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Rutgers University

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
100 Sutphen Road
Piscataway, New Jersey 08854
Phone
(848) 445-4636
School Information
"Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, stands among America’s highest-ranked, most diverse public research universities. The oldest, largest, and top-ranked public university in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, you’ll find us at our main locations in three New Jersey cities, and our footprint can be seen around the region. We’re an academic, health, and research powerhouse and a university of opportunity." The university enrolls over 71,000 students, employs over 8,700 faculty, and offers over 550 academic programs. (Source: https://www.rutgers.edu/about-rutgers) (Source: https://www.rutgers.edu/about/by-the-numbers)
General Information
Rutgers University has been awarded $15 million from the Mellon Foundation for the creation of the "Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice". The university has also created a new senior diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership position. No Critical Race Training sessions are yet required of ALL students. See developments below:

Actions Taken

Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • Students in the School of Arts and Sciences will be required to take one course in "Diversities and Social Inequalities [CCD] (3 credits)" which will "Analyze the degree to which forms of human differences and stratifications among social groups shape individual and group experiences of, and perspectives on, contemporary issues. Such differences and stratifications may include race, language, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, economic status, abilities, or other social distinctions and their intersections."
Disciplinary Measures
  • Rutgers University has a university wide Bias Prevention Campaign called Speak Up which serves as a “call to action for all members of the university to respond when they observe bigotry and to be vigilant about disrupting personally held bias.”
Faculty/Staff Requirements
  • Rutgers University is investing in faculty diversity through strategic diversity cluster hiring within the Race, Racism, and Inequality cluster, Health Equity cluster, and Advancing STEM Diversity cluster.
Political Actions and Support for Anti-Racism
  • On September 21, 2021, Rutgers professor of women’s and gender studies and Africana studies, Britney Cooper discussed colonialism and critical race theory in an online conference with the Root Institute. The Rutgers professor stated that white people are historically “committed to being villains” and that the only solution to white supremacy is for white people to be “taken out,” although she doesn't believe in violence. Regarding Critical Race Theory, the Rutgers professor argued that “Critical Race Theory is just the proper teaching of American history.”
Program and Research Funding
  • The president of the university announced, "Rutgers has been awarded a $15 million, five-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a new, university-wide initiative: The Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, a scholarly project with centers based on our New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden campuses.
  • The Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy (IDEA) Innovation Grants Program at the university invests “in grassroots efforts to encourage understanding and learning, enable relationship building across differences, and offer new ways to promote equity and diversity.”
  • Rutgers has a program known as the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.
Resources
  • The School of Social Work offered a seminar called "The Culturally Woke Social Worker-WEB". The webinar will "1) Define and explore culture, unconscious bias, microaggressions, racism, privilege, marginalization, color blindness and intersectionality. 2) Determine ways that cultural differences impact professional relationships and 3) Provide social workers with a culturally relevant toolbox of skills to work toward micro and macro level change."
  • Rutgers University Libraries provides a number of resources on anti-racism, social justice, equity, diversity, bias, microaggressions, and white privilege.
  • On April 21, 2022, the university’s School of Public Health held an event on Dismantling Institutional Racism in order to discuss how “racial inequality remains prevalent within higher education institutions.”
  • On September 23, 2021, the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice held its inaugural event where researchers joined together to study systemic racism.
  • Rutgers has a Race, Ethnicity and Politics minor which delves into “political identity, attitudes and behavior, public policy and law, inequality and criminal justice, political institutions, among other topics, and also explore theoretical approaches to conceptions of race and ethnicity in relation to gender, citizenship, immigration, empire and colonialism.”
  • The Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences has a program called “Voices of Diversity: Rutgers Student Stories.”
  • Rutgers has a page dedicated to diversity initiatives led by faculty on the DEI Committee in the School of Arts and Sciences.
  • The Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences has a list of diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.
Symbolic Actions
  • The university president announced the creation of the "Senior Vice President for Equity—to ensure a permanent, university-wide, intentional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion."
  • On March 31, 2022, Rutgers University “renewed its commitment to develop a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment” by releasing a new plan to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion with the Rutgers Forward: University Diversity Strategic Plan.
Last updated October 23rd, 2023
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