Rutgers–Newark is one of three regional campuses of Rutgers University, the state's public research university, and is located in the City of Newark, in Essex County, New Jersey in the United States. Rutgers, founded in 1766 in New Brunswick, is the eighth oldest college in the United States and a member of the Association of American Universities. In 1945, the state legislature voted to make Rutgers University, then a private liberal arts college, into the state university and in the following year merged the school with the former University of Newark (1936–1946) which became the Rutgers–Newark campus.