Centering care and supporting community-led affinity spaces in response to global events: A message from the AVP

Centering care and supporting community-led affinity spaces in response to global events: A message from the AVP

October 6, 2022

On September 27, a university statement was posted to express concern for the situation in Iran emerging after the death of Mahsa Amini, and to acknowledge the courage of those standing up for human rights and freedoms. As the situation unfolds, and thousands of change agents and allies continue to gather in Iran, in Canada, and around the world, it is clear that the impacts on the Iranian diaspora and international scholars and learners at UBC will be protracted and profound.

In addition to a symbolic statement of support from the institution, there is much we can do as individual colleagues and as a collective community to demonstrate substantive actions in support of members of impacted communities. In particular, unit/people managers and academic instructors are encouraged to review the Equity & Inclusion Office’s Guidelines for responding to collective tragedies and hateful incidents, which center an ethics of care. An ethics of care invites us to exhibit compassion towards and afford flexibility for impacted students, faculty, and staff in the classroom and the workplace in the aftermath of such tragic global events. This guidance document is relevant for other current, ongoing, and future global and local events that profoundly impact the campus community given our rich diversity and our deep value for human rights and freedoms.

Among the ways to make a substantive difference to the experiences of impacted communities is to support community-led affinity spaces. Already, a number of such initiatives have been organized at UBCO to support Iranian communities. In the coming days and weeks, the UBC Iranian Professionals Network and the UBC Persian Club will be co-leading the curation of an on-site gathering and co-convening other spaces at the Vancouver campus for Iranian students, faculty, and staff. The goal is to offer safe spaces for connection, to give and receive community support, and to counteract feelings of isolation and helplessness. The Equity & Inclusion Office is pleased to assist in raising awareness for and helping to support this community-led initiative. More information about the gatherings will be forthcoming.

Finally, to promote respect and inclusion, it is important to recognize that the UBC Iranian community is diverse, including across ethnic and religious identity. Among those who identify as Muslim, there is a diversity of ways that individuals may choose to present and practice their Islamic faith, spirituality, or cultural identities. None of these should be implicitly conflated with support for the Iranian government’s regime, including a community member’s right and choice to wear hijab. More broadly, building one’s cultural competency and global literacy can enhance intergroup relations in the aftermath of these events. Community members are encouraged to broaden their sources of information and to take the initiative to learn about the relevant social, political, and historical contexts surrounding such global events. The UBC library is one great resource for such learning.

Sincerely,

Arig al Shaibah, Ph.D.
Associate Vice-President, Equity & Inclusion

 

“I raise my voice not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” ~ Malala Yousafai

 

“A world full of empowered women isn’t one where men are marginalized. It’s a world where everyone thrives.” ~ Purnima Mane

 

Resources for community members seeking support:

Students

Students Assistance Program – a free 24/7 confidential wellness resource for crisis, grief, and trauma counselling:

A variety of health and wellbeing resources, services and programming is also available to UBC Vancouver students at students.ubc.ca/health and to UBC Okanagan students at students.ok.ubc.ca/health-wellness/.

UBC Persian Club – a non-profit student organization and social hub for UBC Iranian community and Iranian-related activities.
Website: facebook.com/ubcpersianclub/
Email: president@ubcpc.com

 

Faculty and Staff

Employee and Family Assistance Program – a confidential and voluntary resource providing professional and emergency counselling services and additional support via phone, video, web or mobile app.

All mental health resources, including access to UBC’s Extended Health Benefits Plan, can be found on the HR website: hr.ubc.ca/health-and-wellbeing/mental-health.

UBC Iranian Professionals Network
Website: equity-theiranianprofessionalnetwork-2022.sites.olt.ubc.ca

 

All community members

Healing in Colour has an extensive list of racialized counsellors
Website: healingincolour.com/about

Messages from the AVP |

Orange Shirt Day

September 28, 2022

Events |

New case study library offers examples of inclusion in action

September 23, 2022

A new case study library hosted by the UBC Equity & Inclusion offers a promising and growing list of examples of how departments and units are advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) across UBC.

The library has been launched as a way to support UBC units and departments by providing some practical examples of how others across the university are advancing EDI. The library seeks to draw out transferable lessons-learned which units might be able to apply in their own contexts, even when working on different initiatives.

