Multi-institutional Consortia

The Big Ten Academic Alliance is a leading national model for effective collaboration among research universities, especially flagship state universities. As a member of the Big Ten, Rutgers is able to offer faculty and students access to a multitude of resources and programs focused on DEI and the opportunity to leverage programming and collaborate on scholarship. Opportunities include:

Graduate recruitment

• Coordinated recruitment at national conferences that draw research-active prospective graduate students from diverse backgrounds
• FreeApp graduate application fee waivers
• The Summer Research Opportunity Program(SROP)
•  Recruitment and retention of women in STEM, especially women of color (a Big Ten Summit led by the Douglass Residential College at Rutgers)

Faculty recruitment

• Shared resources on diversifying the academy, including the Undergraduate and Faculty Fellows Program for a Diverse Professoriate
• Collaborative grants to promote access and equity, inclusive mentoring, and a transformational pathway to the professoriate
• Professorial Advancement Initiative
• National Research Mentoring Network-CIC Academic Network.  For more about our work, see publication, Leveraging a collaborative consortium model of mentee/mentor training to foster career progression of underrepresented postdoctoral researchers and promote institutional diversity and inclusion.
• Affinity groups, such as Chief Graduate Diversity Officers, who share best practices at monthly meetings

NEAGEP is a consortium of institutions with a shared commitment to increase the participation of underrepresented groups who earn STEM doctorates and enter the academy. Members include 10 R1s (primarily land grants in the Northeast) and five Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) partners. Through inter-institutional collaborations, we develop and implement programming to recruit, support, and mentor underrepresented students and thus promote their success through Ph.D. and career. More broadly, we engage in scholarship to help develop models applicable to students and faculty that remove barriers to diversity in STEM (access publication here) and promote peer-to-peer mentoring (access publication here).

In addition, NEAGEP promotes opportunities for faculty at member institutions to collaborate on grant proposals aligned with the consortium’s objectives. NEAGEP also sponsors professional development events and symposia where graduate students from the member institutions can share their research, develop mutual mentoring networks both within and across disciplines, and learn about career opportunities at each other’s universities.

National Name Exchange (NNE) is a consortium of 55 R1 institutions that provides a powerful platform for members to recruit each other’s underrepresented undergraduates who self-identify as planning graduate study. NNE collects and exchanges names of undergraduates annually, with about 8000 sophomores, juniors and seniors registering. SGS then has access to this talented pool. Through SGS membership, Rutgers own undergraduates also benefit. Typically, 500-800 Rutgers undergraduates register annually to be recruited by other consortium members.

Graduate Fellowships for STEM Diversity (GFSD, formerly National Physical Science Consortium) is a partnership among universities, government agencies, and industry to increase the number of U.S. citizens earning PhDs with emphasis on a diverse pool.

The National GEM Consortium is a network of universities and companies that partner to increase the participation of traditionally underrepresented minority groups in MS and Ph.D. programs in engineering, physical sciences, and life sciences. GEM provides competitive fellowships and industrial internships. As a GEM member, Rutgers has access to a national database of GEM fellowship applicants, allowing us to recruit top talent, who, if successful in the fellowship competition, will come with funding and the opportunity for corporate internships. Current Rutgers graduate students also can apply for GEM fellowships.