Overview

Rutgers University is committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive workplace free from harassment and discrimination. Guided by the leadership from the Office of the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, the university launched the Academic and Workplace Behaviors and Environment Survey (AWBES), the first universitywide survey of faculty, part-time lecturers, staff, postdoctoral fellows and associates, and teaching and graduate assistants.

Conducted from November 3 to December 15, 2022, the survey was designed to assess employee experiences, identify areas for improvement, and strengthen institutional efforts to prevent and respond to harassment across the university. This webpage provides an overview of the survey initiative, summarizes universitywide recommendations, and highlights ongoing implementation progress across Rutgers.

Survey results were reviewed by senior leadership, and during the 2023-2024 academic year, a universitywide steering committee developed actionable recommendations informed by the findings. The survey results and recommendations were publicly released on October 16, 2024.

Following this release, workgroups from each Chancellor-Led Unit (CLU) – New Brunswick, Newark, Camden, and Rutgers Health – developed tailored action plans during Spring 2025 to address campus-specific priorities. These plans were shared with campus leadership in Summer 2025. The current phase of the initiative focuses on implementing these plans, monitoring progress, and sustaining engagement with faculty and staff across the university.

Results and Recommendations Reports

Key Survey Findings and Recommendations for Action: Read the executive summary providing context for the survey, highlighting key universitywide findings, describing the action-planning process, and outlining recommendations for university action.
Full Survey Findings Report: Read the comprehensive report detailing universitywide survey results, including methodology, procedures, and findings across multiple employee groups.

Institutional Commitment to Address AWBES Findings and Sexual Misconduct

The AWBES initiative is part of Rutgers’ broader effort to strengthen campus climate, improve institutional prevention and response systems, and promote respectful workplace environments across all campuses. Several universitywide efforts have supported and reinforced this work.

Guiding Core Principles

Established in 2023, the Title IX and Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee of the President’s Cabinet was tasked with reviewing the university’s current structures, strengths, and areas for improvement in preventing and responding to sexual misconduct. The Subcommittee’s work was informed by internal and external recommendations, current research, national best practices, and input from members of the Rutgers community.

The Subcommittee identified four core principles to guide institutional work in this area:

Consistency: Members of the Rutgers community should experience consistent support, protocols, training, prevention efforts, and institutional responses across all campuses.
Transparency: Reporting and support systems should be easy to understand and reflect a responsive, supportive institutional approach.
Navigability: Reporting and support systems should be easy to understand and reflect a responsive, supportive institutional approach.
Accountability: Institutional stakeholders should clearly understand their responsibilities and their role in advancing the university’s goals.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)

Rutgers is a founding member of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. Through this collaboration, Rutgers contributes to national efforts to advance evidence-based strategies to prevent and address sexual harassment across higher education institutions.

In 2024, Rutgers presented its campus climate assessment and action planning model to the Collaborative, continuing its role as a national partner in promoting safe, equitable, and respectful academic and workplace environments.

Rutgers also participates in the Collaborative’s Sexual Harassment Repository, a national best-practices database designed to support institutions in developing, adapting, and implementing effective prevention and response initiatives.

Next Steps and Ongoing Progress

Implementation of the AWBES recommendations is a multi-year, coordinated effort designed to strengthen prevention, response, communication, and institutional accountability across the university. Key implementation activities currently underway include: Appointment of an Assistant Vice President for Title IX who will collaborate on implementation efforts across all campuses.

Development of a redesigned website to provide centralized, streamlined access to employee resources (coming soon)
Ongoing cross-campus coordination meetings to strengthen collaboration and alignment across Chancellor-Led Units
Continued review and implementation of campus-specific action plans developed by each Chancellor-Led Unit

Additional updates on progress and accomplishments will be shared regularly as implementation continues. See the graphic below for additional AWBES accomplishments.

Infographic showing progress of Rutgers’ Academic and Workplace Behavior and Environment Survey as of July 2025, including 4,515 employees surveyed, committee review of results, leadership approval of recommendations, development of CLU action plans with 40+ employees, and ongoing implementation and monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Conduct that may constitute a criminal offense should be immediately reported to the Rutgers University Police Department. Call 911 in the event of an emergency.
Employee or third-party conduct that may involve violations of University Policies prohibiting discrimination and/or harassment based on membership in a protected class, sexual harassment (including under Title IX), workplace violence, and whistleblower retaliation may be reported to the Rutgers Office of Employment Equity. All faculty and supervisors have an affirmative duty to report alleged violations of these Policies to the Office of Employment Equity.
Employee or third party conduct that may involve violations of any other University Policies may be reported to Rutgers University Ethics & Compliance.
The New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NJCASA) is a state organization unaffiliated with Rutgers that operates a 24-hour victim assistance hotline: 1-800-601-7200.

