The Bildner Family Foundation
New Jersey Campus Diversity Initiative

Participating Institutions:

Bergen Community College
Bloomfield College
County College of Morris
Rowan University
Rutgers University
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey

Bergen Community College
The goal of Bergen Community College's Campus Diversity Initiative is to integrate structural changes needed to systematically coordinate and improve the quality of diversity efforts across the campus. The Center has made considerable progress toward the goal of bringing together new and existing resources that can synergistically expand opportunities to understand, appreciate, and learn from the rich contributions of diverse groups, cultures, and points of view in our society. Center objectives cut across three intricately interconnected areas: curriculum and teaching; research, scholarship, and training; and community engagement. Specifically, the goals are: (1) to integrate into academic curricula and instruction exemplary principles and practices of diversity education; (2) to promote the research, scholarship, and training needed to continue the transformation of Bergen Community College into a "community of learners" committed to continuous personal and professional development and intergroup understanding; (3) to increase community involvement and partnerships to more fully support and to strengthen campus and county-wide efforts to promote intercultural understanding.

Institutional Context: Associate's, Public. Enrollment: Over 12,000 students enroll in over 80 degree and certificate programs. More than 10,000 additional students are involved in professional development, continuing education, welfare-to-work, ESL, and personal development programs on the Paramus campus and the college's Ciarco Learning Center in Hackensack. Student Demographics: 41% are minority, 22% are Hispanic, 12% Asian, 6.5% are African American, 12.5% are students with disabilities. Faculty Demographics: 6% are African American, 5% are Hispanic, 3% are Asian, and 1% Native American. County Demographics: Population is 880,000 with 25% minority.

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Bloomfield College
Bloomfield College seeks to broaden and deepen diversity knowledge so the campus itself is a more integrated resource for its students and the larger community. Seminars for Professional and Program Development will offer groups of faculty and staff the opportunity to work intensely together for a semester, particularly on the connections between local and global cultures and issues, cross-cultural communications, student-centered "critical teaching," and ethnographic research with students and their communities. Seminar participants (five groups over five semesters) will apply their learning in revisions of courses, programs, and pedagogies. A new Institute for Cross Cultural Communications will contribute to the seminars and will become a permanent resource for the campus and for all in the community looking for assistance in cultivating intergroup dialogue.

Institutional Context: Baccalaureate; Private (Presbyterian). Enrollment:1,771. Student demographics: 2/3 minority-50% Black, 17% Hispanic, 3% Asian. Faculty Demographics: 25% Faculty of Color. The college is located in Essex County, a region known for a greater level of diversity than the State as a whole. In particular, the immediate community comprises of 41% African Americans and 15% Latinos.

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County College of Morris
Through managed self-assessment programs across all campus programs, the college's Diversity Teaching/Learning Initiative is designed to infuse diversity and global awareness into our teaching/learning program. We plan to integrate diversity and global awareness education into every degree program, increase faculty support for and capability to deliver effective diversity education, and increase interactively planned community education that promotes diversity and global awareness. We will do a Self-Assessment of the existing courses and degree programs and formulate Action Plans by Divisional Task Forces to close any gaps, including co-curricular activities. We will also offer faculty training and Summer Curriculum Enhancement Workshops.

Institutional Context: Associate's; Public. Enrollment: 7,951. Student Demographics: African American-4.4%, Asian American-7.5%, Hispanic-12.3%, White-$75.5%. County Demographics: African American-2.7%, Asian American-6.2%, Hispanic-7.8%, White-82.0%; Administration and faculty demographics: 4 out of 5 deans are women, 12.3% are faculty of color.

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The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Focused specifically on first-year students, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey's Campus Diversity Initiative goal is to create global citizens, promote civic responsibility, and foster cultures of mutual respect. Using a three-pronged strategy, we will reach out to the public, to faculty and staff, and to students. To refine the goals and generate buy-in from campus, we will hold six Town Meetings on campus the first year, followed up by Campus/Community Roundtable Discussions in the following two years. To assist faculty and staff, we will offer week-long summer faculty development seminars, provide a series of workshops for faculty and staff during the semesters, and transform ten first-year courses each year. We will offer student training in leadership, mentoring, and cross-cultural skills and generate co-curricular programs through student campus groups.