The initial six case studies are drawn from presentations that have been made at past meetings of the EDI Action Network. They were originally selected for presentation to the network as representative of the breadth of different types of initiatives that are advancing EDI and to show how units and departments have worked proactively to identify what initiatives are most relevant and useful in their own contexts.

Some of the case studies demonstrate how the units involved leveraged Activating inclusion Toolkit tools and guides, and all case studies contributed to specific Inclusion Action Plan goals, including: recruitment, retention, and success, learning, research and engagement, and system change.

The following case studies have been published to date:

EIO will continue to add examples of promising and inspirational efforts to the case study library. The case studies will aim to represent efforts across each of the IAP goals.

As we continue to refine how the case studies are structured and presented, let us know if you have suggestions, ideas or other feedback.

If you are interested in submitting a case study for consideration, please ensure your example contributes to one or more Inclusion Action Plan goals.

To learn more, share your feedback, or express interest in showcasing your project, please email us at info@equity.ubc.ca.

News and Stories |

Actioning UBC’s commitments to equity and anti-racism: A message from the AVP

September 23, 2022

Dear UBC Community Members,

As the fall term begins, it is an opportune time for me to update the community about UBC’s progress on its commitments to equity and inclusion.

Since my term as Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion began on July 1, 2022, I have been meeting with key campus partners and affinity groups to learn about what has been accomplished and where there are opportunities for further achievement. While I will continue these meetings through September, it is abundantly clear to me that a remarkable amount of effort and expertise has been committed by students, faculty, and staff to develop a comprehensive set of distinct yet complementary plans and recommendations for institutional transformation and systems change. These include the following:

  • The 2019 Inclusion Action Plan (IAP) and the 2020 Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) remain foundational strategic documents, developed to meet inclusive excellence and Indigenous reconciliation commitments articulated in the University’s 2018 – 2028 Strategic Plan: Shaping the Next Century.
  • The 2019 Employment Equity Plan and 2019 CRC EDI Action Plan also remain particularly relevant strategic documents to help achieve UBC’s obligations and aspirations to advance equity in employment systems and in the processes for nominating and selecting research chairs.
  • The 2022 Task Force on Antiracism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) Final Report provides a nuanced set of recommendations to guide efforts to address systemic racism while maintaining a commitment to intersectionality in the pursuit of equity and inclusive excellence – these recommendations not only support UBC’s pledge to the Scarborough Charter [external link] to address anti-Black racism and promote Black flourishing, but they also invite transformative thinking and action towards the university’s broader racial equity and social justice goals.

Additionally, the following plans and recommendations are nearing completion:

Now, to guide the UBC community through a more comprehensive, cohesive, and coordinated phase of implementation, I am pleased to announce that a Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (StEAR) Framework has been developed. In the coming weeks, the EIO will launch a new online platform to host information about the emerging StEAR Framework and regular implementation progress reports.

In the meantime, you can read about ongoing equity initiatives in various annual reports prepared by the EIO, and you can preview a sampling of some activities the EIO has contributed to in support of UBC’s antiracism commitments and that have been underway since the 2021 update on institutional anti-racism actions was shared with the community. Many more initiatives are currently underway across UBC. An inventory of cross campus initiatives will soon be conducted to enable reporting on the more robust list of initiatives being undertaken.

While the EIO will oversee UBC’s institutional commitments to equity and anti-racism broadly, the Indigenous Guiding Network will continue to oversee UBC’s specific commitments to Indigenous rights and reconciliation. I look forward to continued consultation and coalition-building with the Network to support and elevate Indigenous priorities.

As I have a pan-institutional mandate, I will be working collaboratively with student, faculty, and staff partners and champions across campuses, and especially closely with the Associate Provost appointed as the UBCO champion for inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism (IDEA) to best meet the local needs of the Okanagan campus community.

I am immensely grateful to all community members who have contributed to our progress to date. I look forward to renewing our commitments and continuing our journey to actioning these over the next several years.

All members interested in contributing to these renewed efforts are most welcome to contact me.

Sincerely,

Arig al Shaibah, Ph.D.
Associate Vice-President, Equity & Inclusion

Messages from the AVP |

Supporting diverse prospective graduate students through a mentorship program in the Department of Psychology

August 31, 2022

Context

UBC’s Department of Psychology Equity Committee was formed in 2017 and leads equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in the department. The committee is composed of faculty members, graduate students, and staff. In 2021, the committee decided to focus on enhancing the diversity of the graduate student population.

