Skip to main content

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee

MISSION STATEMENT

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is one subgroup under the Rutgers Graduate Student Association (GSA) that aims to work in conjunction with the issues and goals set by the University Equity Audit as it pertains to graduate students in the Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway campus. As a committee, we acknowledge that our university is part of a broader society where issues such as racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, classism, casteism and other forms of oppression based on various aspects of a person’s background exist. These -isms would need to be dismantled at four different levels – internalized, interpersonal, institutional and structural level and this should be happening at an ongoing basis through big and small actions. The mission of the GSA-DEI is to take action-based approaches to dismantle prejudice and oppression at various levels and build a more equitable and inclusive community for academic and research excellence from the broader Rutgers Graduate student community.

We are actively seeking new members for the committee. We are also interested in collaborating with department specific or other existing DEI committees as well. This type of DEI work relies on participation and commitment from various members of the community. Please reach out to us! – diversity@gsa.rutgers.edu.

GOALS

  • Educate – We want to raise awareness on the particular needs of graduate students around DEI.

  • Collaborate – We aim to work broadly across various departments with new and existing DEI initiatives.

  • Empower and Grow – We want to foster a supportive environment for those graduate students who come from a background that is underrepresented in academia. We see you and we want to support you!

RUTGERS LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge that the land on which we stand is the ancestral territory of the Lenape People. We pay respect to Indigenous people throughout the Lenape diaspora- past, present, and future- and honor those that have been historically and systemically disenfranchised. We also acknowledge that Rutgers University, like New Jersey and the United States as a nation, was founded upon the exclusions and erasures of Indigenous peoples.