Dear colleague,
The Rutgers administration has published an official response to the University Task Force on Caste Discrimination, and it shows how much progress our unions have made in compelling the university to address a form of discrimination that is often downplayed or ignored. The announcement explicitly states that caste discrimination is prohibited under university policy for everyone in the Rutgers community, and it commits to further steps to investigate and confront the issue.
As you’ll remember, our unions demanded during the last contract campaign that the administration recognize the existence of caste-based discrimination and prohibit it on our campuses. We won contract protections against this form of bias for those represented by our unions, as well as the creation of a joint University Task Force to examine the impact of caste discrimination and make recommendations regarding policies covering the whole university.
The Task Force finished its report late last summer (you can read it here), and the administration promised to review its recommendations. Though they did not add caste as a specific category of discrimination prohibited at Rutgers, their announcement clearly acknowledges that caste-based discrimination exists and that current university policy bans it based on other protected categories. This statement has the same effect as what our unions and the Task Force proposed.
The administration announcement goes on to corroborate stories of caste-based discrimination collected in the Task Force report, outline steps for redressing it, and commit to collecting further data about caste. As our colleague Audrey Truschke, co-chair of the Caste Task Force and chair of the AAUP-AFT Academic Freedom Committee, wrote:
The announcement engages with the substance of the Caste Task Force report, including echoing some of our major points about the nuances and layers of caste-based discrimination and caste identity. Our report emphasized the need to educate members of the Rutgers community about caste and its harms, and we’re doing that already. It’s a solid foundation for pursuing greater caste equity on campus!
We want to thank Audrey, the other Task Force members, and members of our union who worked so hard to bring this issue to light and win protections for an often-ignored form of discrimination. Everyone can take pride in this progress we’ve made together!
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
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