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Douglass Residential College
Rutgers logo
Douglass Residential College
Rutgers logo
Douglass Residential College
Rutgers logo
Douglass Residential College
students at voorhees

2025-2030 Strategic Plan

The new strategic plan is available to view! Learn more about the priorities and goals that will shape the future of feminist education and women’s leadership at Rutgers.

Douglass Residential College is where Rutgers students come to ground their education in feminist perspective and develop in a dynamic community as leaders who will change the world.

Guided by Mission, Vision, and Values

Completed to align with Rutgers University – New Brunswick Academic Master Plan, Douglass’ strategic plan envisions a transformative future built on more than a century of success. Today’s Douglass is a leading model for feminist education, incorporating a culture of advancement within one of the finest universities in the country. Hover or tap to learn more.

Douglass Students in Voorhees

Mission

Douglass students ground their education in a feminist perspective. Through cutting-edge programs, supportive living and learning communities, & real-world collaborative opportunities, Douglass educates, supports, and prepares students to confidently lead, inspire, influence, and achieve. Douglass offers the academic excellence of a premier research university while empowering its unique community to take on the problems of today’s world & build a more just and equitable future for women.
College hall and red pine banner

Vision

Douglass is a vibrant living and learning community at Rutgers focused on educating feminist leaders across disciplines to become global citizens and agents of positive change in the world. Internally at Rutgers, nationally, and internationally, we have a reputation as a leading model for women’s education, incorporating a culture of inclusive advancement within one of the finest universities in the country.
Students at Graduation

Values

Women’s experiences

Belonging

Experiential

Leadership

Community

Who We Are

Our Priorities

Hover or tap to learn about the critical priorities of the 2025-2030 strategic plan. Go in depth on each priority below.

Lily Barber

1. Living and Learning Together

Douglass is a trailblazer, at Rutgers and nationally, in the delivery of living and learning experiences focused on women students that enhance their college education in practical, holistic, and outcome-oriented ways.

“The Douglass Gender and Arts LLC showed me which doors are open to non-art majors at Rutgers and gave me the tools to create.” - Lily Barber DRC'28, Gender and Arts LLC
Faith Berry

2. Women and Leadership

Douglass offers students opportunities to develop as leaders towards the goal of a more just and ethical world, with a particular emphasis on women’s experience.

"In Douglass' Knowledge and Power course, I really found my voice." - Faith Berry DRC'25 
Shilpa Gidugu

3. Community Engagement

Douglass is a multidimensional community–internal to Douglass, with Rutgers University, with the local New Brunswick community, and with the global feminist community–that offers mentorship, engagement, and hands-on opportunities for service connected to academic
accomplishments.

"Global Programs at Douglass has grown my character as well as my capacity for authentic, meaningful leadership." - Shilpa Gidugu DRC'24, Global at Douglass Service Learning Student
Student at externship in front of welcome sign

4. Four Year Pathway

Douglass follows a four-year pathway model that integrates hands-on experiences early, builds on prior experiences, and connects to better post-graduation outcomes for students headed both to careers and to graduate school.

“My externship...was a rewarding experience. I gained valuable knowledge in care management and service planning, while learning the administrative dynamics of an organization that makes a positive impact on youth and families.” - Kiara Adasi-Jantuah DRC'26, Externship Program
Douglass Year book

5. Douglass Brand and Reputation

Douglass is unique and offers unparalleled opportunities for student participation and external support towards greater gender parity, more robust community engagement, and building the next generation of feminist leaders.

1. Living and Learning Together

Douglass is a trailblazer, at Rutgers and nationally, in the delivery of living and learning experiences focused on women students that enhance their college education in practical, holistic, and outcome-oriented ways.

 

Key Objectives

  • Integrate a living and learning experience into the first year for all Douglass students regardless of major or interest
  • Rethink living and learning to be about more than where students sleep and to encompass a wider variety of student experiences, including hands-on and experiential learning
  • Expand faculty partnerships around interdisciplinary feminist work in LLCs, faculty fellows, course offerings, and program design
  • Build and renovate Douglass campus infrastructure to support LLC program delivery, in residential, academic, and student affairs spaces

Meet Our Living-Learning Communities

    A selection of service learning and research oriented communities that focus on building a deeper understanding of the challenges affecting women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people across the world. Students take courses, travel locally and globally, and conduct research projects on a topic of their choosing.

