In this image, a clustered group of people in a line is featured, as viewed from the back looking forward. This symbolizes the forward movement of progress the cluster hiring initiative seeks to facilitate. These people are intrinsically linked together through common struggles and goals but rely on each other during this forward march.
The University of Calgary (UCalgary) recognizes the importance of creating and maintaining a welcoming, equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible working, research, teaching, learning, and living environment that enables every member of our campus community to thrive. We see this commitment as important to meet the needs of an ever-more diverse and rapidly changing society and as an opportunity to harness the ideas, knowledge, skills, and experiences that people from different backgrounds and perspectives bring to our campuses. Equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility are vital to excellence in all aspects of research practice and design and across the UCalgary research ecosystem. These values, commitments and practices are highlighted in many institutional strategies, including our Eyes High Strategic Plan (2017-2022), Academic Plan (2018-2023), Research Plan (2018-2023), and our Framework for Growth (2021-) recognize that great cities, and great societies, are anchored by great research universities and commits to applying the framework with “consideration of the effect on efforts towards Indigenous reconciliation and equity, diversity, and inclusion”.
At the University of Calgary, we are committed to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. We'll continue to strive to create pathways forward for equity-deserving groups that are more reflective of the larger community we serve. We are taking initiatives like this to ensure that happens, not by closing doors, but by opening doors to everyone.
Dr. Ed McCauley, PhD
President and Vice-Chancellor
UCalgary’s cluster hiring initiative is an important step in our efforts to close persistent equity gaps. We are committed to recruiting and ensuring the success of outstanding scholars from equity-deserving groups. We are excited by what they will contribute to campus life and our city, and how they will spark novel ideas, perspectives, curriculum innovations and research excellence.
Dr. Malinda Smith, PhD
Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President Research (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)
Diversity fuels entrepreneurial thinking, which is a part of our culture here at UCalgary. It contributes to better scholars, researchers and learners. This initiative will create a greater diversity of people, ideas and perspectives to enrich our campus community and make it a better place for all.
Dr. Penny Werthner, PhD
Interim Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology
The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative is a proactive and data-driven approach to growing and diversifying our academy in a way that supports the equity-deserving members of our community, and all those who will join it in the future. These new scholars will expand and advance research and innovation at UCalgary by enriching our research ecosystem with their diverse perspectives, approaches and ways of knowing.
Dr. William Ghali, MD
Vice-President (Research)
This UCalgary Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring EDI Data Report provides institutional and faculty-level equity gap analyses of the representation of equity-deserving groups at the University of Calgary between 2016 – 2021.
This FAQ provides answers to key questions that you may have about the UCalgary Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative.
Cluster hiring is the promising practice of recruiting and hiring professors in groups or cohorts, rather than individually. These clusters may be hired within departments, across faculties, and/or strategic research and teaching priority areas. Cluster and cohort hiring have been pursued at UCalgary and across the Canadian post-secondary education sector for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to attracting and retaining research teams in strategic research areas; enhancing the student experience by broadening and enriching excellence in research and teaching areas; and, in more recent years, expanding the diversity of researchers, teachers, academic mentors and role models at all levels of the university.
The UCalgary cluster hiring initiative advances and embeds the institution’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion; Indigenousengagement; and inclusive excellence. UCalgary is engaged in a number of steps to advance a more equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible campus. It responds to demands for change by students, staff, faculty and alumni who want to see the institution, and the professoriate, reflect the diversity of the student body and the broader community (see: EDI Data Hub). The Inclusive Excellence ClusterHiring Initiative is one key step to ameliorate the under-representation of members of federally designated groups (FDGs)/equity-deserving groups (EDGs) at the university, and to improve epistemic pluralism, the creation of new knowledge, and broaden the culture of inclusivity and engagement.
This proactive measure aims to ameliorate disadvantage by closing equity gaps in the professoriate and creating a critical mass of scholars to prevent isolation, support retention, and increase mentors and role models. It will enable the expansion of curriculum innovations; incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing; build transdisciplinary teaching, research and scholarship; and enhance our commitment to city-building and community engagement.
Equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility are indispensable to the pursuit of excellence, quality and merit in universities. There is no necessary conflict, tension or trade-off between increasing the diversity of people and the pursuit and achievement of excellence in research and scholarship, teaching and learning, and community engagement. Excellence is enabled by diversity and is not limited to a single demographic group. However, the pursuit and achievement of excellence may be impeded by deficit thinking, historical and contemporary stereotypes, attitudes, procedures, and practices that limit access, equity, inclusion and diversity. The complementarity of equity and excellence is highlighted in the June 2022 Deans Council-approved “University of Calgary Plan for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research and Teaching Awards.” The preponderance of research, scholarship and experience highlight how diversity of people, ideas, perspectives and heuristics make us smarter, improve critical thinking, enable the cultivation of a wider range of knowledges and skills, enhance intercultural insights and capacity, improve problem-solving and decision-making, and fuel creativity and innovation. To advance inclusive excellence, we must proactively identify biases and myth that rest on historical discrimination and contemporary stereotypes that imply that an increase in diversity somehow leads to the undermining of excellence.
