A variety of students' hands on the Rider Rock

Vision for Inclusive Excellence

Rider University is committed to fostering an inclusive, vibrant living and learning community that embraces students, faculty and staff of all backgrounds and enables them to achieve success. 

Through reflection and open, respectful dialogue, we develop responsible citizens who demonstrate academic understanding and compassion to grow and serve as leaders in a diverse and global world.

Strategic Initiatives

As an institution striving for inclusive excellence, we intentionally infuse efforts to promote equity and inclusion in all aspects of our campus, including:

How Rider promotes equity and inclusion

  • Recruiting and retaining diverse students, faculty and staff
  • Promoting a safe and welcoming physical environment and campus climate that garners a sense of belonging
  • Facilitating cultural competency and understanding throughout the University community
  • Developing equitable policies and practices
  • Engaging proactively with the surrounding community

Our Campus Commitment

The Inclusive Excellence Plan highlights Rider’s values of diversity, equity and inclusion and outlines strategic commitments to advance Rider as an inclusive community. The Plan is a product of the year-long work of the President’s Council on Inclusion, a group of committed faculty, staff and students who facilitated a comprehensive process engaging more than 100 faculty, staff, student and alumni members of the University community.

Inclusive Excellence Plan

Inclusive Excellence Plan

The Inclusive Excellence Plan presupposes the values of diversity, equity and inclusion are intentionally woven into the fabric of what we do and who we are as Rider University. The Rider University Inclusive Excellence Plan, therefore, takes elements from the University strategic plan that articulate these values and outlines a road map to implementation — defining key opportunities and priorities to exemplify inclusion in every aspect of what we do. 

Download the Plan (PDF)

Rider University Inclusion Goals

  1. Improve recruitment, retention and graduation rates of students whose identities are underrepresented, marginalized and/or underresourced in higher education.
  2. Improve the diversity of employees to better reflect the diverse identities represented in our student population.
  3. Advance cultural competency as a core component of Rider student learning for all students, assuring students can identify and explain the potential benefits and/or conflicts that arise from a world that is a complex, interdependent global system of social, cultural and economic communities.
  4. Develop and maintain a positive campus climate which embraces the diversity of identities for all members of our community, while also promoting inclusion specifically for those who are underrepresented, marginalized and/or underresourced in higher education.
  5. Signify institutional commitment to inclusion by enhancing structural support throughout policies, facilities and resource allocation.
  6. Extend Rider as a leader for issues of inclusion with the surrounding community.

Related Campus Resources

Students stand as group outside of SRC
National Coming Out Day march

Community Engagement

Cultural, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion events are defined, as follows:

  • Cultural: Events that refer to ideas, customs, and social behaviors of society. This includes events about cultural customs, laws, social standards, religious beliefs, and traditions.
  • Diversity: Events that present on the presence of individual and group characteristics that make people unique, which may include the following dimensions: age, country of origin, (dis)abilities, economic background, education level, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political views, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and veteran status, among others.
  • Equity: Events that discuss providing access to opportunities and support that will enable all members of our Rider community to achieve success, taking into consideration individual differences.
  • Inclusion: Events that engage in the active, intentional and ongoing engagement with diversity in all aspects of the campus experience in ways that ensure environments where differences are welcomed, varying perspectives are respectfully shared and heard, and where every individual feels a sense of respect and belonging.

Campus Cultural & Heritage Celebrations

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month is recognized from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens with ancestry from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. September 15 is the starting date because it signifies the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries.

National Coming Out Day

Rider celebrates Coming Out Day on October 11 to raise awareness, recognize and provide solidarity to members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Native American Heritage Month

In November, The Piscataway Indian Nation visits the Rider campus to perform breathtaking and captivating traditional dances to celebrate the Native American warrior, the women of their tribe, and wisdom, strength, and power, as they bring awareness to the campus community through their art and messaging.

Black History Month

During the month of February, the Black student organizations in collaboration with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, support initiatives to bring awareness in the Rider community of the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans to the American and global society.

Women's History Month

A cultural celebration celebrated in March designed to heighten awareness of the accomplishments and contributions of women to American and global society.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM)

Rider University celebrates APAHM in April with a variety of traditional cultural events from book discussions, HOLI and Karaoke nights.