Institutional Context: Baccalaureate-Liberal Arts. Enrollment: 6101. Student demographics: 59% female, 95% matriculated, 81% full-time, 76% traditional students, 97% are New Jersey residents, 23% first generation college students, 18% are minority. Faculty demographics: 200 full-time faculty, 20% faculty of color, 19% are minority and 42% are women. Staff demographics: 18.5% are minorities, 25% of executive, administrative staff are minorities, 36% are women. Community demographics: High percentage of low-income families (11% of the total population), Southern eight counties are 47% of African American families, 42% of American Indian families, 24% of Asian American families, and 47% other race families live below the poverty line, high percentage of African Americans.

Web Resources: The Experience and Attitudes Survey administered to all students in first-year seminars in Fall 2002 as part of Stockton's Campus Diversity Initiative is now availabe online.

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Rowan University
Rowan University intends to design interdisciplinary team-taught courses addressing diversity and democracy to be offered to as many as half of the freshmen as part of the University's First Year Experience, which is required of all freshmen. We will offer a week-long intensive workshop for faculty who will then submit new courses for consideration for the First Year Experience which will eventually reach half of the entering students. We anticipate running the training workshop for three years with five teams of faculty each year. The grant funds will also release faculty from courses so they can team-teach these new interdisciplinary courses.

Institutional Context: Master's I; Public. Enrollment: 9,679. Student Demographics: 18% are minorities. Personnel Demographics: 22.7% of faculty, 18% of administration are minorities, and 20% of professional staff are minorities.

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Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers' Campus Diversity Initiative aim is to bring the discourse of multiculturalism and intercultural issues in contact with the discourse of the academic disciplines and the conversations that take place between students outside of the classroom. Because the three campuses are distinct environments in terms of student populations, staffing, programs, and organizational structure, the action plan on each campus will be distinct. Each action plan will focus nonetheless on the same goals of developing curricular and co-curricular programs that focus on intercultural interaction and connecting these programs so intercultural issues become central to the undergraduate experience. New Brunswick will use our basic Composition course as a base to teach about intercultural interaction. Camden will use the English Department's World Masterpieces course as the basis for intercultural student learning, while Newark will develop new courses and revise existing courses to incorporate Ethnic Life Histories as an innovative pedagogy. Each campus will work through internal steering committees, offer mini-grants for co-curricular projects, establish Transcultural Fellows at each campus who will revise their courses and train others, and offer summer institutes and faculty workshops. We also intend to create a transcultural web site.

Institutional Context: Three campus system: Camden (enrollment: 5135, Master's I), New Brunswick (enrollment: 35,237, Doctoral/Research Extensive), Newark (enrollment: 9352, Doctoral/Research Intensive). Student demographics: 10% are African American, 15% are Asian, 8% are Latino/a, 53% are white, 8% are international, 8% other. Faculty and staff demographics: 22% Faculty of Color, 35% Staff are minorities. Sole comprehensive public research university in New Jersey system of higher education and the state's land-grant institution.

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The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey's (UMDNJ) Bildner Campus Diversity initiative goal is to establish core cultural competency standards for every person working and learning at UMDNJ and to incorporate these standards into the University to develop cultural competency-training curriculum for students. We will interview senior management and conduct focus group sessions consisting of different constituency groups. The information from senior management and focus group members will be analyzed and compared to existing materials, standards, and current barriers to implementation. On the basis of the focus groups' findings, the Bildner project team will develop a plan for the implementation of cultural competency standards and/or guidelines to be utilized throughout the University. These standards and/or guidelines will be used in the development of cultural competency training and curriculum for the University community.

In Year 2, we have increased the involvement of the general University community in the Bildner Project by obtaining the support of UMDNJ's president, who announced the project to the University community and encouraged individuals to participate in the interview and focus group session process. We are increasing the profile of the Bildner Project throughout the University by utilizing the University's Marketing and News Service Department to include information regarding the Bildner Project in University publications, news releases, and appropriate presidential speeches. We are developing a Bildner Project Web site on cultural competency to communicate the progress of the Bildner Project, list various other projects and activities related to cultural competency within the University, and include links to other Web sites and issues related to cultural competency. In Year 3, we will host a university conference for health care organizations and state agencies to share in the process of developing the standards as a model for others to use.

Institutional Context: Comprised of eight schools, the largest freestanding health sciences institution in the nation. Enrollment: 4740. Student demographics: 52.5% White, 24.6% Asian/Pacific Islander, 13.3% African American, 8.2% Hispanic, 0.1% American Indian; 60.7% Women. Faculty demographics: 74.4% White, 4.8% African American, 17.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, 3.5% Hispanic; 38.4% Women. Staff demographics: 43.4% White, 32% African American, 17.8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 7% Hispanic; 67% Women.

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