EDI initiative implemented

The UBC Psychology Equity Committee organized a diversity mentorship program for prospective graduate students from underrepresented, under-resourced, and/or marginalized backgrounds. The program is open to individuals from all over the world as they prepare for applying to graduate school in Psychology. In its first year, the Diversity Mentorship Program was supported by the UBC Anti-Racism Initiatives Fund and the UBC Department of Psychology.

The program was inspired based on research that has found that a good mentor is one of the key predictors of success in the field of Psychology, both academically and professionally. Leadership chose this particular program to increase diversity within the field and to support students as they navigate the stressful and complicated process of applying to graduate school, while at the same time increasing the EDI knowledge and skills of the current members of the department who participated in the program as mentors.

Goals of the program:
● Advancing diversity in the academic/professional pipeline in Psychology;
● Providing support & enhancing inclusion for prospective graduate students from under-represented backgrounds;
● Training and professional development in EDI for current graduate students and postdocs.

The mentorship program spans about 9 months, from early summer to the winter/spring of the following year. Mentors and mentees meet at least three times during the period and are encouraged to participate in a Discord community. Mentees in the program are advanced undergraduates or recent Bachelor’s graduates (from within & outside UBC), and mentors are current UBC Psychology graduate students, postdocs, and lecturers.

In the Spring of 2021, 101 mentees were selected out of 200 applicants and paired with 34 mentors. The mentees attended virtual workshops, talks and meetings during the summer and applied for graduate school and fellowships in the fall (or alternatively, with guidance from their mentor, some decided to delay their applications to graduate programs or decided that they did not want to pursue research-oriented graduate training in Psychology). As part of the program, mentees have their application fees waived when applying to UBC Psychology for grad school. They also received support in preparing for admission interviews and in navigating academic and career decisions during the winter and spring.

The mentors were all UBC Psychology graduate students, postdocs, or lecturers; each mentor had 3 mentees. Mentors received various training and supports such as a Canvas mini-course on mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, synchronous training via Zoom, and a Discord community. The program also included guest lectures, workshops, panels, & small group meetings.

Tracking progress and learning

The leadership built evaluation into their programming with a questionnaire after virtual events and talks, and they will survey mentees and mentors on their experience with the whole program after the program has concluded. So far, there has been very positive feedback about the program from both mentors and mentees. This program, along with other work done by the Department of Psychology, has encouraged conversations about EDI in classrooms, laboratories, and other settings.

This program also resulted in reflection about ways to incorporate training and discussions about EDI in the current graduate psychology program at UBC. This work is being done alongside other efforts to implement EDI training into the curriculum (e.g., monthly EDI workshop series, decolonizing curriculum, diversifying research), which will have an impact on the EDI skills and knowledge present in the field of Psychology more broadly. Information about the UBC Department of Psychology’s work to enhance inclusion is available at https://psych.ubc.ca/edi-recommendations/.

Lessons learned

Dr. Nancy Sin, the Director of the Psychology Diversity Mentorship Program, believes the program’s core aspects—such as providing training around EDI in mentorship for graduate students is transferable—and could be adapted by other departments. She believes having a strong EDI committee and people who could dedicate specific time to advancing the program would be crucial to its success. Critical for moving this initiative forward, the program has secured funding for the upcoming year and will have support from a Work Learn student and Graduate Academic Assistants. Based on extensive survey feedback from program participants, the leaders will implement the following changes for the upcoming year:

  • Professional development programming: Workshops will be held throughout the year instead of concentrating them on several days. The workshop content will be modified to be applicable for students at various points in their professional journeys, from students who are still exploring different academic and career options, to those who have a fairly clear sense of their intended path.
  • Social connections and support: Mentees have expressed the desire for more opportunities to connect with fellow mentees. Thus, the program will be holding regular virtual group meetings throughout the year and will build their online community on Discord.
  • Mentoring: Many undergraduates and recent graduates want the chance to learn from graduate students and postdocs, but they might not have well-defined mentoring needs yet or may want to “test the waters” before committing to a mentoring relationship. Thus, the program will hold mentoring sessions in small groups, where mentees can meet with different mentors each month to discuss a range of professional topics. At any point during the year, if a mentee wants additional one-on-one support, they can request which specific mentor(s) they’d like to be matched with. The leaders anticipate that this approach will enhance retention and will offer greater flexibility for the mentors and mentees.

