Top Rutgers administrators got official word Thursday that Obama was coming to campus -- in just four days.
NEWARK -- The first whispers that Rutgers University might be getting a high-profile visitor came early last week.
But, top campus administrators did not know for sure until they received a phone call from the White House asking if the Secret Service could visit campus Thursday.
It was official: President Barack Obama was coming to Rutgers-Newark - in just four days.
"The White House advance team met with us for the first time Thursday," said Peter Englot, Rutgers-Newark's senior vice chancellor for public affairs. "They told us this was a tight time frame, even for them."
MORE: Obama to visit Newark next week to talk criminal justice
Rutgers officials have spent the weekend scrambling to prepare for Monday's visit. Obama will fly to Newark and stop at Integrity House, a drug treatment facility in Lincoln Park, to highlight prisoner re-entry into the community. Then, the president will convene a round-table discussion on the issue and give a speech at Rutgers-Newark's Center for Law and Justice.
The visit is an honor for Rutgers, school administrators said. But it is a major logistical challenge that requires canceling some classes, giving some workers the day off, shutting down the campus' largest parking garage, closing roads and other major changes.
"Everyone has leapt into this with both feet," Englot said of the rushed planning.
Rutgers officials also need to make serious decisions about who on campus gets the coveted invitations to attend the Obama round-table discussion and speech.
The university has only been given about a dozen seats for its guests. The rest of the tickets are being handed out by the White House, lawmakers and the city of Newark. Additional spots will be given to Rutgers volunteers who will help run the event.
As of late Saturday, it was unclear if even Rutgers President Robert Barchi was going to be able to attend the presidential speech. His staff was still working out the logistics, campus officials said.
Making connections
Though Obama's visit was a last-minute decision, Rutgers officials said it has roots in years of work on the campus around the issue of prison reform and re-entry programs for former prisoners.
Rutgers-Newark Provost Todd Clear, former dean of the university's School of Criminal Justice, is among those who had done research and written books about the complex issue.
Clear is expected to be one of the experts participating in the Obama round-table discussion, though the participants have not been publicly named, Rutgers officials said.
Clear and others at Rutgers-Newark worked on the issue with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), when he was the city's mayor. Booker continued to focus on the issue in Washington, D.C., where his staff talked to the White House about putting a presidential spotlight on prisoner re-entry.
Booker and his staff and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's staff alerted the White House to the work at Rutgers, paving the way for the presidential visit, said Englot, Rutgers-Newark's vice chancellor.
Obama will be stopping in Newark before a previously-scheduled trip into Manhattan for a Democratic fundraiser.
Obama's visit will be culmination of years of important scholarship by Rutgers' faculty and students and an acknowledgement of the university's stature in the criminal justice field, Englot said.
"It says that we're really important on a national map," Englot said.
In her email to the university community announcing Obama's visit, Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor said mass incarceration and prison re-entry are topics that resonate with many on the urban campus.
"These are perfect examples of issues of significant importance not just in Greater Newark and New Jersey, but across metropolitan America and around the world," Cantor said.
Seeing Obama
The White House officially announced Obama's visit Friday, but warned his events at Integrity House and Rutgers-Newark are not open to the public.
After visiting Integrity House, located a few miles away, Obama is expected to travel in a motorcade to Rugers-Newark in the late afternoon. Due to security concerns, the White House has not released exact times or routes for the visit.
Obama will host the round-table discussion in an unspecified room in the university Center for Law and Justice on Washington Street, home of Rutgers' law school, Rutgers officials said. Then, the president will give his speech in the building's soaring atrium lobby, which is dominated by a grand spiral staircase.
Suggestions that Obama give his speech in the building's large lecture hall were nixed by the White House team, which did not feel the academic space was appropriate, Englot said.
Rutgers-Newark students and faculty who will not get to see Obama in person are invited to attend viewing parties around the campus, including one in the campus center that will seat several hundred. The speech will also be broadcast online.
Students are unlikely to catch anything more than a glimpse of Obama as he enters and leaves the Center for Law and Justice.
"As far as we know, he's not going to spend any time walking the campus," Englot said.
Closures and cancellations
Obama's visit means everyone who works in Rutgers-Newark's Center for Law and Justice, one of the campus' largest buildings, is getting a paid day off. The building will be closed Monday until 7 p.m., school officials said.
The building includes the law school, law library, School of Criminal Justice, the chancellor's office and other administrative offices.
All classes in the Center for Law and Justice will be cancelled for the day and evening. Classes in other campus buildings will be held as scheduled, though professors always have the option of making other arrangements, Rutgers officials said.
The Secret Service is also requiring Rutgers to close Parking Deck 1, the campus main parking garage on University Avenue, due to its location next to the Center for Law and Justice. Several surface parking lots near the building will also be closed and used for White House guests. That is expected to create major parking problems on a campus that already has a lack of parking spaces.
Most of the roads on and near campus, including parts of Washington Street, University Avenue and Warren Street, are also expected to be closed between noon and 5 p.m.
Rutgers officials said they are advising students, faculty and staff to take public transportation into Newark and NJ Transit has been notified that additional train and bus service may be required.
"We deeply appreciate your patience and flexibility in making special travel arrangements for this truly exceptional day in our university's history," Cantor said in her note to the Rutgers-Newark community. "It is a rare privilege for us to share in such a moment."
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
