This 2022 summer reading featured excerpts from Scarlet and Black, Volume 1: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History and Volume 3: Making Black Lives Matter at Rutgers, 1945-2020. These volumes, written and edited by Rutgers faculty, staff, and students, focus on our university’s history, uncovering how the university benefited from the slave economy and how it came to own the land it inhabits today, with a focus on student activism and the Black Lives Matter movement. The summer reading excerpts provided a historic framework for understanding how Rutgers’ history intersects with slavery and how student activism has and continues to shape Rutgers. They also explored Rutgers student, faculty, and staff experiences, understanding who is at Rutgers and the narratives that have shaped their stories and struggles over the years.
The assigned excerpts were available for students on the Summer Reading Canvas platform, where we have organized a discussion group for them to engage with their neighbors before they arrived on campus. They also have been engaging with their Changemaking Mentors in the residence hall through programs connected to the themes in Scarlet and Black, along with learning from their instructors and peers in the Forum and Cross-Cultural Competency Course.
While the readings were available on the Canvas site, students were encouraged to purchase the Scarlet and Black series to engage more deeply in the material.