SUBMITTED BY

Nancy Sin, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION
2021

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Building a more inclusive Arts Co-operative Education Program

August 17, 2022

Context

The Arts Co-op Program at UBC Vancouver offers undergraduate and graduate students enriched educational experiences through workplace learning in a diversity of organizations.

Arts Co-op’s equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiative was started in 2019 as a result of strong motivation from staff and leadership to understand what opportunities existed for advancing EDI through Arts Co-op’s internal processes, as well as the programs and services it offers.

In summer 2019, the program piloted an early version of the EIO’s Inclusion Self-Assessment Tool, which provided a foundation to launch further EDI initiatives in the years that followed.

EDI initiative implemented

In summer 2020, Arts Co-op undertook a comprehensive audit of practices, processes, materials, and all student and community facing written materials and programs. The program hired two student staff members to complete a comprehensive environmental scan (reviewing materials, surveying existing students, and conducting focus groups). Student staff were also involved in the creation, coordination, and analysis of the data collected from the survey and focus groups. From their data, they wrote a 65-page report outlining 43 recommended actions to improve inclusivity. Using this report, the Arts Co-op team used the prioritization tool from the Activating Inclusion Toolkit to determine where to begin the process.

The student staff also participated in an EDI advisory committee comprised of Arts Co-op staff members and other campus partners.

In Fall 2020, the program revised the student application process by creating two different intake forms: 1) to collect students’ personal information and 2) to answer open-ended questions to describe their experience. This allowed the Arts Co-op staff to adjudicate applications without any of the students’ personal information. They also held focus groups among undergraduate Arts students who didn’t apply to join Co-op.

In Fall 2021, the program revised and sent some of the interview questions in advance so that students could prepare for the group interviews. During these interviews, staff directly messaged questions to the participating student in the chat for more accessibility.

The program also requested funding for ten awards from the Dean of Arts in their annual budget submission to be distributed to Arts Co-op students who had financial need, highlighting their priorities for the coming fiscal year. Being able to tie this request directly to the Faculty of Arts strategic plan priorities and unit level priorities helped them make a strong case that was ultimately supported. To implement these awards in Fall 2021, the unit consulted within the Faculty of Arts as well as Enrolment Services and Student Financial Management to develop and design an application and adjudication process in alignment with general student recruitment policy.

Tracking progress and learning

During Summer 2022, program staff will survey the co-op students to understand the impacts of the recent changes the Co-op Program has made thus far. Staff also convened an Advisory Committee—with co-op employers, Arts co-op student reps, and Arts faculty members—to give advice to move the work forward. Committee members were recruited with an eye to their own expertise on EDI initiatives.

In the short-term the goal is to see more students applying to the Arts Co-op Program from a wider range of backgrounds, and hope to see those in the Program supported across their diverse career development needs. The longer-term changes Arts Co-op hopes to see are: new resources for employer partners to help increase their capacity to recruit a diverse range of students, and to provide effective workplace learning experiences for the students they employ. They will also look to develop assessment mechanisms that can be regularly used to gauge impact of the changes.

Lessons learned

While implementing the Pilot Financial Support Award, the Arts Co-op Program ran into several challenges including difficulties assessing financial need, creating secondary evaluation criteria and questions in the financial award application, and having enough time and resources to implement the process.

Arts Co-op believes that using the ISAT and having all staff involved in the EDI conversations early on helped lay the foundations for a successful process. Also, gaining an in-depth understanding of their program materials as well as student experiences of the program, through the audit and focus groups, was crucial in helping them understand where to focus their efforts. Taking the time to find resources to carry out the work, including the funding to hire two student staff, was also key to their success.

SUBMITTED BY
Kathy Ma, Co-op Career Educator, Equity & Inclusion, Arts Co-op
Letitia Henville, Manager, Graduate Work Integrated Learning Programs, Arts Co-op

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION
2020

TOOLKITS USED

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Working with students to systematically address EDI at the UBC Wellness Centre

August 17, 2022

Context

Located in the UBC Life building, the Wellness Centre is a peer-hosted space offering a range of wellbeing programs for students. They aim to help students to achieve their personal and academic goals through a healthy mind, body, and spirit. The Wellness Centre considers EDI a foundational part of promoting student wellbeing, however they wanted a more systematized way to address EDI in their work. The Wellness Centre has various student ambassador programs and decided to use the EIO’s Inclusion Self-Assessment Tool (ISAT) with students in their peer volunteer programs as a way to give the students dedicated time to learn about EDI as well as increasing students’ sense of belonging in the Centre.

