Strategic Plan Progress Report, August 2025

During the 2023-24 academic year, approximately 70 SAS faculty, staff, and students developed a Strategic Plan that identifies a shared mission, vision, and set of values to complete the transformation into One SAS. As we become One SAS, we strive to integrate the breadth of perspectives and multiple definitions of success that stem from our distinct origins while looking to a future grounded in a common set of values along with shared priorities and goals. A vital component of this process is a dynamic strategic plan – a roadmap of guiding principles with the flexibility to adapt to the changing environment in which we work.

Mission

The School of Arts and Sciences is the core of the research and teaching missions of Rutgers–New Brunswick, providing a foundational liberal arts education to students from all backgrounds.  Our world-class faculty generates and shares knowledge from the subatomic to the social to the cosmological, inspiring our students’ intellectual growth and curiosity while preparing them to become informed and engaged leaders ready for the challenges of our quickly evolving world. All of this is achieved with the dedicated support of our outstanding staff who advise our students and work to ensure the smooth and effective functioning of the school. 

Vision

The School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers–New Brunswick will expand its excellence by advancing innovative teaching and research strategies that lay the foundation for a lifetime of success for scholars and students while enriching our communities and society more broadly.

Academic Themes: Arts and Sciences in a Complex and Changing World

The following areas were identified as the most promising areas in which to build on existing strengths across the diverse range of disciplines and fields of inquiry in SAS. 

• An Intelligent World: Artificial Intelligence in Education, Technology, and Society
• An Ethical World:  Knowledge, Power, and Justice
• A Shared World: Expanding and Communicating the Frontiers of Human Knowledge
• A Healthy and Sustainable World: Health, Well-Being, and Environment

We are at our best when our work is integrated across our goals. As with the original strategic plan, the text is divided into sections to facilitate understanding and ease of reading. However, many of the articulated goals and strategies overlap and complement one another. A critical overarching theme across all four goals is bringing people together in new ways. Enhancing connections and communication is critical to advancing our progress in concrete ways while also making our work more meaningful and enjoyable. The updates below include both initiatives started in the 2024-25 academic year and examples of some ongoing programs with earlier origins.

The report is not intended to document every detail of our large and complex organization, but rather to highlight key areas of progress. It has become clear over the last year that we need to develop strategies to share information more effectively. In particular, we need to expand awareness of the exceptional work being done throughout the school that advances our mission and supports the goals of this plan. The more we know about this work, the better we can highlight our strengths and advocate for the critical needs of the school.

Mentoring and Alumni Connections

SAS First Together was developed during the 2024-25 academic year. A structured, extended mentoring experience, this new program brought together groups of current first-generation SAS undergraduate students with alumni who had been first-generation students during their time in SAS or one of its four legacy colleges. A pilot was run during the Spring 2025 semester. At least one student received a summer internship stemming directly from the connections made during this program. The program is being expanded to run across the 2025-26 academic year and will include a new pass/no-credit course (01:090:209, SAS First Together).

SAS also continued the Interdisciplinary Research Team Fellowship (IRT), a donor-funded program that supports interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects that expand traditional notions of research through collaborative work. The program supports teams of 2-5 rising sophomores and juniors working on a semester or year-long project. In the 2024-25 academic year, the IRT program supported five research projects, with faculty members in all four SAS divisions.

Courses

Faculty and departments continued their ongoing efforts to develop meaningful course-based experiential learning opportunities. Some examples from the 2024-25 academic year included approval for: (A) a new internship-based course in which students will get firsthand experience in the criminal justice system while working in conjunction with the New Jersey Governor’s office (01:790:486, New Jersey Clemency Project); (B) a new course designed to develop the instructional and mentoring skills of undergraduates in a biological laboratory setting (01:694:450, Instructional Internship); and (C) a reimagined course that will introduce students to the theory and practice of event and program management in public arts and humanities fields (01:050:350, Event and Program Management in the Arts and Humanities, formerly titled Festival Curation Seminar).

