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Climate Survey 2019

Connect, Share Knowledge, and Succeed Within the LGBTQ+ and Ally Legal Community.

Rutgers Law School

Rutgers Law School

February 7, 2019

1. Does your law school intentionally seek out LGBTQ+ prospective students?
Yes
a. If so, how and where are your efforts directed?

Rutgers Law School makes an effort to ensure that our student body is diverse in a multitude of ways, including with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity.

2. Does your law school's welcome packet for admitted students include mention of identity group support for LGBTQ+ students, as well as for students of color or other minorities?
Yes
3. Does your school offer students the option to self-identify as LGBTQ+ in admissions applications or post-enrollment forms?
Yes
4. Does your law school offer transgender students who have not legally changed their names the ability to have their name of choice on admission applications or post enrollment forms?
Yes
5. Does your law school provide any annual scholarships specifically for LGBTQ+ students?
No
6. Does your law school provide funding, including travel support, for LGBTQ+ students to participate in LGBTQ+-focused learning and career services opportunities?
No
a. If so, please provide details and examples of when and how those opportunities have been utilized.
7. Does your law school actively seek to employ diverse staff/faculty/administrators, including visible, out LGBTQ+ individuals?
Yes
a. If so, please detail how and where recruitment efforts are directed

Yes. Our ads indicate that we are eager to hire individuals who are LGBTQ+ and we work to identify such people in any pool to ensure that we build a strong collection of candidates.

8. Please identify, to your knowledge, how many out LGBTQ+ faculty your law school employs (if any)
6
a. If you answered 'yes' or 'unsure,' please describe your school's process for collecting this data
How many out LGBTQ+ faculty of color does your institution currently employ in total?
2
9. Please identify, to your knowledge, how many out LGBTQ+ staff/administrators?
0
10. Does your law school provide benefits such as health insurance, family medical leave, parental leave, and nontraditional family planning such as in vitro fertilization and/or adoptive benefits on equal terms to same-sex couples who are married or in registered domestic partnerships as are provided to different-sex married or registered domestic partner couples?
Yes
a. If so, please summarize or reproduce your policy here

Yes. See, https://uhr.rutgers.edu/benefits/health-benefits/medical-plans

11. Does your law school offer the aforementioned health benefits to students and their same-sex spouses/partners?
Yes
a. If so, please summarize or reproduce your policy here

Yes. See policy and information on the Rutgers Center for Social Justice and Trans Community here: http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/trans-ru/campus-trans-health-services/

12. Does your law school offer transition-related health benefits to transgender and/or transitioning employees?
Yes
a. If so, please summarize or reproduce your policy here

Yes. Rutgers University offers various health care plans to its employees, most of which provide transition-related health benefits to transgender and/or transitioning employees provided certain criteria are met. The following is a link to the guidebooks of the various plans: https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/member-guidebooks.shtml

13. Does your school offer the same transition-related healthcare benefits to students and their partners/spouses?
Yes
a. If so, please summarize or reproduce your policy here (or you may email a copy of your policy to rishell@lgbtbar.org):

Yes. See policy and information on the Rutgers Center for Social Justice and Trans Community here: http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/trans-ru/campus-trans-health-services/

14. Do all students at your law school have access to counseling and/or therapy services either through the law school or the larger University?
Yes

Yes. Full and part time law students in Newark and Camden have access to free and confidential counseling services at on campus Counseling Centers.

15. Does your law school provide at least bi-annual mandatory diversity and inclusion training that incorporates robust LGBTQ+ curriculum, for all staff/faculty/administrators?
No
16. Does your law school provide a gender-inclusive restroom in any and/or all law school buildings?
Yes
a. How is that restroom identified (i.e., what does the signage say, is it identified on building maps, is there a gender-inclusive restroom policy that applies to all restrooms and where is that statement published, etc.)?

Yes. The law school has a number of individual gender-neutral restrooms and we are in the process of creating more. Similarly, most stalled restrooms already have a sign on the wall just beside the door that states: “Diversity is Welcome Here. All are encouraged to use the restroom that best fits their gender identity.” Every bathroom will have those signs by the end of this semester.

17. Does your law school have one or more annual LGBTQ+ course offerings (e.g., LGBT Law and Policy, Sexual Orientation and the Law, Gender and the Law (taught with trans-inclusive and focused materials), etc.)?
Yes
a. If so, please list course names

Yes. Sexuality, Gender, Identity & the Law; Sex Discrimination; Gender and the Law Seminar; Race, Gender & Tort Law Seminar.

18. Does your law school have an active, visible LGBTQ+ law student group that is supported by the institution?
Yes
19. Does your law school have a hate/bias incident policy that students are required to follow?
Yes
a. If so, does that process specifically identify sexual orientation, gender identity, or both as protected categories?
b. is there a clear hate bias/incident reporting process for students/faculty/staff to utilize if necessary?
Yes
20. Please describe all additional ways, not identified through your responses, that your law school works to be safe, inclusive, and welcoming to LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and administrators:

The Rutgers Center for Gender, Sexuality, Law and Policy (CGSLP) facilitates interdisciplinary and publicly-engaged research, curricular, and programming initiatives in furtherance of gender- and sexuality-based equity in law and policy. CGSLP seeks specifically to examine questions of social inequality from multi-disciplinary and intersectional standpoints, attending to the complex ways in which gender and sexuality interact with a range of social dimensions. A description of the center and it’s important work can be found here: https://cgslp.rutgers.edu/.

Several of our faculty have signs outside of their offices indicating that they provide a safe space for students who identify as LGBTQ+.

We regularly host events, typically panels, where students can interact with and learn from attorneys who are LGBTQ+ and/or working on issues critical to that community. In the last year, our OUTLaws chapter held a reception for alums and current students and the plan is to continue offering such an event annually.