The Rensselaer plan is a comprehensive strategic plan for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It contains a section on diversity, shown below. The Lally School, as an integral part of the Rensselaer community, shares these diversity goals.

7.2 A very diverse community

Today’s ideas will reach maturity and today’s students will be called to lead in a world that is increasingly diverse. The Rensselaer community must be just as diverse and the institute must commit to leadership in bringing diversity to science and technology. We will:

• Seek a diverse body of students, via careful attention to excellence and to intellectual, geographical, gender and ethnic diversity (especially groups underrepresented in science and technology), moving to a resident student body that has a much greater presence of women and underrepresented minority students

• Expand pipeline programs that provide access for women and underrepresented minority students, especially to research and graduate studies

• Build a diverse faculty and staff of women and men drawn from all ethnic groups

• Pursue alliances with historically minority institutions to increase the flow of people and ideas to and from the campus

• Employ interactive pedagogies to bring together students and researchers from diverse settings, including those at distance from the campus

• Create a lively discourse on important cultural, social, gender and ethnicity issues in courses, colloquia, fairs and festivals as well as in residence halls, student activities and the research environment