Equity Survey

The University of Waterloo is confidentially collecting equity data about its students and employees. This survey asks respondents to choose the terms that match their identity in different areas, including the following: disability, racial identity, Indigenous identity, gender identity, sexual identity, religious or spiritual affiliation, family education background, and Canadian residency status. The survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete.

We hope that you will participate in this survey, and share as much information as you are comfortable disclosing.

We would like to have an accurate and complete understanding of the makeup of our community. However, we acknowledge that this survey is asking members to share information that is personal and have chosen not to share previously. Please note that this survey is strictly confidential and that we will be using pseudo-IDs when collecting this data. For more information and details on how we are protecting your identity, please go to the “How will my identity be protected?” section. The survey is also voluntary and there is no penalty for not participating. You may skip any survey question that you are not comfortable answering. There is an “I prefer not to answer” option for all questions.

Please read these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for more information on the commitments the University is making to ensure the data is secure. The FAQs clarify who will have access to this data, how the data will be used, and who you can reach out to if you have any questions or concerns.

Equity data describe aspects of your personal identity like gender identity, ability, race, etc. Equity data can also refer to your lived experience. Collecting equity data is a necessary first step for an organization to understand the makeup of its community. Equity data will help the University start to examine the extent to which various groups may experience different levels of access and participation in the University’s life, and may not benefit equally from programs and services. For example, certain groups and individuals who have been historically or currently marginalized may face barriers in accessing services or supports.

Waterloo students and employees will be asked to self-identify in the following areas:  

• Disability
• Indigenous identity
• Racial identity
• Gender identity
• Religion or spiritual affiliation
• Family education background
• Canadian residency status

If you are uncomfortable sharing any of the above information there is a “I prefer not to answer” option or you can skip the question completely. You have complete control over how much information you choose to share.

By participating in the survey, students and employees will be providing the University with important information about our community. Survey results will help us plan programs and supports for under-represented and equity-deserving individuals and groups on our campus. Combined with other sources of data (please see the section on “Survey Data Management” for how other sources of data might be used), survey results will help us examine how well programs and services benefit all members of the University. For more information about why the University is collecting this information see the “Results”.

At Waterloo, we have collected some demographic data that captures equity data, but the data we have is not complete. This information was voluntarily given by University members through the following surveys and processes.

• The Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS), National College Health Assessment (NCHA), National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Canadian University Survey Consortium (CUSC) student surveys include questions on gender, Indigenous status and ethnicity/racial identities. These surveys are each run every three years.
• Additional equity data is also confidentially and securely collected and stored within some of the University’s administrative systems such as Quest and Workday.

To identify gaps in equity, we need to collect information more comprehensively and consistently. New members of the community need opportunities to add their data and people need to be able to change or update their information. We anticipate running survey updates about once a year.

Equity data at Waterloo will be used with other regularly collected data and information to answer the following key questions:

1. How does the makeup of Waterloo’s community compare to Waterloo Region, Ontario and Canada?
2. Are equity deserving groups participating in the programs and services that Waterloo offers and how does their participation compare to other groups and the overall University community? What are the gaps and how can they be addressed?
3. Do some groups experience fewer benefits or more barriers while learning or working at Waterloo, compared with the overall University community? How can we improve?

The survey was developed with an Equity Data Advisory Group. The Equity Data Advisory Group is made up of students and employees with expertise in equity data and/or lived experience as a member of an under-represented group. The Equity Office worked with Indigenous representatives, and groups such as the President’s Anti-Racism Taskforce (PART), the Black Faculty Collective, and student groups and associations, to ensure that they informed how the survey was developed.

The group conducted an external scan (e.g., other University surveys on equity, Statistics Canada, Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards, community consultation), and ensured alignment with existing external and internal policies and legislation guidelines (Ontario Human Rights Code, Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards, and Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) for equity data collection, adapted for the University of Waterloo context.