Conduct that may constitute a criminal offense should be immediately reported to the Rutgers University Police Department. Call 911 in the event of an emergency.
Student conduct that may violate University Policies, including the University Code of Student Conduct and Students Rights, Responsibilities, and Disciplinary Procedures, may be reported to the Student Affairs Office of your relevant Chancellor-Led Unit. For more information, visit New Brunswick, Newark, Camden, and Rutgers Health.
Students may also contact the Office of Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance (VPVAs) on their respective campuses for confidential assistance, 24/7. For more information, visit New Brunswick, Newark, Camden, and Rutgers Health.
The New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NJCASA) is a state organization unaffiliated with Rutgers that operates a 24-hour victim assistance hotline: 1-800-601-7200.

Surveys are commonly used to learn about organizational culture and individual experiences. In 2014, the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault recommended campuses conduct regular surveys to understand community perceptions of discrimination, harassment, sexual assault, and relationship violence. Survey results are used to plan programs, design policies, inform prevention, create culture change, and guide resource allocation.

The AWBES was based on the recommendations included in the Report of the Rutgers University Committee on Sexual Harassment Prevention and Culture Change that Barbara Lee, former senior vice president for Academic Affairs, and Karen Stubaus, former vice president for Academic Affairs, chaired. Much has been accomplished in Rutgers University’s long and successful history of responding to and preventing campus sexual violence, including sexual harassment. Since 2014, researchers from the Center for Research on Ending Violence have administered campus climate surveys across all Rutgers campuses at regular intervals, with over 22,000 student responses collected.

As the institution continues to develop as a leader in addressing these issues, there are areas where further work would help support the university’s commitment to creating a welcoming, safe, and inclusive climate for all members of the community. In the past, campus climate surveys were directed to students. This project is expanding to faculty and staff to better understand the experiences and perceptions of the larger campus community. The information will be used to help drive the university’s efforts and strategic initiatives to address harassment and workplace incivility and provide a robust model for implementation at other universities.

This confidential survey was used to help inform and shape prevention programming, policy development, and resource allocation decisions on campus.

Rutgers University faculty, part-time lecturers, staff*, postdoctoral fellows and associates, teaching assistants (TAs), and graduate assistants (GAs) employed at the start of the Fall 2022 semester were invited to participate via email in the survey. Participation in the survey was entirely voluntary.

*Type three and four employees are not included in this survey.

The survey team recognizes the sensitive nature of the survey, and as such, all survey responses are confidential. This means that the research team was not able to determine the identity of a survey participant regardless of the platform they used to take the survey (computer, tablet, phone, or paper).

Survey participants were asked to enter their NetIDs to access the survey if taking it on an electronic device; however, this information was used only to link select demographic information to participants’ responses and enter participants into a raffle for one of many various incentives. The research team only received a de-identified dataset, meaning that there was no way to link participants’ identities with their responses on the survey. All the reports also aggregate data to protect participants’ identities.

Participation in the survey was entirely voluntary.

In preparation for the administration of the AWBES survey, a universitywide steering committee and campus working groups on each of the CLUs were convened to assist with developing outreach measures to promote the survey to employees and to guide subsequent action planning based on the survey results. The steering committee and campus working groups comprised several key partners from multiple departments across all Rutgers campuses.

Overall, the survey findings offer valuable insights that the Rutgers University community is using to enhance its policies, prevention programming, and services for survivors of sexual harassment. The results have informed the recommendations developed by the Universitywide AWBES Recommendations Steering Committee and will guide further action planning at the campus level.

The implementation process will occur at both the central, institutional level, and the Chancellor-Led Unit level. The Title IX and Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee will lead the process at the centralized institutional level, and the CLU workgroups are developing action plans tailored to each CLU. The final plans will be posted on this site.

Together, these efforts will help build a more welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for the entire Rutgers University community.