    As part of the Global Village, the La Casa: Latino & Caribbean Diasporas House, engage in understanding what it means to be “Latine” and Caribbean in the U.S. and around the world.

    As part of the Global Village, the Sustainability and the Environment House engages focuses on the importance of developing and implementing sustainable environmental practices that influence behavior, education, environmental access, bio-terrorism and more. This house is centered on nutrition, both physical and renewable resources and the urgency for answers to climate change.

    Since 2012, up to 50 first-year students in engineering have the opportunity to participate in this robust community for Douglass students in engineering.

    Established in 1989, it welcomes up to 70 first-year students intending to major in the sciences. Located on the Douglass Campus, the Sciences LLC provides a nurturing environment that fosters a strong sense of belonging and promotes academic excellence among women in science.

    Since 2016, up to 40 first-year students intending on majoring in computer science have the opportunity to participate in this impactful community for Douglass students in computing.

    Leah DeVunn

    The Gender & Arts Living-Learning Community is designed to bring arts education to students in a range of fields who have varied experience, training, and skill levels. During a year-long experience, students learn about representations of gender in art, explore their creativity, work with artists, gain hands-on experience, and exhibit artwork in the Spring!

    Since 2023, up to 40 first-year students in the Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing live together in this health focused community which takes place on the Busch Campus.

    2. Women and Leadership

    Douglass offers students opportunities to develop as leaders towards the goal of a more just and ethical world, with a particular emphasis on women’s experience.

    Key Objectives

    • Identify and uphold ethical feminist leadership principles across Douglass programs and
      initiatives
    • Integrate leadership development theory more deliberately across Douglass programming, and include leadership development goals in relevant program design
    • Expand Douglass’ role in research production and dissemination both as experiences for undergraduates and on the topic(s) of undergraduates, women's education, and leadership

    Meet Feminist Leaders

    Dr. Brug
    Alumnae Spotlight

    Alumna Spotlight - Dr. Pamela Brug DC'84

    For Dr. Pamela Brug DC’84, an OBGYN with Robert Wood Johnson, making a difference for her patients requires dedication both inside and outside the office. As a result, Dr. Brug is active not only as a clinician and surgeon, but as a champion of education, community building, and social justice. 

    Sabrina Charles DRC'24
    Student Spotlight

    Sabrina Charles DRC’24 Highlighted by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy

    This past January, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy gave his 2024 State of the State Address.

    “With us today is Sabrina Charles—who will be graduating, with Honors, from the Rutgers School of Nursing this May,” said Governor Phil Murphy in his speech. “Sabrina is doing her part to help resolve our nursing shortage. And we are going to keep doing our part to support many others like her who are pursuing a career of service.”

    The student Governor Murphy highlighted, Douglass senior Sabrina Charles DRC’24, is a nursing major with a passion for holistic and equitable healthcare for all people.

    3. Community Engagement

    Douglass is a multidimensional community–internal to Douglass, with Rutgers University, with the local New Brunswick community, and with the global feminist community–that offers mentorship, engagement, and hands-on opportunities for service connected to academic accomplishments.

    Key Objectives

    • Integrate community-based, service-learning, interdisciplinary experiences more deliberately across Douglass programming, and include community engagement goals in relevant
      program design
    • Expand faculty partnerships around feminist work in social justice, community organizing, climate and sustainability, and nonprofit management
    • Build infrastructure on the Douglass campus that promotes engagement with the local and regional community, and drives students to engage with each other and other members of the Rutgers community

    Explore Engagement at Douglass

    Chelsea Obade
    Student Spotlight

    Student Spotlight - Chelsea Obade DRC’25

    Outside the lab, Obade continued to explore the intersection of STEM and education. This year, Obade was one of several Douglass student mentors that connected with high school-aged students from a rural area of Migouri County in Kenya. In each session, the Douglass mentors worked with the girls on STEM projects, which included making chapstick and building solar-powered fans. Douglass partnered with RU Global and Rongo University in Kenya for the project.