Oversight for the survey is provided by the University of Waterloo Survey Advisory Committee (as per Policy 55), which includes the University’s Information Stewards, Privacy Coordinator, Office of Research Ethics, and an expert in survey methodologies.

The survey will be launched in June 2021. We encourage all community members to participate and share as much information as they are comfortable disclosing when they receive their survey invitation.

You will receive reminders to update your survey responses annually. We expect that our first status report will be available by late Fall 2021.

We hope that all current members of the University of Waterloo community will participate in the survey.

Over the course of several days in mid-June, invitations with a unique survey link will be emailed to all current student and employee UWaterloo email addresses. The survey link will be a unique, randomly-generated URL (pseudo-ID) for each student/employee. The survey can only be completed using this URL (pseudo-ID).

You can complete the survey using the online survey platform Qualtrics. Qualtrics stores data on Canadian servers.  If you are a CUPE employee, you will receive a generic URL in your survey invitation, along with a unique “Activation code” which you can use to access the survey.

Paper copies of the survey will also be available for those who are not able to use the online version. These will also include a unique “Activation code”, but no other identifying information. We will provide a return envelope (postage paid) for you to return the completed survey. No identifying information will be included on the form or the return envelope.

If you would like to use an alternate format, such as PDF or paper copy, please email equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca.

Qualtrics has applied technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect information provided from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet transmission is ever fully secure or error free. Two-factor authentication (2FA) for survey administrators is also turned on as an extra layer of protection. No additional authentication will be required for students/employees, since each individual will be provided a unique, randomly generated URL. Please do not forward or share your individual URL with anyone else. See Waterloo’s guidelines on secure data transmission for more information.

The survey will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete. You may save your responses and return to the survey at any time between June and October 31st.

Yes, this survey is completely voluntary. There is no penalty for not participating.

As you are completing the survey, you may also choose not to respond to any question by leaving it blank, or by choosing the “I prefer not to answer” response. You can also change a response before you submit the survey by accessing the survey link in your email and modifying your answers.

You can stop participating at any point by closing the survey. If you no longer wish to receive messages related to this survey, please contact equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca.

If you change your mind after submitting your responses and wish to withdraw any responses you have provided, you may do so by sending an email to equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca. After the initial survey in 2021, the survey update process will allow you to indicate if you wish to update your responses, delete your responses or start a new survey.

Yes. If you started the survey but did not submit your responses, you may access the survey at any time until October 31st using the original survey link you received. If you have already submitted your responses, you can update your responses when a reminder is issued. Survey responses will be collected and updated each year.  

Yes. After the initial survey, you will be able to remove any responses you have provided through the survey update process. No historical data you submitted will be used to generate future reports or analysis. (Please note that reports previously published cannot be changed.) You will be able to change your responses before you submit your survey by re-accessing the original link from the survey email invitation. Each question has an “I prefer not to answer” option. If you no longer wish to receive messages related to this survey, please contact equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca.

Institutional Analysis and Planning (IAP) is the Information Steward for university Equity Survey data, as per Policy 46. The “Information Steward” is responsible for keeping and protecting information that is collected, and for ensuring that it is destroyed when it is no longer needed. IAP will manage survey data in consultation with the Secretariat, the Equity Office, with the Equity Data Advisory Group.

The survey data will not include any information that could personally identify anyone who completed the survey. Data will not be transferred to any other format, except through summary reports that describe overall results and trends.

Survey data will be initially collected and securely stored on a Canadian server operated by Qualtrics.com. After each planned phase of data collection, responses will be downloaded to a UW secure server with multi-factor authentication and firewall protection (and permanently deleted from the Qualtrics server).

Survey data will be coded and stored in a secure data environment requiring multi-factor authorization to access. A limited number of individuals will be authorized to access the data, subject to Data Confidentiality and Data Sharing Agreements, plus Office of Research Ethics approval, if relevant (i.e., for research purposes). Individual records collected will be maintained until outdated, or required to be deleted by law, whichever is earlier.

