Dear colleague,
In our last contract campaign, our unions made a demand that caste be added as a protected category to the university’s nondiscrimination policy. While the administration resisted this, we did win an agreement for a grievance procedure to protect everyone in our bargaining unit from caste discrimination—and also the creation of a joint University Task Force to examine how caste-based discrimination impacts students, faculty, and other members of the Rutgers community.
The Task Force’s report is ready (click here to read it), and it recommends that Rutgers add caste as a protected category, as we initially proposed. The Task Force collected testimony about caste-based discrimination on multiple Rutgers campuses, demonstrating that this form of bias—manifest in many communities globally—is negatively affecting Rutgers students and faculty. The report makes additional recommendations, including that Rutgers devote resources to creating awareness of caste on campus and sponsor the collection of systematic information about caste-based discrimination in our university community.
We hope you’ll read this important report about a form of discrimination that often goes unaddressed. During the Fall semester, we will push the administration to accept the report’s recommendations—which were supported nearly unanimously by Task Force members, including those from the administration—to help cultivate greater equity within the Rutgers community.
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Facebook page: https://facebook.com/RUaaup/
Follow us on Twitter @ruaaup and Instagram @rutgersaaup
Freedom School YouTubeChannel: https://rutgersaaup.org/YouTube
Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rutgersptlfc
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Visit our website: https://rutgers-ptlfc.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ website: https://aaupbhsnj.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RUaaupbhsnj