During the 2024-25 academic year, SAS departments developed and/or newly articulated predictable plans for their course offerings. Goals included enhancing the ability of students to plan, reducing work for the faculty and staff involved in arranging the instructional schedules each year, and providing improved and more consistent matches between offerings and student needs. Significant progress was made, and the SAS division deans and communications team will work with departments as needed in the upcoming year to complete the plans and publish student-focused versions of them on unit websites.

With the goal of advancing courses that support non-traditional and returning students, the SAS Strategic Curriculum Development Program (beginning in 2022) offered $2,000 in incentive funding and structured support (a 5-week online design course and follow-up instructional design consultations) for developing or redesigning online courses. In the 2024-25 academic year, 7 online course redevelopment projects were supported across the Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Life Sciences divisions.

In Spring 2025, SAS initiated a new program for the development of multi-disciplinary courses, providing up to $30,000 for faculty teams to create large, lower-level classes that span at least two SAS departments and align with the academic themes in the SAS strategic plan. Five applications were received from faculty teams representing 11 departments and all four SAS divisions. Two proposals were funded: (A) Pills, Plants, and Power submitted from the Department of Anthropology and Department of Sociology; and (B) From Playground to Purpose: Building Blocks of a Fulfilling Life submitted from the Department of Psychology and Department of Kinesiology and Health.

Beginning in Fall 2025, departments and programs will be asked to indicate the SAS academic theme(s) represented in their newly developed or revised courses as part of the proposal form submitted for SAS Curriculum Committee review. Because this information was not available for the 2024-25 academic year, the SAS Teaching and Learning team within the Office of Undergraduate Education reviewed all the new courses approved in the past year to identify the theme(s) that seemed to most closely align with each new course. Nearly all new courses were aligned with at least one of the four themes, and many aligned with more than one. In total, 26 new courses were approved in the 2024-25 academic year, spanning the themes as follows.

Modifications to Degree Programs 

Several interdisciplinary undergraduate programs revised their requirements during the 2024-25 academic year: Data Science eliminated the mini-capstone requirement for the certificate and minor and reduced the number of courses required to declare the major, with the goals of ensuring timely graduation and supporting student success; the American Studies major was restructured to include four thematic concentrations, providing students with more guided pathways through the major; and the course requirements for the minor in Organizational Leadership were revised to provide a more structured and consistent experience for students. Two new minors spanning multiple New Brunswick schools (administered by SEBS) were developed in the 2024-25 academic year and are now available to SAS students: Health Equity and Holistic Wellness.  

Enrollment in Interdisciplinary Degree Programs

SAS has long valued interdisciplinary education and scholarship, and offers numerous degrees that cross more traditional boundaries.  In an effort to quantify these metrics and track them consistently over time, the following definition of ‘interdisciplinary’ was adopted for this report.  Programs are considered interdisciplinary if the faculty in the offering unit represent a range of academic fields traditionally housed in different departments or schools at Rutgers, and/or the program includes courses from other departments or schools. (Note: STEM programs aren’t classified as interdisciplinary solely based on requiring math or introductory coursework from multiple departments.) 

Using these criteria, SAS has 21 interdisciplinary majors, with 1,613 unique students declared in the 2024-25 academic year, up from 1,267 in the prior year. SAS also hosts 32 interdisciplinary minors, with 1,843 unique students declared in the 2024-25 academic year, an increase from 1,705 in the prior year. Additionally, SAS contributes to five inter-school minors with 175 unique students enrolled in the 2024-25 academic year, up from 136 in the 2023-24 academic year.   