As other survey versions are planned, survey results will be stored on the internal UWaterloo server until outdated (i.e., superseded or obsolete).

Survey responses received in paper or PDF format will be transcribed to an electronic format on the secure server. Then the paper or PDF will be destroyed.

Survey results will be reported in summary form. The data tables and reports resulting from the analysis, where cell sizes are too small (with fewer than five respondents per demographic group), will suppress such data through random rounding or regrouping at a higher level of aggregation to eliminate the possibility of identification.

Protecting your identity is our first priority. Even though you will receive a personalized email link, multiple measures are in place to ensure that no one links your responses to your name as you complete this survey. Only authorized staff will have the ability to link your responses to other administrative data for analysis (please see section “Results” for examples of the types of analysis that might be performed).  Your responses will never be connected to you as an individual. Below are the procedures that are in place to protect your identity:   

1. When registering at the University of Waterloo as either a student or an employee, individuals provide personal information that is regulated by the notice of data collection and is used by the institution in a protected way (see Policy 46) to inform administration, programming, support, planning, and evaluation activities. These administrative data systems (QUEST, Workday) are the starting point for generating any list of contacts for surveys that Waterloo conducts, including this equity survey.
2. Most members of the Waterloo community (students and employees), will receive a unique, personalized link to complete the survey using the Qualtrics survey software (for alternatives see step 5 below). These links are automatically generated from existing student and employee email lists (see notice of data collection). Only the individual receiving the link will be able to use it to access the equity data survey and they will be able to continue  to access the survey until they have completed their responses and are ready to submit it in October.
3. No authentication will be required of survey respondents, when they enter their responses in Qualtrics.
4. The survey does not use internet protocol (IP) addresses or other information which could link your participation to your computer or electronic device. The respondent’s computer or device will not be associated with their responses to the survey. Masking the IP address through the use of a virtual private network (VPN) will not impact the respondent’s ability to initiate and complete the survey.
5. Paper and PDF surveys will also be available. The randomly-generated unique “Activation codes” will be printed on each paper/PDF survey will be used to enter responses into the survey database.
6. If you would like to participate in an alternate format, such as paper or PDF, please email this request to equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca. You will be provided with a return envelope to send the survey to Institutional Analysis & Planning (IAP).
7. A designated person in IAP will generate pseudo-IDs for everyone listed in the existing administrative data systems. These pseudo-IDs are random identifiers that replace personal identifiers such as your name and email address to protect your privacy during analysis. This pseudo-ID will be exclusively used by different data analyst(s) for the purpose of creating a “matched data file” by adding a subset of other variables from administrative data systems to the equity data to facilitate conducting specific analyses. No individual will ever have access to both the pseudo-ID and the matched data file.
8. In the case of the Indigenous identity data, designated staff from the Office of Indigenous Initiatives will be the primary owners of this data and will delegate responsibility for data management to IAP.

If you experience discrimination, prejudice, or systemic barriers, you may choose not to disclose some aspects of your identity to others, to avoid additional negative experiences. While equity data is needed to help tackle discrimination, prejudice and systemic barriers in our University community, individual experiences with inequity can lead to some mistrust of who will be able to access the data and how it will be used. The University has made every effort to involve all relevant groups in developing the survey, and it is committed to ensuring that the data is collected, stored and analyzed with peoples’ privacy as a top priority.

Ultimately, it is your decision what personal information you choose to share.

The Equity Survey is completely voluntary and members of the University community will be invited to participate/update their information regularly. Individuals have complete control over how much information they choose to share and are free to add or remove information when invited to complete survey updates.

The Equity Survey was developed by the Equity Office and Institutional Analysis & Planning (IAP), in collaboration with the University of Waterloo Data Equity Advisory group (Advisory group) which is made up of students and employees with lived experience and/or expertise in equity issues and related data collection. This development process included acknowledgement of the need to build trust and confidence in the collection and use of the Equity Survey data, and guided the development of the survey and data usage processes.