EDI initiative implemented

Starting October 2020, the Wellness Centre began the implementation of the ISAT. In addition to the common approach of engaging staff members in the assessment, staff added an additional layer by engaging with student volunteers, using the ISAT as a prompt to deepen EDI training for the student volunteers.

The Wellness Centre held two Zoom sessions with each of its peer volunteer programs built around the ISAT. The sessions were facilitated by staff in the Health Promotion and Education team that the students were familiar with, but did not regularly work closely with.

The first meeting was a one hour framing session. Staff combined key terms and definitions that are used in the ISAT with elements of the Community Building Education training that all student leaders at UBC receive. They also created a scenario where they asked students to unpack their own unconscious biases that might be resulting in their own bias in terms of how they engage in their distinct volunteer roles as Peer Health Educators or Wellness Peers.

The second meeting, a week later, was a one hour ISAT session. Staff invited students to reflect on the previous week’s discussions, and then were split into small groups to discuss the ISAT statements, in groups themed around the different categories of the ISAT including climate and culture; recruitment; retention, and success; and learning, research, and engagement. Students used Google Docs to capture their thoughts and feedback about these topics. After the meeting, the student volunteers were sent the four reflection questions for personal feedback about their thoughts about EDI in the unit now that they have engaged in the two synchronous meetings.

After these two meetings and survey, the Wellness Centre tasked two Worklearn students to collate the responses to pull out key words and themes to identify what was coming up around the different categories. Student training was a prominent theme cross-cutting the different ISAT categories, with students expressing their desire for more training on EDI issues. After processing all the information, the Wellness Centre ended up with a document of recommendations from the students, containing short, medium, and long term goals.

Tracking progress and learning

The Wellness Centre has started to implement many of the tasks in the recommendations document. One prominent change has been the creation of an IBPOC Wellness Mentors program based on feedback from this process and other conversations occurring in the unit.

Leaders of this initiative note that the ISAT enabled everyone in the unit to reflect on how their programs serve diverse students, and to be more intentional about which student groups to partner with.

Lessons learned

The ISAT resulted in a large volume of data, which was a lesson learned for the unit. It was a time-intensive process to review and analyze 50 pages of data from the sessions with student volunteers. Dedicating student staff time to this analysis was key to ensuring that the exercise of working with the ISAT could lead to actual changes in the way the unit operates and approaches its work.

Beyond this initiative, the Wellness Centre also identified an opportunity to be more intentional across all their work to emphasize the intersections of wellbeing and EDI, focusing on health equity, and how systems of oppression impact health.

SUBMITTED BY

Amanda Unruh, Health Promotion Specialist, UBC Wellness Centre

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION

2020

TOOLKITS USED

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Incorporating EDI into the faculty merit process at the School of Biomedical Engineering

August 17, 2022

Context

The University of British Columbia’s School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) is a partnership between the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Applied Science. The School is a nucleus for education and training, research, and innovation in biomedical engineering; creating new knowledge, new academic and training programs, and fostering translation and innovation. The School was established in 2017 and contains an undergraduate program, two Masters’ programs, and a PhD program. The School has a Respect, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Committee composed of faculty, staff, and students that meets monthly. As a new School, the School Director and the SBME leadership has worked to instill EDI as a part of the School’s culture from its beginnings.

The SBME embarked on an initiative to promote EDI within their faculty to combat the historical under-representation of women, and other minorities, in engineering.

EDI initiative(s) implemented

The School included EDI considerations as it relates to service activities as part of its faculty merit review process and evaluation criteria. This grew out of the culture of EDI already in place in the School, as well as the updated UBC Faculty Association Collective Agreement that reflects EDI considerations as a potential component of faculty service activities as per Article 4.05 – Service to the University and the Community, which stipulates:

Service also includes professional, academic, and public service work done to advance
the inclusion of all those who have been historically excluded based on gender, race,
religion, sexuality, age, disability, or economic circumstance.

In the SBME Merit Terms of Reference/Procedures document and evaluation criteria for faculty merit, the School included EDI considerations as part of the parameters related to service activities as follows:

Extent of service to UBC, the Faculties of Medicine, Applied Science and/or Science (if applicable), and the School of Biomedical Engineering (academic service), as well as service to the professional community, including but not limited to professional, academic, and public service work done to advance the inclusion of all those who have been historically excluded based on gender, race, religion, sexuality, age, disability, or economic circumstance (both streams).

