The Racial Equity & Justice Institute (REJI) – a data and research driven learning and action consortium led by Bridgewater State University — has helped member campuses and affiliated higher education organizations create racially equitable programs and policies since 2014. Premised in the theory of practice of equity-mindedness (Bensimon, 2024, 2020) our work actualizes one simple idea — that by centralizing effective racial equity practices into the academy’s policies, practices, and pedagogies all students succeed at higher rates, and long-standing racialized disparate outcomes begin to close. As of June 2025, the REJI’s 40 member campuses include community colleges, regional comprehensive universities, and research universities; together these campuses serve 179,000 students, 90,000 of whom are Students of Color.
REJI’s Model for Advancing Racially Equitable Student Success
- A yearly curriculum that provides resources and a structure to aid campus and organizational teams in building their capacity to engage in racially equitable change strategies.
- The provision of video and print resources on equity-minded practices.
- Convenings with national equity-minded scholars and racial equity practitioners intended to enhance the equity-minded competencies of our members.
- A racial equity action planning process model (adapted from Curran, et al., 2016) that aids members in identifying institutional performance gaps (Bensimon & Spiva, 2022) across the institution, setting racially equitable goals, and implementing and assessing the goals.
- Suggested accountability structures that include the expectation that REJI teams report out on the progress on their racial equity action plans to their presidents at the end of each semester; there is also the expectation that the REJI team on each campus or organization meet with their senior leadership teams at the end of every academic year sharing on progress made for racial equity goal advancement and obstacles to the work so these can be transparently addressed.
- The creation of equity-minded competency development materials focused on key functional areas in higher education that support individual practitioners as well as institution-wide transformation.
Presidents must request membership in the REJI and charge an institutional cross-functional team. This institution-specific approach respects the varying cultures and missions of campuses and advances long-term commitment and transformation. The direct engagement of campus presidents and governing board members with the REJI helps to ensure transparency and success. REJI members are supported as they engage in inquiry and action as shown below:
The campus-based REJI teams utilize the REJI’s Racial Equity Action Plan to set and advance institution-specific racial equity goals intended to aid them in moving from data, to inquiry, to insight, to action, to accountability. Please access the REJI Action Plan here:
Interested In Your Institution Becoming a REJI Member?
We welcome the opportunity to discuss how the REJI can facilitate racial equity and the success of all students at your institution.
