Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes

Founded in 1987, the Committee To Advance Our Common Purposes champions our individual and collective humanity and respect for our differences. The Committee, reporting to the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, is committed to fostering intercultural relations while reducing acts of prejudice and bias. Since its founding in 1987 the Committee has championed the values which celebrate our differences as humanity while advancing our common purposes as a community. True to this mission, the Committee comprises a diverse representation of faculty, staff, students, and community members from the Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick Campuses. Among its goals are to:

  • Foster inter-cultural dialogue and relations across diverse people, campuses and communities
  • Promote the reduction of prejudice, hate and bias crimes
  • Celebrate the distinctness of cultures and vast richness of diversity through out Rutgers University
  • Enhance the ties that bind our common purposes' between Rutgers University and community

The Committee's goal of addressing issues that relate to fostering diversity is reflected in the many programs it sponsors. It continues to highlight the significance of diversity in the areas of: curriculum, community centered programs, education and training, campus climate research, grant supported programs, differential learning, national teleconference issue oriented programs, week long celebrations, and recognition for commitment to diversity. The committee continually seeks to develop innovative programs to advance our common purposes.

Grants

Human Dignity Award

Every April, the Rutgers University Human Dignity Awards honors up to five individuals or groups who have demonstrated extraordinary achievement and commitment in promoting the value and importance of diversity at Rutgers and in society. The Human Dignity Awards Program is open to all university individuals, organizations, departments, units, from the Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick campuses. Each recipient will receive a citation at an awards ceremony and a monetary gift, all or a portion of which may be donated to an organization of the recipients choice for diversity enhancements.

Human Dignity Award Nonimation Guidelines and Form (pdf) | Human Dignity Award Nomination Guideline and Form (Word)

This website was developed under the auspices of the Committee to Advance our Common Purposes. The site provides a comprehensive and interactive online index of diversity resources at Rutgers.