Women's History Month
Dear NJIT Community Members,
NJIT will be commemorating Women’s History Month throughout the month of March and shining a spotlight on the extraordinary contributions of women to our university and our world. It is important that we celebrate Women’s History Month in this way and embrace our responsibility, as a premier public polytechnic university, to cultivate future generations of women studying, researching, working in, and leading the STEM fields.
Women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in STEM, and their perspectives are vitally important. When diverse teams work together, the members of those teams see a project through different lenses. Their varied experiences allow them to identify different problems to be addressed as well as opportunities to be seized upon. That results in sharing information, raising questions, and developing products, solutions, and efficiencies that may not even be considered by a team lacking such diversity.
The women of NJIT have been and will continue to be leaders and agents of change at our university and throughout the world. Women Trustees like Norma Clayton ‘81, Diane Montalto ‘82, and Elisa Charters ‘92, ‘93; Board of Overseers Chair Marjorie Perry ‘05; university administrators Mary Beth Boger, Angela Garretson and new CFO Cathy Brennan; Student Senate President Anuja Badeti ’22; and faculty leaders like Oya Turkel, Ellen Thomas, Janice Daniels, Kelly Hutzell, Treena Arinzeh, Tara Alvarez, Daphne Soares, Grace Wang, and so many more are trailblazers and difference-makers at NJIT and far beyond.
It is our responsibility to attract more women such as these to our university and to provide them with opportunities to achieve their goals, make significant impacts on their fields, and lead. The Murray Center for Women in Technology plays an important role in this effort, but this must continue to be a university-wide priority that is embraced by every department, program, and office across our campus. I am pleased to report that the fall 2021 entering class was a record 29% female, and NJIT’s on-going initiative to recruit underrepresented women and minority faculty, which began in 2012, has resulted in an increase from 75 to 114 full-time, female faculty members, with an anticipated 10 or more additional hires for next year.
Please join me in honoring the many women who have bettered our university in both measurable and immeasurable ways, and in committing to the creation of more opportunities for the next generation of women leaders at NJIT.
Sincerely,
NJIT President Joel S. Bloom