Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access at the Office of the EVPAA

As the chief academic officer for Rutgers, the executive vice president for academic affairs (EVPAA) convenes the academic leads in the varied institutional units to promote policies and practices that foster inclusive excellence in undergraduate and graduate education and to ensure equitable opportunities for advanced interdisciplinary research across the university that can improve the human condition in New Jersey and throughout the world. Academic excellence and continued, impactful innovation require the wide variety of experience, expertise, insight, and knowledge that flourishes in a fully diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible academic environment. As the steward of Rutgers’ academic mission, the EVPAA is committed to creating a culture of inquiry and accountability in which all members of our community thrive and have a role in bringing about meaningful change.

In summer 2021, EVPAA Prabhas V. Moghe charged a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Planning Committee to create an Equity Action Plan that would guide the EVPAA’s efforts toward inclusive academic excellence, both within the office and in support of the four chancellor-led units as they pursue their equity goals. The plan creates a standing Council for Strategic Planning Toward Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access and delineates the mission of the newly reimagined EVPAA around the purpose of inclusive academic excellence. It proceeds over a Phase I (2021–22, 2022–23) and a Phase II (2023–24, 2024–25, 2025–26) by means of foundational steps that draw on the core work of our reporting units and that leverage the EVPAA’s central convening role to create a space for realizing Rutgers’ collective academic equity goals. These steps will result in a clear understanding of who we are and what we can be: our makeup, our policies and practices, and the guiding principles that shape our collective engagement as we undertake meaningful steps toward change.