Community Engagement

At Douglass, students have space to confidently express their own identities while learning more about the perspectives and experiences of others. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion pillar of the Douglass curriculum offers students a range of programming that develops students into well-rounded leaders. Students learn to become advocates, engage in cross-cultural communication, and celebrate diverse backgrounds.

This past month, Douglass students traveled to New York City for a day out to Broadway. The group went to see Suffs, a musical that chronicles the women’s suffrage movement in the early twentieth century leading up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

On March 1st, the Douglass Student Center buzzed with excitement as Douglass Residential College hosted its 5th annual Women's Day event in honor of International Women's Day. The event was a celebration of women's resilience and achievements worldwide, and it brought together a diverse array of students, faculty, and staff.

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.

On Friday, March 3, the Douglass Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee presented the fourth annual Women's Day at Douglass. Over 200 students, staff, and community members gathered in the Kathleen W. Ludwig Global Village Living-Learning Center for an activity fair, student performances, spoken word artists, and lunch. Students also put on a fashion show, displaying and sharing cultural style from their heritages.

This past month, Douglass students and staff traveled to Kuwait! While abroad, students took part in educational and service-learning experiences centered around the feminist topics they study and research as part of the Douglass Global Leaders program.

At Douglass, diversity, equity, and inclusion is expansive, offering a wide array of initiatives to serve students from a multitude of unique experiences—including those who have had to take alternative paths to the typical college experience. During the month of November, the College is celebrating its thriving population of nontraditional students—students over the age of 23 pursuing a college education—and raising awareness for the challenges they face.

“Part of being a diverse and inclusive university is accepting and accommodating those from different backgrounds than the traditional demographic of students on campus,” said Gail Lordi DRC’24, a nontraditional aged Douglass student studying ITI and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.

On Monday, April 11, 2022, Douglass Residential College at Rutgers–New Brunswick will mark the launch of its new, innovative partnership with The Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) through a lecture by Dr. Hasnaa Mokhtar. In "Narrative Power and the Invisible Trauma of Gender-Based Violence," Dr. Mokhtar will engage students in one of the most pressing problems women face globally.

On March 4, 2022, Douglass hosted Women’s Day at Douglass, an annual college-wide event in honor of International Women’s Day! The afternoon sought to recognize the work of local and global gender equality initiatives while offering Douglass students a chance to connect.