University Equity and Inclusion is leading efforts to support Rutgers' forward movement, providing resources and encouragement to build a beloved community.
We integrate the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of our university.
Diversity refers to the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. Such differences include race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, age, religion, language, disability status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic region, and more.
Equity refers to actively working to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented full participation across differences in culture and circumstance, specifically redressing the exclusion of underrepresented groups in higher education. Attention to equity involves ensuring access, opportunity, and advancement for all students, faculty, and staff in every stage of education and career development.
Inclusion refers to the act of creating environments in which individuals and groups feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued by eliminating practices and behaviors that marginalize. An inclusive climate embraces differences and offers respect in words and actions so that all people can fully participate in the university’s opportunities.
Education as disruption is an invitation to choose to be curious about what underpins hate and bias.
Use these resources to pursue understanding and grapple with how to engage across differences.
The Ideas that Ignite Change is a weekly Wednesday email blast that shares practices to enable us to build and sustain our community instead of coexisting in hostile proximity.
Each blast starts with a message to spur reflection from Anna Branch, Senior Vice President for Equity, and includes resources from short articles to books and videos to put the idea into practice.
The alternative is to shut down and retreat to our ideological corners. Resist that urge and stay engaged.
Start small, read and reflect on the ideas. When the opportunity presents itself, and it will, try one out.
Watch the DEI Campus Climate Survey Data Release Webinar to contextualize the results. Take the time to:
There are many ways to meet this moment, but not all are productive.
Institutionally, we are committed to building an inclusive community, even amid deep tension and rising hate. Do your part and engage. Listen to a speaker. View a documentary. Most importantly, commit to moving beyond proximity to build community.
Speak Up! is a call to action for all members of the university community to respond when they observe bigotry and to be vigilant about disrupting personally held bias.
The diversity plan serves as a unified roadmap sharing Chancellor-led unit goals and action steps as well as overarching university strategies that will support their fulfillment.
Meet the people working across the university to support implementation.
More than just words, part of our institutional commitment in launching the University Diversity Strategic Plan was to promote transparency and accountability for progress.
The Faculty Diversity Collaborative is building a community of practice with individualized and targeted supports along the faculty life cycle to increase diverse faculty, ensure effective mentoring, expand networking opportunities and develop leadership skills to foster a sense of belonging and professional growth in the academy for all.
Friday, March 07, 2025, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. | Virtual Event
"Recognizing diversity, fostering inclusion, and working towards common core values have become more urgent than ever ... As globalization renders our society increasingly multicultural, the answer lies in thinking more, not less, about the common bonds, public resources, and civic systems that bind us together as a nation, lest the very diversity we celebrate divides us." —Task Force on Inclusion and Community Values, Rutgers University–New Brunswick Strategic Plan
"For Rutgers University–Newark, excellence lies at the intersection of commitments to boundary-crossing scholarship, diverse talent cultivation, and engagement as an anchor institution in the world through collaboration—all of which are precisely what the public increasingly is demanding of higher education in the 21st century.” —Rutgers University–Newark Strategic Plan
"The Office of Diversity and Inclusion endeavors to make Rutgers–Camden, a leading research institution, a pillar for supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion in all activities, with a particular focus on educating students who will use this knowledge and experience to contribute to a more inclusive society." —Rutgers University–Camden Office of Diversity and Inclusion Vision Statement
"We are committed to becoming an inclusive learning community that fosters respect, belonging, and value for all with zero tolerance for bias, racism, and other negative ‘isms’... We support community engagement and connections with our local, national, and global communities to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and eliminate health disparities." —RBHS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
