SAC on Tolerance/Sensitivity, March 2005

Rutgers University Senate
Student Affairs Committee
Response to Charge S-0406, Tolerance and Sensitivity
March 2005

Original Charge S-0406, Tolerance/Sensitivity: Explore and recommend ways in which tolerance, sensitivity and open dialog may be promoted at Rutgers, particularly among students, in media content, housing, and other areas.

Background on the Charge:

In Spring 2004, some members of the Rutgers community noticed an increase in the number of instances or public expressions of intolerance and insensitivity at Rutgers University. Concerns over acts of intolerance prompted the University Senate's Executive Committee to issue a charge to a committee wherein it directed the committee to look into whether or not intolerance and insensitivity are on the rise at Rutgers, and, if so, what steps might be taken to improve the situation and to promote tolerance, sensitivity and open dialog. This charge would have been appropriate for the Senate's Equal Opportunity Committee, or its Student Affairs Committee. The charge was issued to the Student Affairs Committee, which thereafter requested input from the Equal Opportunity Committee.

Research:

The Student Affairs Committee, or some subset thereof, met and/or corresponded with the following people to gather information about available resources, activities, policies, and other mechanisms employed at Rutgers to promote tolerance:

Gregory Blimling, Vice President for Student Affairs
Thomas DiValerio, Assistant Dean of Student Life, and Director the Rutgers Camden Student Center
Cheryl Clarke, Director of Rutgers' Office of Diverse Community Affairs and LBGT Concerns
Philip Furmanski, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Student Life and residence hall personnel on Cook, Douglass, Newark, and Camden campuses

According to Vice President Blimling, a Campus Climate Survey will be sent out during the Spring 2005 semester. The survey will include questions about tolerance and diversity on campus. Dr. Blimling recommended that the Student Affairs Committee contact Cheryl Clarke, Director of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered Concerns.

Dr. Clarke told the committee that:

Her departmental resources resources come from three tiers: Campus, Central Administration, and then the New Brunswick Colleges. Since the change in administration, there are more resources for bias prevention and education. They are in the process of strengthening their bias-prevention efforts. Her office is responsible for monitoring the campus for bias incidents, providing educational activities for student-life personnel and other staff, and doing various bias-prevention activities (e.g., a poster contest which was held in the 1990s).
“Bias Prevention Cards” have been included in new-student orientation packets for the past couple of years, and will remain a part of the packets. The cards indicate phone-contact information for various offices that can provide assistance with bias-related problems.
There is a proliferation of programs with cultural themes. Each of the colleges has student groups charged to do cultural work (i.e., Diversity Taskforce at Cook, and the Social Justice Committee at Livingston). Also, there is a dean at Rutgers College whose job responsibilities include multicultural work.

Dr. Furmanski informed us that Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology faculty are involved in a variety of activities to enhance campus
awareness of student diversity, and that GSAPP has its own system to maintain sensitivity and tolerance.

Dr. DiValerio said that Rutgers Camden has its own crisis manual aimed at helping people deal with situations involving bias and/or violence. We also learned that Camden dormitories have several annual events designed to promote tolerance. Also, the university pays to send several students and faculty to a weeklong national conference on tolerance and diversity. Attendees are required to develop programs on campus.

Through telephone conversations with residence-life personnel on Rutgers' campuses, we found that Douglass, Cook, Livingston, Rutgers, Newark, and Camden all have programs that deal with tolerance and sensitivity. These programs deal more with racial and gender intolerance than any other form of intolerance.

Hate-Crime Statistics:

The Student Affairs Committee contacted the police departments of each of the three campuses about statistics on hate crimes, and got the following responses: (For these purposes, a "hate crime" is defined as a crime based on race, religion or gender.)

New Brunswick/ Piscataway:
Sharon from RU PD said that the police department only has numbers going back to 2001 because the State of New Jersey mandates that the records be kept for three years.

Year                 # of hate crimes
2001                6
2002                5
2003                14 (Includes eight cases in September in which swastikas were painted on eight University Avenue buildings.)
2004                4
2005                0

Camden:
Mike Sepanic, the Camden Campus public relations contact, said that in his 15 years at Camden RPD, he cannot remember a single instance of hate crime, but that he didn’t have any statistics. He also suggested we look at Camden's issue of "Safety Matters" (http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/%7Erupdcamd/safetymatters2004.htm) , but "Safety Matters" does not indicate any hate-crime statistics.

Newark:
Lt. Morgan said that Newark RPD does not have any hate-crime statistics.

Conclusion/Recommendations:

The Student Affairs Committee concludes that:

At this time, the relevant departments and centers at Rutgers are actively promoting and educating students, faculty and staff on tolerance and sensitivity.

The Student Affairs Committee recommends that:

There be a re-evaluation of this charge after the Campus Climate Report data are collected.
All campuses employ a Crisis Manual similar to that currently in use in Camden.
Efforts to inform the Rutgers community of resources and mechanisms for reporting and dealing with bias crimes or incidents, such as to the Office of Diverse Community Affairs, be increased.
Rutgers should actively promote bias prevention and integration of multicultural initiatives into new student orientation, residence life, staff and student organizations by expanding the utilization and awareness of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs.