Professional and Academic Development and Mentorship

Existing mentorship programs for students and employees (e.g., through the SSO, OHD, CEE) need to be reviewed using an anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion lens to revise content for cultural appropriateness and enhance programming.

OHD and SSO should develop mentorship programs for racialized employees and students respectively in collaboration with/through appropriate channels (e.g., BFC, Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre), and which address significant events in the lifecycle of employees and students (e.g., freshman year, transitions to the workforce)⁶.

Race-based, participation, and engagement data should be collected on an ongoing basis to evaluate these mentoring programs, participation and uncover areas in need of improvement.

SSO should partner with external organizations that offer mentorship programs to provide additional options for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized students (e.g., ONYX).

Develop Alumni Affinity groups to offer an organized mechanism or channel for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized alumni to provide networking, career advice, or intergenerational mentoring to undergraduate and graduate students from these communities.

A central information resource/hub that acts as a one-stop location for information about mentoring, career development, funding, and other supports for racialized groups should be developed, as students and employees may be unaware of mentorship programs that are available to them.

Develop a framework/program to track the careers of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized employees, and support their professional progress through various mechanisms/systems (e.g., onboarding, peer mentorship, other professional development opportunities) to ensure their long-term retention and to address unique challenges that they may experience.

• This framework should be piloted with the 10 Black and 10 Indigenous faculty that the University is in the process of employing through its two cluster hiring initiatives.

Undertake a consultation process to learn about and address research barriers and particular needs of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized researchers, including a review of recent research in this field.

Identify research funding sources and allocation practices and collect data on current levels of institutional support for research by Black, Indigenous and other racialized scholars, recognizing that funding practices vary considerably from faculty to faculty.

• Ensure consistent startup funding offers and disbursements.
• Set goals and create specialized programs to ensure the continued support of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized scholars.

Conduct a review of hiring practices, training, career advancement, performance management/appraisal, faculty appointments, and tenure and promotion policies – in particular, policies 18, 76, and 77 – using equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and anti-oppression lenses and principles. These policies and their accompanying guidelines and processes should be transparent, consistently applied across the institution, and hold managers/leaders accountable to fair and equitable practices.

The University’s onboarding process should include useful information/initiatives that are specially designed for racialized employees.

Ensure the racial and cultural diversity of academic, student, and career advisors, to provide more culturally sensitive advisory services to students.

Create research awards and additional funding opportunities for Black and Indigenous faculty researchers (e.g., support for open-access publication fees; recruitment of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP); mentorship or networking events; fellowships, research awards and other opportunities for research advancing culturally diverse ways of learning and knowing; and community-based research).

Provide training for staff who support the administration of research, especially for projects with Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities.

The University should:

• Create a central Professional Development Fund for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized employees that can be used to access professional development and mentoring opportunities.
• Incentivize and support Black, Indigenous and racialized employees to take advantage of professional development funding for their career development or advancement (e.g., take professional development leaves/days, use the 35 hours per year recommended in Policy 18, recognition as part of their performance evaluations).
• Develop data collection and reporting structures to track and measure the use and impact of this fund on members of the Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities.

Develop a framework for the formation and implementation of ERGs at the University. This framework should include a set-up process, terms of reference, and guidelines and best practices (e.g., setting up communities of practice/networks; creating safe spaces to promote a sense of belonging) for ERGs.