    Networking Night
    News

    Fall 2024 Networking Night at Douglass

    Douglass is a launchpad for student success. Through an interdisciplinary curriculum, students prepare to be leaders in every space where decisions are made—including the workplace. At Networking Night, Douglass students met with reps from major companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb, PSEG, Verizon, L’Oréal,  AT&T, and many more. They learned about each industry, received insights into the working world, and connected with future employers.

    Students networking around a table

    Our Partnerships

    Douglass partners with organizations both inside and outside Rutgers who share the College's vision of gender diversity, equity, and inclusion in all spheres of society. Alongside these trusted partners, Douglass provides transformational programs in academic excellence, career success, and leadership development that advance students in the classroom and the workplace.

    4. Four Year Pathway

    Douglass follows a four-year pathway model that integrates hands-on experiences early, builds on prior experiences, and connects to better post-graduation outcomes for students headed both to careers and to graduate school.

    Key Objectives

    • Build follow-on programming opportunities for students in their second year to transition from the first year living and learning experiences
    • Ensure first- and second-year students have access to high-impact, hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that scaffold to greater involvement
    • Build pathways for key majors and high-demand areas of student interest that can be integrated with the university pathways, and ensure that prospective students can envision themselves on one of those pathways
    • Work with schools and units to create efficiencies in program delivery, ensuring that Douglass remains value-added without additional requirements that might dissuade enrollment

    Learn more about experiential learning programs in the pathway

      The Reilly Program at the BOLD Center at Douglass for Advancing Women's Professional Development offers a specialized professional development curriculum alongside an immersive workplace experience known as an externship. Externships are job shadowing experiences of winter, spring, and summer break during which students work closley with a professional mentor, completed projects, and get a taste for a particular job or industry. Externships are designed to give students with no prior workplace experience a foot in the door.  

      The Douglass Summer Research Experience allows undergraduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to get hands-on laboratory experience early in their academic careers. Students take a common course, "Introduction to Scientific Research," are paired with a faculty mentor in a lab for the summer, and present on their findings at the Douglass STEM Research Symposium.

      Students in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Science work with Rutgers faculty and cutting-edge professionals to conduct special projects and research. Fellows include innovators from a variety of fields, including the fine arts, social justice, medicine, academia, activism, and more. Participants showcase their work at the annual Douglass Discovery Night at the end of the spring semester.

      Douglass artists develop essential skills for self-expression and empowerment through creativity with the Center for Women in the Arts at Douglass. Students in this collection of programs work with the Douglass Artist-in-Residence, experience workshops with visiting artists, have access to an open art studio, and explore art history through a feminist lens.

      5. The Douglass Brand and Reputation

      Douglass is unique and offers unparalleled opportunities for student participation and external support towards greater gender parity, more robust community engagement, and building the next generation of feminist leaders.

      Key Objectives

      • Renew the Douglass Brand through an inclusive and thoughtful process, including positioning statement, brand essence, value propositions, and creative platform
      • Focus communications efforts on key functions, including recruiting more students to programs and converting more alumni to donors, and identify technology and other support systems to automate communication functions
      • Build the reputation of Douglass nationally and internationally through curated communications focused on the mission, vision, and values of Douglass
      • Ensure the Douglass campus reflects the mission, vision, and values of Douglass

      Strategic Planning Process

      The strategic plan was developed with input from Douglass stakeholders, including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni. An internal steering committee met regularly during the 2023-2024 academic year, engaging groups as varied as the Douglass Governing Council, Red Pines, Dean’s Cabinet, Douglass Staff, Douglass Advisory Board Strategic Planning Committee, LLC partners, faculty fellows, externship site mentors, and others in information-gathering sessions. 

      Over several months, the stakeholders refined the mission, vision, and values for Douglass and identified critical priorities that offer direction for the next five to seven years of Douglass’ future. These critical priorities are aligned with the mission, vision, and values, and further advance the Academic Master Plan under the leadership of the Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor. The Dean’s Cabinet, Douglass staff, and Advisory Board will implement the strategic plan. Special thanks to the Rutgers Office of Organizational Leadership for their support of these efforts.