This bill mandates that public institutions of higher education in New Jersey develop a comprehensive faculty and student diversity plan aimed at enhancing the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff, and students. The plan must include specific diversity goals, actionable steps to achieve these goals, metrics for monitoring progress, programming to improve campus climate, and strategies to ensure students acquire necessary cultural competencies. Institutions are required to update this plan every three years and submit an annual student diversity report to the Secretary of Higher Education, detailing enrollment, retention, graduation rates, and targeted support programs for diverse students.

Additionally, the bill requires institutions to assign a staff diversity ambassador to oversee the implementation of the diversity plan and report directly to the institution's president. It also mandates annual diversity training for faculty, staff, and students involved in faculty search committees, focusing on addressing unconscious bias and increasing the representation of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in candidate pools. Furthermore, the Secretary of Higher Education, in collaboration with the Division on Civil Rights, is tasked with developing guidance for the faculty search and selection process to support the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, aligning with recommendations from a 2020 report by the New Jersey Interagency Task Force to Combat Youth Bias.