The Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy is committed to a rebirth of the public service ethic in the United States. The ethic focuses on good civic design in its broadest sense--encompassing such endeavors as housing, transportation, workforce development, public health, economic development, ecological balance, and social justice for the disadvantaged. The ethic strives for a scholarly atmosphere that is inspirational, creative, productive, and personally fulfilling. The ethic reaches to the larger world beyond academia--that is, to community, state, national, and an international clientele.

Edward J. Bloustein--Rutgers president, constitutional scholar, active citizen, philosopher, and teacher--lived a life of civic engagement that the school's ethic seeks to perpetuate. Research, teaching, and outreach at the Bloustein School aim for intellectual originality and practical rigor in an atmosphere of spirited and open debate. Bloustein activities are rooted in diversity of experience and thought. They create settings where individuals and communities can flourish.

The Bloustein ethic strives to improve the quality of public discourse by producing ideas and measures that have impact. The Bloustein ethic engages those who do their jobs not just honorably but with a passion for their work that alters their surroundings. The Bloustein School seeks to foster new research and thinking that achieve both scholarly recognition and public acceptance.