As part of the annual merit review process, eligible faculty members complete the SBME Merit/PSA Consideration and Accomplishment Form where they have an opportunity to highlight their accomplishments related to EDI and culture building activities. The relevant section is entitled “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and Culture Building”. Faculty members are instructed to highlight any equity, diversity and inclusion activities and culture building activities they have been engaged in within the past calendar year. These could be related to research, teaching, service, professional development, or others. Examples could include: development or revision of teaching materials to align with EDI principles, efforts to increase equitable and inclusive participation from learners, or participation in EDI-related committees, initiatives, or programs.

Alongside these changes, the School also encouraged EDI training within their faculty. The goal was that by educating faculty on EDI practices and providing continuous training, faculty in turn would better support diverse students to succeed in engineering and would be better prepared to contribute to EDI as part of their service work.

Tracking progress and learning

The School reviewed merit processes in 2021, and tracked how many faculty were implementing processes in their labs taking into consideration EDI initiatives, such as implementing some EDI strategies in teaching materials (i.e. considering diversity when highlighting the works of scientists or in case studies), as well as representational diversity and gender parity of lab members. The School has also started to develop an EDI “library” of resource kits that can be signed out by labs around specific topics (eg. Terminology) which have been popular. Additional anonymous surveys will be sent out to gauge the full response.

Lessons learned

The early stages of a new organization or structure can be an advantageous time to implement EDI initiatives and because the SBME was still relatively new as a School, there may have been more room to establish new practices instead of trying to change existing ones. Although at the beginning of the initiative, some faculty were concerned about how to go about adopting EDI initiatives in their activities and how to identify best practices, overall the response has been positive and many faculty have implemented changes that advance EDI in their work.

SUBMITTED BY

Tegan Stusiak, School of Biomedical Engineering

Rita Amisano, School of Biomedical Engineering

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION

2021

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Engaging alumni to build a more diverse student body in the Department of Computer Science

August 17, 2022

Context

The UBC Computer Science department serves around 2,500 undergraduate students and consists of around 65 faculty members and 50 staff members. The department has a long history of work in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) dating back 20 years, primarily with a focus on gender. The department also has a longstanding and highly engaged alumni group that participates in the department’s EDI efforts. In 2016, the Focus on Women in Computer Science (FoWCS) Committee was expanded to become the Committee for Outreach, Diversity, and Equity (CODE). Department-based affinity group s for marginalized communities were also introduced to the committee in 2019.

CODE’s The committee has sought to incorporate EDI values into the department outreach process to increase enrollment of women and marginalized groups in the department. For the purpose of this case study, the focus will be on UBC’s computer science department’s implementation and success with alumni engagement.

EDI initiative(s) implemented

The department took a comprehensive approach to their initiative . CODE used a combination of strategies which included engaging alumni and local tech companies to recruit underrepresented groups, and engaging alumni as mentors and role models. In addition to engaging alumni, the department also implemented the following strategies:

• Launching combined programs with other disciplines/faculties
• Building inclusive teaching in curriculum
• Providing student support programs and building communities
• Tracking statistics
• Ensuring diversity in first year faculty and TAs
• Fostering student leaders
• Reaching out to underrepresented groups in high school
• Offering scholarships and awards to underrepresented groups
• Monitoring non-inclusive policies and behaviors

In particular, their approach to alumni engagement in EDI work has been a key component of their recruitment & retention programs. The computer science department aims to recruit underrepresented groups as first year students and host a variety of events to support them including “Tech Crawl”, where 10 tech companies host two- to three-hour events for first year women students who have not yet decided on a major.

The department has an extensive alumni network with 150-200 alumni who are active mentors in the Computer Science Tri-Mentoring Program. This program serves around 300 students, 40 per cent of which are women. The department engages alumni currently working in tech to mentor students, encourage companies to offer scholarships to equity-deserving student groups, become panelists at events, coach students on projects, etc. The department is successful in keeping alumni involved (some for over 15 years) by offering them a chance to interact with researchers, hosting alumni pub nights, and maintaining a very strong network.

Tracking progress and learning

EDI strategy implementation has insulated the Computer Science Department against the historical declines in gender diversity seen across the continent. That said, the proportion of women entering the program is still not at parity, so the department maintains its commitment to improvement. By focusing on community building and other retention activities, they have been able to reduce attrition/increase retention so that the proportion of women students graduating is now equal or above the proportion of women students who enter the program.

