Rutgers University-Newark

On June 29, 2023, in response to the Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling, Rutgers University President and other university leaders issued the following statement: "Please know that we will take the time to review our policies and practices to ensure they follow the law established by today’s decision...Rutgers embodies the democratic possibilities of our country, opening its doors for people from the broadest range of backgrounds and recognizing that excellence can be found everywhere—and that will not change with this ruling. Our commitment to being a powerful engine of social mobility for students and their families will not change."

One of the goals of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy Innovation Grant Program at RU-Newark is to "fund creative projects that advance the university’s goal to recruit, retain, and develop a diverse community."

One of the goals of RU-N's Diversity Strategic Plan is to "continue to recruit, retain, and develop a diverse community."

One of the goals of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy (IDEA) Innovation Grant Program at RU-Newark is to "fund research, scholarly activities, and community engagement projects that advance the role of RU–N as an anchor institution through innovative approaches to diversity, equity, advocacy, and inclusion."

The Center for Politics and Race in America at RU-Newark "seeks to fill a critical gap in our understanding of America’s political landscape by serving as a non-partisan, multidisciplinary, fact tank on the link between race and politics in the US."

The Rutgers Business School Pathways Leading to Undergraduate & Graduate Success program is a "portfolio of programs and initiatives designed to help students from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds leverage their diversity through dynamic inter-group dialogue and enriching co-curricular activities."

The Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Center at Rutgers University–Newark (RU-N) is one of 28 national, comprehensive, and community-based initiatives developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) with initial funding from the W. K. Kellogg, Newman’s Own, and Papa John’s Foundations. The goal of the TRHT Center is to “jettison the myth of a belief in a hierarchy of human value”. In recognition of the 7th Annual National Day of Racial Healing, TRHT hosted from January 16-24, 2023 in-person and virtual community events, workshops, class and panel discussions, arts performances/exhibitions, and racial healing circles to "discuss, reflect, experience, and imagine a society of community and belonging." The theme is "Redefining and Rebuilding Community".

The RBHS Anti-Racism Initiative was launched in Fall 2020 and the goal of the initiative is to ensure that the university is "actively anti-racist" in all its people-related practices, in its classrooms, clinical settings, and throughout its workplace. There are four anti-racism task force workgroups: the climate survey workgroup; conversations on racism workshop; education, competency, and curricula workgroup; and training/certificate programs workgroup.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Rutgers offers support for various identity-based programs, clubs, services, and centers. One of its initiatives was to extend the RU–N diversity strategic plan, “Where Opportunity Meets Excellence."

RU-Newark News reported, as part of a podcast for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education, that RU-Newark's Chancellor "condemned the false concept of color blindness that is central to the Supreme Court’s spring ruling against affirmative action." The Chancellor was quoted as saying, "'There’s nothing colorblind about the way we’ve acted for centuries. It’s a dogma that gives validity in people’s minds to racism. Anti-racism is about systemic racism and not a just a few people who say stupid racist things'."

Rutgers is a self-declared "social justice champion." In its statement, the school says it is not an “ivory tower,” but is an "anchor institution", where it dissolves traditional boundaries between academia and the urban centers where many universities are located. It says its immersion in and contribution to Newark’s civic, cultural and economic life aids in its social justice work.