Student-led initiative advocates for increased equity, inclusion at Rutgers Honors College

A group of Honors College students recently created True Inclusion, a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative focused on dismantling systems of oppression at the University and ensuring that all students are valued and supported, according to the initiative’s summary report.

Assata Davis, School of Arts and Sciences senior and co-founder of True Inclusion, said the team aims to connect with students, faculty and other members of the Rutgers community to advocate for systemic equity and inclusion.

The initiative was first conceptualized in June 2020 and was largely inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, said Adriana Scanteianu, School of Arts and Sciences senior and co-founder of True Inclusion. She said the protests caused a friend of hers to reflect on and address the inequities she noticed within her university, which made Scanteianu want to do the same.

She initially wrote a two-page letter to the University calling for change but realized she was missing different perspectives, so she reached out to Davis to collaborate.

“What ultimately made me decide to get involved was (when) somebody in the Black Honors College group chat asked the question of, ‘Does anyone know when the Honors College is going to make a statement about what is happening right now’?” Davis said. “Every other aspect of Rutgers had said something, had sent some email, just addressing the moment and the Honors College had not at that point.”

This discussion led to students sharing their experiences about what it is like to be Black in the Honors College, which Davis said inspired her to bring about change. From here, Davis reached out to Gabrielle Jacob, a School of Public Health graduate student, to join the initiative.

Jacob said when she got on the project, she thought the letter was not broad enough to address all the issues at hand, so the team began expanding the original. Ultimately, they created a 50-page report which included their first call-to-action, curriculum change proposal and surveys completed by Honors College students, among other components.

Davis said while some students did not support the project, the overall response from Honors College students was strong and many reached out to express their support.

True Inclusion’s first call-to-action, “Anti-Blackness in the Honors College,” has already influenced changes in the Honors College mission statement as well as the admissions process at the University, according to the report.

While their first call-to-action discussed the issue of the decrease in admissions numbers of Black students, Scanteianu said their work mostly focuses on addressing these systemic issues through curriculum change, rather than just admissions alone.

One change they are trying to implement is to create a one-credit, Cross Cultural Competency (CCC) course that will act as a prerequisite or corequisite for the Honors College Mission course, she said.

“What this course really is meant to do is teach students how to interact with each other and engage in these conversations when they are in a really diverse space,” Scanteianu said.

True Inclusion also proposed implementing the Race, Inequity and Cultural Engagement (RICE) course, which is meant to be taken by students whose majors or minors do not already require a course that deals with these issues, and will allow students to apply what they learned in the CCC course to their field of study.

Scanteianu said the courses will not add any new requirements for students but rather can be taken in place of other requirements or electives instead.

The last proposed curriculum amendment is to reshape the Honors College Mission Course, she said. 

“All the student responses that we received were kind of angled toward the fact that there does need to be a change, and students have often noticed that the Mission Course had a couple of issues,” Scanteianu said.

To bring about these curriculum changes, Davis said True Inclusion now has multiple committees and teams of Honors College students focusing on each specific goal.

University administrators have been receptive to the initiative, Jacob said, and have been working with True Inclusion to help implement changes within the Honors College and University as a whole.

“I think we've been really fortunate, especially last semester, to be in a space right now where administrators are taking time to listen to us and also enacting the changes that we are seeking,” she said.

Matt Matsuda, academic dean of the Honors College, and Paul Gilmore, administrative dean of the Honors College, said the students have given the University honest accounts of their experiences and have provided innovative solutions to issues. 

“Working with the students, campus partners and University administrators, we are exploring and hope to implement ways for creating a more truly inclusive community within the Honors College that celebrates diversity in all its forms,” the deans said, according to a joint statement. “If we can accomplish something like that, we can be a model not just for the larger Rutgers community but for institutions across the country and around the world.”

Jacob said the team is hoping for the Honors College to become a beacon of diversity, equity and inclusion, and to serve as a model for other universities.

“We really want the impact of our work to be felt by students, especially the students that are marginalized, or maybe (those who) don't really feel as represented in the Honors College community,” she said.