Conclusions

The department faces ongoing challenges such as needing to create diverse pathways into computer science as well as recruiting/supporting diverse faculty and staff. The model for alumni engagement could be implemented in other departments within UBC’s Faculty of Science that could benefit from retention and a bolstered sense of community. The department observed that what made the biggest difference was engaging alumni and allowing this group to aid in recruitment and retention. They believe this has helped create a strong sense of community in the program, and a long-term view of the field by those who enroll.

SUBMITTED BY

Michele Ng, Project Coordinator, Department of Computer Science

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION

2021

 

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Engaging faculty to embed equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Department of Civil Engineering

August 17, 2022

Context / goal

The Department of Civil Engineering is located within the Faculty of Applied Science at the UBC Vancouver campus. The department’s goal is to build equity, diversity, and inclusion into their strategic planning process and ultimately to develop a community that embeds EDI values into all aspects of its work. EDI has become increasingly important to the department’s agenda, especially considering changes to Tri-Agency grants that require researchers to incorporate EDI into their research . As part of this, the department sought to identify EDI-specific needs and areas for improvement, and wanted to ensure a transparent process in gathering input and strategies around EDI.

The department has had an EDI committee since mid-2020 and is also connected to the larger support structure of the Faculty of Applied Science’s EDI committee.

To achieve this, the department designed a series of mini-retreats with all faculty members. They wanted to engage faculty in brainstorming the relevance of EDI in their research, teaching, service and day to day interactions in the department. Through the retreats, the department hoped to build EDI into the process and operations through ways where they engage and listen to faculty and their concerns.

EDI initiative implemented

The department held their first “mini”, one and a half hour EDI retreat virtually in December of 2020. This session was introductory and designed to help lay the groundwork for a more in-depth session the following year. Some of the activities included:

• Icebreaker activities that brought faculty together in new ways to consider their relationship to EDI: Faculty were split into groups to discuss questions ranging from casual ‘get to know each other’ questions, to more substantial EDI-related questions, such as ‘based purely on how you look, talk, or present yourself, what does an incorrect assumption people sometimes make about you?’

• A prioritization activity to identify priorities and topics for the EDI committee to focus on: Faculty worked in groups to discuss priorities and identify some barriers in achieving these goals. To assess the feasibility of these emerging priorities, they identified some of the benefits and challenges to each priority. After the retreat, this information informed the EDI committee’s decision-making about what to focus on next.

• Dedicated time to participate in the department’s EDI survey: The EDI committee had developed a survey to better understand faculty members’ perspectives on EDI. At the retreat, a dedicated time window was created to allow faculty members to complete the survey resulting in a response rate of over 70 per cent. This survey also helped to inform future directions for the retreat series.

From the information gathered during the first retreat, the department identified several ideas that helped to inform the next retreat. The second retreat, a full-day, five hour virtual retreat, was held in June of 2021. The agenda included: a presentation and discussion of the EDI survey results, a mini-panel on EDI in engineering teaching, a teaching reflection and discussion of EDI best practices in the classroom, and a group brainstorm of strategies and action items.

Tracking progress and learning

Faculty have had good engagement with the retreat sessions and have participated, worked together, listened, and expressed their concerns productively. The retreats have helped to build consensus that EDI is an important pillar of teaching, research and service.

By using an iterative approach to conversations about EDI, the department has been able to build on efforts made in previous retreats, learning from what has gone well and adapting subsequent retreats to meet faculty members’ needs.

Lessons learned

The department has taken a ’bottom-up’ approach by spending the time and effort to engage with faculty, and sees this as integral to the success of their initiative. Providing an opportunity to have a conversation about EDI and share ideas for the future of the department has increased engagement and cohesion in the department. The retreats have also been a chance for faculty who have been more isolated to build more community in the department.
Dedicating specific staff time and resources to these efforts has also been crucial to their success.

The department will continue to hold faculty EDI retreats to dive deeper into specific aspects of EDI as it relates to the department’s teaching, programs, and research. Currently the department is moving to the next stage of their strategic planning process and focusing on concrete actions/plans.

SUBMITTED BY

Bernard Laval, Professor and Department Head, Department of Civil Engineering

Donna Seto, Manager, Research and Strategic Initiatives, Department of Civil Engineering

YEAR OF IMPLEMENTATION

2020-2021

TOOLKITS USED

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