Rutgers launches new intercultural initiative
Archived article from Nov 4, 2002
By Sandra Lanman
Promoting and enhancing interaction among Rutgers' diverse undergraduate student body is the aim of an initiative being launched this fall. The project is funded for three years by a $225,000 grant from the Bildner Family Foundation.
The universitywide initiative will reach students in and out of the classroom through curricular and cocurricular activities that will include new courses in a variety of disciplines and modifications to existing academic programs on the New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses, according to Susan Forman, vice president for undergraduate education.
" 'How can we foster positive intercultural interaction?' is one of the great questions that remains to be answered by our society," said Forman. "This grant assists us in implementing new programs that will allow us to promote and build intergroup understanding, and reduce prejudice and bigotry."
The grant from the Bildner Family Foundation is part of its New Jersey Campus Diversity Initiative, which seeks to build on existing efforts in higher education "to effectively use the diversity in our state and our nation as an educational resource to adequately prepare graduates to live and work in an increasingly diverse, but still unequal, society." The Rutgers initiative will go beyond simply providing knowledge about different cultures to encouraging cross-cultural interaction.
"The multiplicity of cultures and ethnic groups enriches the academic and social experience at Rutgers, but we truly become a community by understanding each other and by learning and developing together," said Joseph J. Seneca, university vice president for academic affairs. "This grant enables us to realize many components of this goal across the university."
Isabel Nazario, director of the Center for Latino Arts and Culture and executive director for intercultural initiatives, will serve as project director.
In addition to creating new courses and activities, the initiative will seek to connect and enhance many existing activities related to diversity by sponsoring fellows, summer institutes, lectures, colloquia, cultural events and a Web site. The goal is to make the issues of diversity and intercultural interaction central to the undergraduate curriculum and nature of the Rutgers community, Forman said.
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