Why Taking the Diversity Strategic Planning Process Assessment Survey is Important
With the launch of Rutgers’ diversity strategic planning process, the university has taken a critical step in its pursuit of inclusive excellence. It’s not only an opportunity for the institution to embrace diversity, inclusion, and equity as a core value, but to describe its current state, envision its ideal state and define measurable goals - identifying actionable steps to create a more inclusive future.
To capture the sentiment of the Rutgers community, Senior Vice President for Equity Enobong (Anna) Branch encouraged its members to take the diversity strategic planning assessment survey. Feedback from students, faculty, and staff is crucial to how the Chancellor-led units and the university will set goals that address Rutgers’ five diversity priorities:
- Recruit, Retain, and Develop a Diverse Community
- Promote Inclusive Scholarship and Teaching
- Define Sustainable and Substantive Community Engagement
- Build the Capacity of Leaders to Create Inclusive Climates
- Develop an Institutional Infrastructure to Drive Change
The priorities encapsulate areas where the university needs to make progress. They are also shared objectives that will help define benchmarks for achievement and structural mechanisms for accountability to be the beloved community Rutgers aspires to.
To enable input from all members of the university community, the assessment survey is open to all students, postgraduate learners and trainees, staff, and faculty at Rutgers University. Participation in the survey is confidential and takes an average of 15–20 minutes to complete.
"We've heard concerns from some members of the university community about completing the survey, due to being identifiable through the demographic information they share," said Dr. Branch. “Disaggregation,” she assured, “will be limited by population and maintaining confidentiality will be our guiding concern.”
When the survey closes in late February, the data will be made available to each planning unit.
The Office of the Senior Vice President for Equity will provide ongoing monitoring of the planning process efforts and will post the progress on the diversity website.
