NJ S2698

Establishes five centers and programs at Rutgers University - Newark: the Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race, the Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME), the Center for Local Supply Chain Resiliency (CLSCR), the Re-Entry Opportunity Program for Entrepreneurship in Newark (RE-OPEN), and the New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJSTEP).

Appropriates $6.5 million from the General Fund, with $1 million each for the first four centers and $2.5 million for NJSTEP.

The Sheila Y. Oliver Center will serve as a nonpartisan research center investigating race and politics, including a paid internship program for students pursuing public service careers.

CLiME focuses on structural inequality and systemic racism research, including affordable housing gap analysis and local government disparity reduction.

NJSTEP provides higher education courses for incarcerated students to earn college credit toward degrees, with transition support services upon release.