3 minute read
Creating Change
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion lies at the heart of VIU’s vision for the community. VIU has signed Universities Canada’s “Inclusive Excellence Principles,” which is based on the values of openness, fairness and tolerance, and made the commitment to reflect these values in approaches to teaching, research and community engagement.
In keeping with these commitments, the University has been consulting members of the VIU community over the past few years to create an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action (EDIA) Plan to help guide efforts at the University. “We’re in the process of identifying what goals, objectives and actions are needed, going forward, to respond to what we have heard. We need to ask how can we do better, what does success look like, how will we measure those outcomes, and how can we continue this process going forward?” says Monica Kay, retired Director of VIU's Diversity, Equality and Human Rights Office.
This work has been supported by an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Capacity Building Grant, which was awarded in 2019 – a joint initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council; and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, collectively known as the Tri-Agencies. The grant allowed VIU to recruit an EDI advisor, a policy analyst and post-doctoral fellow to conduct this important work. In 2020, VIU received an additional $50,000 Inclusion Grant from the Tri-Agencies to address systemic barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion in VIU polices, processes and structures to respond to requirements tied to the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program. The aim of the grant was to help institutions establish equity and diversity targets to ensure that women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities participate in the program. With this grant support, during 2019 and early 2020, VIU conducted a comprehensive environmental scan that included consultations and surveys with VIU community members. It provided a snapshot of our community’s current experience of equity, diversity and inclusion. The results have been summarized and are available at research.viu.ca/ equity-diversity-and-inclusion/action. After completing the environmental scan, VIU began developing an inaugural, institution-wide Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan. The plan is committed to meeting all CRC requirements, and is also derived from feedback from the VIU community obtained during the survey, and consultation and ongoing discussions with the EDIA Working Group and President’s Committee on Diversity, Equity and Human Rights. The action planning phase includes: • Consideration of institutional systems, policies, resources and structures;
• Building greater awareness and capacity related to equity, diversity and inclusion overall; • Specific strategies to enhance equity and diversity; and • Strategies to create and deepen the lived experience of belonging among all our campus community members. “We are reflecting on what people have told us and continue to tell us about their experience of equity, diversity and inclusion on our campuses. That includes traditional dimensions of diversity, but also intersectional experiences, and the fundamental sense of belonging that goes beyond specific traditional categories of perspective,” says Kay. Besides the federally designated groups (persons with disabilities, women, Indigenous peoples and racialized persons), VIU is also collecting data to get a sense of people’s perception and experience of EDI work at the institution.
“The survey and consultation also asked people to talk about their sense of belonging. We want and need to go beyond diversity in the sense of representation numerically, but also understand peoples’ subjective experiences. We asked what will contribute to all members of the VIU community experiencing a sense of meaningful inclusion at the University, create a community where all members see themselves reflected in how we live, work and learn on our campuses,” says Kay.
VIU is currently bringing in and creating resources related to topics such as Anti-Racism Response Training, allyship, and ways to address the impacts of privilege and implicit bias in recruitment and generally. Multiple agencies are also contributing to the growing body of equity-related initiatives, such as the Positive Space Alliance, the Anti-Racism Working Group and the Universal Access Committee.