Only authorized staff in Institutional Analysis & Planning (IAP) will have access to non-identifiable survey data. These staff members will analyze and report the results, and have signed a data sharing and confidentiality agreement meant to ensure secure and appropriate handling of data. All analysis related to the collected equity data will be strictly managed using pseudo-IDs and without unnecessary use of any potentially identifiable information.

We expect that our first status report will be available by late Fall 2021, allowing the University to begin to address identified issues and meet our equity goals.

After the initial report, synthesized summary reports and relevant dashboards will be available to the campus community regularly, and requests for data and analysis will be managed through written Ethics and Data Sharing approvals according to the request.

To understand how different groups may be affected, this equity data will be linked to administrative and academic records. For example, to determine the relationship between a particular group at the University and participation in a program or service, we need to compare the community that is participating with the wider community as a whole. Your non-identifying survey responses may be linked to other administrative data using a pseudo-ID, and will be used only for evaluation and research purposes to help improve our services, programs and activities. Only summarized  (i.e., aggregate) results will be reported to ensure that no individual student or employee is identifiable. Your individual choice to participate will not affect your standing at or relationship with the institution in any way.

Only the data that is relevant to any particular analysis will be matched and kept in the database to prepare reports.

The only exception in terms of identification, is analysis related to adjusting for salary anomalies. In order to proactively address equity gaps, the University is committed to engaging in cyclical reviews to investigate where salary inequities may exist, including but not limited to gender-based, racialized, and Indigenous inequities. In this case, once the salary anomaly analysis is completed using an anonymized matched data set, a file containing only a list of IDs and salary adjustments will be provided to Human Resources to process without disclosing the specific reasons/rationale for individual increases.

Any and all requests for data will be subject to applicable federal and provincial laws, and University policies and guidelines.

The initial data gathering will take place in June 2021 and continue into the fall. We expect that the first status report will be available by the end of Fall 2021.

The survey results will be used to help the University, Faculties, and Academic Support Units understand the current makeup of the campus community. Results will help us understand how to improve access and representation of equity deserving groups, and to increase participation and benefits from the programs and services that are on offered. The goal is to create a more equitable campus which includes spaces, programs, and supports for equity-deserving groups. Summarized results will be reviewed by the Equity Data Advisory group to provide guidance on how to report and share the results, as well as provide a framework on practices to support meaningful change. 

The initial overall summary results will be made available online. The initial report(s) and dashboards will include summary information on the overall institution. It will, for example, help provide understanding how the University of Waterloo reflects the broader community and the equity deserving populations in the programs and services offered on campus.

Survey results will be reported in summary form. The data tables and reports resulting from the analysis, where cell sizes are too small (with fewer than five respondents per demographic group), will suppress such data through random rounding or regrouping at a higher level of aggregation to eliminate the possibility of identification.

An initial report is anticipated to be available by late Fall 2021, with anticipated annual reporting after that. Requests for additional data or analysis can be directed to equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca

The survey data collected is considered Confidential and Sensitive. All requests for information should be made to the Institutional Analysis & Planning via equitysurvey@uwaterloo.ca. Freedom of Information Requests will be managed by the Secretariat.

Requests from the public (e.g. Freedom of Information requests), researchers, students and employees for record-level data will be handled on a case by case basis, subject to the Security and Privacy procedures and best practices laid out in Policy 11, Policy 46, Policy 55, Policy 75, and related Guidelines.

Approved requests will require signed Data Sharing Agreement and Confidentiality Agreement forms; these will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Approved requests for data will include anonymized datasets only, with all Personally Identifiable Information (PIIs) removed, and replaced with pseudo-IDs. Approved requests for data are subject to small-number masking, suppression, rounding and other actions required to maintain anonymity, security and privacy. Requests for data, if approved, will be completed using secure transmission methods, such as SendIt.