," said Kean University Vice President of Student Affairs Rufus Cook. "When those services are scattered across campus, students who don't already know the system tend to just give up and figure it out alone. This building removes that friction."

Kean says roughly 55 percent of its undergraduates identify as first-generation college students, among the highest shares of any four-year public university in New Jersey. The university has framed the new center as central to its retention strategy, noting that first-generation students historically leave Kean at higher rates than their peers, particularly after the first year.

The $14 million project was funded through a combination of state capital grants and private donations, including a lead gift from a Kean alumnus who credited the university's advising staff with helping him stay enrolled during a difficult freshman year.