An Update on RU-1st and Improving the Student Experience

January 25, 2017

Of the many strategic priorities I have focused on in the past few years, none are more important to me than those that help students succeed both inside and outside the classroom at Rutgers. With RU-1st, an initiative that started in 2015, I believe the university has made critical progress on improving the experiences of those students who come from low-income or underrepresented populations and are the first in their family to attend college. RU-1st does this by expanding access to academic and career advising, building an inclusive community through high-impact programming, and improving coordination among all academic and administrative units in the services and support they deliver to students.

As we continue to build RU-1st across the New Brunswick campus, I would like to highlight some of the initiative’s accomplishments to date.

Last summer, RU-1st welcomed its first cohort of the Paul Robeson Leadership Institute. The Institute provides academic support to first generation students, who are historically& underrepresented in higher education. Approximately a third of the Institute’s participants have made the Dean’s List, and two scholars have been selected for the First-Year Fellowship Certificate Program for aspiring future leaders.

We have also increased grant support and hired additional advisors for the Federal Student Support Services program, which serves 600 students annually who identify as first generation and low-income. Currently, 95% of these students are in good academic standing, with 48% possessing a GPA of 3.0 or greater and 20% on the Dean’s List.

We have expanded the programming for Access Week, which will kick off on Monday, February 13, 2017. This annual series of events aims to connect students with programming that encourages conversations on campus about diversity, inclusivity, and student retention and success. This year’s events will include: a screening of “Documented, The Film,” a youth summit, and a diversity symposium. Keynote speakers Jose Antonio Vargas, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, and Symone Sanders will speak on issues of race, equity, and diversity. 

Lastly, I have authorized strategic funding to expand the many programs on campus that already support our students, including the Engineering Opportunity Program (EOP) in the School of Engineering and the Douglass Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) Center. 

To ensure this important initiative has support and involvement from throughout the university, I have appointed an RU-1st committee composed of faculty and staff that is co-chaired by Melanye Price, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science, and James H. Whitney III, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Academic Affairs. This group, which features stakeholders from every level of student interaction, will continue the ongoing dialogue about student support and service delivery to ensure student success.  

I invite you to learn more about the available programming and resources of RU-1st. For faculty and staff who were the first in their family to attend college, I also encourage you to share your story, as I did, for RU-1st. For more information, visit the RU-1st website.   

Sincerely, 

Richard L. Edwards, Ph.D.
Chancellor, Rutgers University–New Brunswick