United College EDI Workplan

EDI Workplan 

Preamble

A college is an academic community united in the quest for knowledge and understanding for the sake of human progress. Like any community, its members are necessarily characterized by multiple and intersecting identities. For an academic community to achieve its aspirations, everyone must feel fully welcome to participate in its life and activities. Everyone must feel they belong.

A welcoming community knows that all people should be treated with the same dignity, respect and humanity. At the same time, sensitivity to context sometimes indicates that special measures may be needed to create a genuine spirit of welcome. For instance, although Canada’s universities are all situated on lands taken from Indigenous peoples, those peoples have historically been far from welcomed on our campuses. For that reason, we take special measures at St. Paul’s to make Indigenous people feel they belong here.  Comparable measures may be appropriate for other historically marginalized groups to ensure that they can freely and fully participate in our community.

A welcoming community will understand and appreciate differences; yet a wise community recognizes that this is easier said than done. Genuine understanding requires humility, good-will and self-reflection. It is an ongoing process in which we learn both from experience and from each other.

St. Paul’s aspires to be a community that is welcoming because it is diverse, inclusive and equitable. In our ongoing effort to pursue that aspiration, we will undertake the following set of specific measures

Action Items

Policies and Procedures 

Appoint an EDI Advisory Committee to develop mechanisms and opportunities to:  

  • Monitor and evaluate the progress of the EDI workplan and track its progress over a timeframe  
  • Work with colleagues and units assigned the Action Items below  
  • Communicate this progress to the College community  
  • Receive feedback from faculty, staff and students on the implementation of the workplan  
  • Hear and resolve concerns or informal complaints on EDI issues  
  • Provide faculty, staff and students with the relevant resources to achieve the goals of this workplan  
  • Advise the Principal on all matters related to the EDI workplan 

Representation  

Use an EDI informed approach in the:  

  • Hiring and promotion of faculty, staff, co-op students and contract staff (Principal, Academic, Administration)  
  • Hiring of suppliers, vendors and contractors for the College (Administration)  
  • Recruitment of the student population, the Don team, student leaders (Student Life)  
  • Awarding of scholarships, fellowships and other honours (Academic)

Academic and Co-curricular Programming

  • Develop guidelines and resources to support the inclusion and implementation of EDI across our academic courses. (Academic)  

  • Highlight and promote existing courses that have EDI content (Academic)  

  • Enhance opportunities and resources to support and enhance EDI in GreenHouse, FlintHub and the Student Refugee program (Unit Directors)  

  • Cultivate and grow our relationship with the Office of Indigenous Relations and the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion on main campus (Principal) 

Community Education 

  • Develop educational programming on EDI for everyone at the College (Principal)  

  • Ensure all new employees receive Indigenous Cultural Awareness training (Administration)  

  • Ensure all new residents receive a baseline diversity education in September (Student Life) 

 Infrastructure, Living Environment and Services 

  • Complete AODA certification for our facilities.  (Administration)  

  • Enhance communications and responsiveness to those making inquiries and requests regarding accessibility (Facilities)  

  • Develop EDI guidelines for the College’s online presence, marketing and social media channels (External Relations)  

  • Create additional residence communities or supports for EDI students (Student Life)  

  • Enable community members to fulfill religious requirements such as the ability to perform ablutions or access quiet space for prayer (Principal) 

Process 

This workplan is an organic document that establishes an actionable blueprint for the next three years (2025-28). The EDI Committee will advise the Principal on the progress of this plan. It will be subject to periodic updating and revision based on feedback from the community. 

Responsibility for each initiative has been assigned to a particular unit or group at the College. The senior staff member in each of these units will be responsible for advising the committee on the progress of the assigned responsibilities, although all staff members in the respective units will be responsible for their progress.  

The Principal will periodically share information on the progress of the workplan in the Principal’s Report to the Board, and at the All-College meetings. 

*This workplan was developed in April, 2025 by a committee consisting of Bethany Poltl (Student), Niki Nazary (Student), Emma Smith (Staff), Davandra Earle (Staff), Teferi Mergo (Faculty), Nancy Tapias (Faculty) and John Abraham (Academic Dean).