Connecting Across Disciplines to Enhance Student Success

Several opportunities were advanced by the SAS Office of Undergraduate Education for faculty to discover shared interests across disciplines. These include:

• Interdisciplinary Teaching Conversation in April 2025 featuring a panel discussion and networking reception to promote interdisciplinary teaching, foster cross-disciplinary connections, and encourage applications to the Multi-Disciplinary Course Program. Thirty-eight individuals attended from 20 SAS departments across all four divisions.
• “Teaching with AI” book clubs, in which three groups met monthly, with 40 faculty participants representing 19 departments across all four SAS divisions. These groups of faculty members read Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson, and engaged in wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary discussions of the impact of AI on instruction, ways to manage that impact, and ways to productively engage with or utilize AI tools in teaching.
• Tea and Teaching. Four events were hosted in this continuing series in 2024-25. This program creates a casual (Zoom) space for discussion and Q&A with guests about teaching and learning-related topics. The 2024-25 conversations included:
  • October (51 participants): Dr. Tracie Marcella Addy, founding director of the Institute for Teaching, Innovation, and Inclusive Pedagogy, led a session on co-creating learning environments with students, sharing strategies for collaboration and amplifying student voices.
  • November (44 participants): Rick Lau (Political Science) and Elizabeth Matto (Eagleton Institute of Politics) discussed approaches to fostering respectful, productive classroom dialogue during a highly contested election season.
  • February (34 participants): Elizabeth Matto returned for a follow-up session focused on helping students develop critical thinking, engage with differing views, and reflect on their values amid continued uncertainty and instability. She shared tools from her “Talking Across Difference” initiative to support productive and respectful classroom discourse.
  • April (26 participants): Members of the “Voices of Diversity” Student Advisory Board reflected on planning for life after Rutgers, touching on career planning, economic uncertainty, AI, and the political climate. The session focused on how instructors can support students as they prepare for the workforce.

Throughout the 2024-25 academic year, the SAS Teaching and Learning team and the SAS TRIAD Coalition collaborated to facilitate the convening of a group of faculty in the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. This program brought together course coordinators for large, foundational, multi-section courses along with academic leaders. Participants discussed challenges and opportunities, shared strategies and best practices, and worked collaboratively on initiatives to improve their courses.

An ad hoc group of faculty members across SAS divisions, both tenure system and non-tenure track, are also meeting to discuss how to increase student engagement in courses. The group is co-led by Gary Heiman (Department of Genetics) and Brittney Cooper (Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Department of Africana Studies). They began meeting in Spring 2025 and plan to continue through the 2025-26 academic year to gather data and develop strategies.

Learning Goals Focused on Students’ Future Success

Program learning goals articulate the most important demonstrable skills or competencies that students will develop by the end of their course of study. Of the 46 SAS undergraduate departments and programs, 15 (spanning all four divisions) have articulated learning goals that explicitly reference students’ future success, often by mentioning the preparation their programs provide for graduate studies and/or professional careers. Many others indirectly reference students’ future success, and in the 2024-25 academic year, one department updated its learning goals to incorporate clear linkages between the program and students’ potential career paths. Moving forward, the SAS Assessment Committee and the SAS Office of Undergraduate Education aim to support interested departments and programs in refining their learning goals to more transparently convey how students’ academic experiences prepare them for future success.

Experiential Learning

SAS continues to advance its commitment to undergraduate research and experiential learning. Numerous examples exist across all SAS divisions, available across the academic year and during the summer. We are considering ways to increase innovative opportunities going forward. For example, a new initiative led by the Department of Kinesiology and Health was launched in collaboration with Rutgers Track & Field, providing hands-on opportunities for approximately 20 students to apply classroom knowledge in real-world settings.

Connecting Scholars Across Disciplines

SAS hosted two Research Conversations in each semester of the 2024-25 academic year, with the topics of the four academic themes identified in the strategic plan. All SAS faculty were invited. In each case, a panel of faculty spanning the school’s four divisions presented their work in the field, a question-and-answer session followed, along with a discussion of bridges that might be built to advance in new directions. The events closed with a reception to facilitate conversation among smaller groups of faculty. Across the events, more than 100 faculty attended.

