The School of Planning has recently adopted a value statement on anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion that acts as a principled guide for the activities of the School and its members. The statement was produced in a collaborative effort, and our students played a leading role and integral part in its formulation over the past year and a half.
Everyone in the School community is encouraged to read through the statement and reflect on how the values articulated can factor into their ongoing actions, activities, events, classes, and individual interactions. We all have a role to play in building a community where racism, harassment, discrimination, violence, and exclusion are not tolerated and actively addressed.
As members of a planning school, it is particularly important to be informed on these issues and find ways to proactively address them. This is both a matter of serving a diversity of public interests that are integral to professional planning, and to undo impacts planning scholarship and practice have had and continue to have in perpetuating settler colonialism, systemic racism, exclusion, and various forms of discrimination.
Substantial input and engagement through on-going conversations, a student survey, committee participation, and faculty/staff engagement have been highly valuable in bringing to light key issues that the statement needs to address and how the School can move from values to action.
Value statements like this are only a small step in continuing to address anti-racism, reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion issues. The next step is to articulate more specifically future action items the School can take and continue mapping onto Faculty- and University-wide efforts on these fronts. This is only the beginning.
The value statement on anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion can be viewed on our School's Statement of Values webpage.