To: Waterloo employees
From: External Review Team - Human Rights, Equity, and Inclusion (HREI) Review
Date: March 5, 2021
Subject: HREI Review status update
Note: This email is for information
We are underway with the Human Rights, Equity, and Inclusion (HREI) organizational review and wanted to share an update with you on our progress to date.
As outlined in our December 18, 2020 memorandum, the review panel started by interviewing members of the HREI team before the winter break and finished these interviews in mid-January. We have also been working with Michelle Hollis, director, human resources (HR) client services, to organize and schedule the various requests for, and invitations to, meetings with members of the University of Waterloo community. Currently, there are approximately 40 such meetings scheduled. We also expect to have three separate roundtables with students, faculty, and staff. Given the demands upon people’s time, we understand that the meetings will be scheduled between now and early April. We plan to provide the University with a report to be shared with the community by the end of May 2021.
We have also worked with the University to develop a website dedicated to the review, which can be found on the HREI Review website: https://uwaterloo.ca/human-rights-equity-inclusion-dept-review/. The site provides a link to a communication form or an email address (hrei.review@uwaterloo.ca) for written submissions or requests to meet with the review panel. We welcome you sharing your thoughts, observations, and experiences with us. Only members of the Review Panel will be reviewing these forms and monitoring this email.
As stated in our December 18 memorandum, our deliberations will be confidential. By this we mean that there will be no attribution of what was said to us in any meeting or written submission. Our report will be organized thematically, and where examples are used, we will ensure the confidentiality of the individuals sharing them.
We are looking forward to meeting with members of the University of Waterloo community and to the conversations we will have in this review process. We wish to extend our gratitude in advance for your willingness to participate and contribute to the review process and in the future of the HREI department.
Thank you.
The HREI Review Panel
Denise O’Neil Green
Christina Sass-Kortsak
Barrington Walker
Lisa Castle