Multidisciplinary Research Funding From SAS

SAS issued a call for proposals to provide seed funding for research in the areas of the four academic themes. Funding was available to individuals who are conducting research at a novel intersection of disciplines, or to groups of faculty members working together to advance research stemming from a unique junction of their individual programs of scholarship. The deadline was in March 2025. We received 28 proposals from across all SAS divisions, representing 17 departments (a total of $1.7M was requested). Seven proposals received funding totaling just over $393K for work scheduled through December 2026.

• Genetics; Anthropology – “Genomics in the Rainforest: Field deployment of nanopore sequencers for comparative primate malaria ecology”
• Spanish and Portuguese; Anthropology (also Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in SEBS) – “For Healthier Hosts: Expanding the Ethical Agenda of Human Microbiota Conservation”
• Computer Science; English; German, Russian and Eastern European Languages; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Latino and Caribbean Studies – “Community-led Language Technology for NJ: A Design Justice Approach”
• Political Science; Sociology – “Harnessing Large Language Models for Causal Inference in the Social Sciences”
• Genetics; Mathematics – “Modeling of Gene Regulatory Networks for Cellular Reprogramming and Systems-Level Health Insights”
• Computer Science – “Generative Learning and Agent-Based Simulation for Synthesis of Large-Scale Multi-Agent Datasets”
• Spanish and Portuguese; Kinesiology and Health – “Language Effects on the Perception of Chronic Pain”

External Funding

SAS faculty continue to lead outstanding research and scholarship across disciplines, with strong success in securing external funding. In the fiscal year (FY) 2025 (July 1, 2024 –June 30, 2025), research expenditures credited to contracts and grants submitted through SAS totaled $43.7 million—an increase from $37.3M in FY 2024.

Many of our faculty members submit grants through institutes that report to the New Brunswick Chancellor, in particular the Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey (HGINJ), the Waksman Institute, and the Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine (IQB). In FY 2025, 30 SAS faculty members held grants administered through affiliated research institutes rather than directly through SAS, accounting for an additional $29M in research expenditures.

Additionally, SAS faculty, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, receive support for their scholarship through mechanisms not processed by the Rutgers Office for Research. While these contributions are likely underreported due to limited access to records, the Rutgers Competitive Fellowship Leave Program provides a partial view. In FY 2025, 18 SAS faculty members were awarded fellowships through this program, with individual awards ranging from $32,000 to $121,500 and totaling over $1M. Moving forward, it will be valuable to capture similar data on graduate student fellowships, which are often funded by external agencies to support student-led research. These examples of external funding highlight the success and impact of SAS research and scholarship.

Collaborative Faculty Hiring

As part of our annual planning process with departments, we considered proposals for cluster hires in the strategic academic themes in addition to the types of individual tenure and non-tenure system hires routinely requested. Three proposals for clusters were received: one in the Humanities (3 positions, An Ethical World and A Shared World), one in Mathematics and Physical Sciences (4 positions, A Healthy and Sustainable World and An Intelligent World), and another spanning Humanities and the Social and Behavioral Sciences (6 positions, An Ethical World and A Shared World). We continue to be enthusiastic about the opportunity cluster hires offer to bring scholars together in innovative and synergistic ways. However, existing financial constraints limited our ability to support all requested faculty positions in the most recent cycle. There were many more submissions for faculty positions than we were able to fund, and we had to make some very difficult choices about which ones to prioritize in the context of student demand.

Clarifying Criteria for SAS Centers and Institutes

An ad hoc committee of faculty experienced in running centers and/or institutes met during Fall 2024 to develop necessary and suggested criteria for school-level centers and institutes. These were adopted as a component of the process for these units that are reviewed on a regular basis by the SAS Office of Research and Graduate Education.

SAS offered many undergraduate courses designated as ‘Community Engaged’: 54 in Fall 2024, 50 in Spring 2025, and 14 in Summer 2025 (many, but not all, are internship courses).

SAS continues to deepen its connection with surrounding communities through innovative, student-centered initiatives. One example highlights students who are applying their language skills to support nonprofits serving vulnerable populations.  Another involves young students arriving on campus during the summer to participate in Math Corps, a program offering a nurturing approach to teaching math alongside life lessons in kindness, community service, and resilience.

Examples of progress during the 2024-25 academic year include reorganization of the SAS Offices of Human Resources and Finance and Budget Planning. Our Events and Alumni Engagement team has joined the Communications and Marketing team to form the SAS Office of Communications, Events, and Alumni Engagement, which is designed to better serve the needs of the school in these intersecting areas. The Data Analytics team moved to report to the Vice Dean for Administration rather than working as a component of the Office of Information Technology, so that they are better positioned to develop strategies and dashboards to facilitate analyses critical to advancing our missions related to education and research. The complexities of curating, synthesizing, and interpreting data at Rutgers were again highlighted as information was pulled together for this report. Although access to certain types of information remains limited, we are now well-positioned to make meaningful progress in the years ahead.

After nearly a year of vacancy, we hired Mike Kiledjian as Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Education (as of July 1, 2025), and Chris Scherer has moved into that office (rather than reporting to the Executive Vice Dean) to create greater opportunities for advancing external engagement related to research and graduate education, as well as advancing entrepreneurial master’s programs.

Christina Pasley, formerly reporting to the Executive Vice Dean, has moved into a new position in the Executive Dean’s Office as Director of Strategic Initiatives. The role is designed to enhance transparency, connections, and communications among the divisions and other SAS central offices in ways that advance the goals of this strategic plan. While officially starting mid-summer 2025, during the 2024-25 academic year, Christina played a significant role in coordinating among these central teams to streamline processes and clarify roles and responsibilities.

The role of the Executive Vice Dean is in its last year, and the SAS centers that reported to that office are now transitioning to management by either the Division of Humanities or the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The majority of the centers are moving to the latter, and a new administrative structure is being developed for the division that will provide both increased support and opportunities for staff advancement.

Financial and budgeting practices have been updated to provide more transparency, consistency, and accountability. This work is still in progress, but we have taken significant strides toward providing departments and other units within SAS with clear budgets, as well as opportunities to share in revenue that is generated in ways that both incentivize school-level priorities and give departments some resources to invest in their own.

Within the SAS Executive Dean’s Office, new regular meetings have been scheduled at a range of levels, all designed to increase communication and collaboration, minimize duplication, and ensure we are all working together as effectively as possible to provide service, solve problems, and take advantage of opportunities.

In the 2024-25 academic year, we piloted a new annual planning process with all departments, sharing data and gathering insights into their opportunities, challenges, and priorities during the winter term. During the first half of the spring semester, SAS and division leadership met with leaders and administrative staff from eight departments to discuss goals, planning strategies, and ways we can enhance our data support. These conversations were both positive and productive, providing valuable feedback that is now shaping improvements to our annual planning process. Based on what we learned, we are preparing to expand this approach more broadly in the 2025-26 academic year.

SAS also provided an opportunity for faculty (tenure system and non-tenure track) and staff to receive funding to support inclusive engagement and community building within and across our units and their members. We received seven proposals from across the four divisions and funded four for a total of $25,000 to be used between March 1, 2025, and June 1, 2026.

Finally, we have realigned the focus of the Dean’s Advisory Council (comprised of alumni from SAS and its four legacy colleges) to more directly support the goals of the SAS Strategic Plan. This includes (A) building external partnerships to increase opportunities for students and research, and (B) cultivating connections that enhance philanthropic support for SAS.

Summary and Looking to the Future

We are proud of the progress that has been made during this first year of implementing the new SAS Strategic Plan. The document has provided grounding and a clear framework from which to advance our missions, especially amid ongoing challenges and uncertainty in higher education.

Our success so far and what we will achieve in the coming years is due to the care, dedication, and creativity of our extraordinary faculty and staff. While there remains much to do, we are optimistic about what we can accomplish together in the coming years as One SAS.