Excellence at post-secondary institutions is enabled by our openness to — and proactive efforts to create — an equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible institutional environment in which talented people from all backgrounds — including those who contribute to a diversity of ideas, perspectives, methodologies, pedagogic practices and ways of knowing — can flourish in an enabling environment. It is a myth that there is a trade-off between equity and excellence, or that a diversity of people undermines the pursuit and achievement of excellence. Such myths reinforce biases and discriminatory behaviour that EDI research aims to ameliorate.
Sources:
An institutional definition of Inclusive Excellence was adopted by Dean’s Council when it approved the EDI plan in Research and Teaching Awards in June 2022. We believe that “The individual and institutional pursuit of excellence, quality or merit is best achieved in equitable, diverse, inclusive, accessible and decolonial conditions in which everyone can thrive. While the human pursuit of excellence is an inclusive one, and not limited to a specific demographic group, how it is socially and institutionally defined, operationalized and recognized historically often has been exclusionary of, among other things, diverse ways of knowing, knowledge, methodologies and perspectives. Recognizing the integral relationship between equity-as-fairness and inclusive excellence is necessary to mitigate how access to, and success within, scholarly associations, universities and colleges have been shaped by histories of discriminatory ideas, attitudes, processes and practices. Inclusive Excellence affirms how diversity can deepen learning, enhance critical thinking and problem solving, and fuel creativity and innovation in teaching and learning, research and artistic enquiry, professional service, and community engagement in academia.”
UCalgary is a member institution of Universities Canada, which adopted seven “Inclusive Excellence Principles ” in October 2017. These principles complemented the 13 Principles on Indigenous Education that were adopted by Universities Canada in June 2019 that focused on curricula, intercultural competency and Indigenous education leadership, among other things.
Three Universities Canada’s Inclusive Excellence principles are especially relevant to our initiative: the first stresses the importance of leadership commitment and action. Principle 1 states that “universities are enriched by diversity and inclusion. As leaders of universities that aspire to be diverse, fair and open, we will make our personal commitment to diversity and inclusion evident.” The importance of proactive ameliorative measures is highlighted in Principle 3 in which universities, “commit to taking action to provide equity of access and opportunity. To do so, we will identify and address barriers to, and provide support for, the recruitment and retention of senior university leaders, university Board and Senate members, faculty, staff, and students, particularly from under-represented groups.” In Principle 5, university leaders committed their institutions to find, “ways to integrate inclusive excellence throughout our university’s teaching, research, community engagement and governance. In doing so, we will engage with students, faculty, staff, our boards of governors, senates and alumni to raise awareness and encourage all efforts.” See Universities Canada. Inclusive Excellence Principles
Inclusive Excellence is one of four principles — along with Black flourishing, mutuality and accountability — in the Scarborough Charter onAnti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion. For UCalgary, like other signatories of the Charter, “inclusive excellence embodies the recognition that not only is post-secondary education enriched by equity, diversity and inclusion; equitable inclusion is critical to excellence. Excellenceencompasses the ability of universities and colleges to educate and to innovate; to be alive to the complexity and proactive in the face of crisis; to foster fundamental questioning through rigorous, respectful engagements across difference; and to enable societal transformation.”
Despite prior efforts to advance and embed EDI at UCalgary, the university has more work to do. Our analyses of available EDI data show persistent equity gaps and the under-representation of members of federally designated groups (FDGs), women, Indigenous peoples,racialized/visible minority persons, persons with disabilities as well as members of LGBTQ2S+ communities. The UCalgary has an expressed commitment to EDI data transparency, as it announced with the launch of the EDI Dashboard on March 30, 2021. Our EDI data is publicly available at the EDI Data Hub. The institutional-level aggregated data show a persistent pattern of disparity for members of equity-deserving groups overall, and/or by rank. The first-time available disaggregated institutional and faculty-level data show persistent equity gaps.
The final report of the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment (a.k.a. Abella Report[AFH1] ) (1984) and, subsequently, the Employment Equity Act (1985) and Federal Contractors Program[AFH2] , required institutional or overall workforce analysis of employee groups, rather than equity gaps by institutional sub-units like administrative units or faculties and departments. The Abella Report found, “that four factors are statistical indicators of possible systemic discrimination: participation rates, unemployment rates, income levels, and occupational segregation”. It further states that, “success of an employment equity program is measured by results: expansion of the employment opportunities to qualified individuals in designated groups. Measurement of results require data” (emphasis added). Further, the report called for the collection of self-identification surveys and workforce representational-diversity data for the four FDGs by occupational category. It called for the analysis of representational data “in hiring, promotions, terminations, lay-offs, part-time work, contract work, internal task forces or committees, and training and educational leave opportunities.” (See: R.S. Abella, “General Summary,” Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, 1984).)
Although the EDI data landscape in Canada is changing, including at UCalgary (see NextGen EDI Data Symposium), few post-secondary institutions have been collecting, analyzing and disseminating this kind of comprehensive data as first called for in the Abella Report of 1984. The current capacity to present disaggregated data at the level of faculties and disciplines; the distribution of equity gaps for each equity-deserving group, and among equity-deserving groups; and faculty-level data strengthens efforts at the meso-level.
UCalgary’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of Institutional Analysis, in collaboration with Human Resources and other institutional partners, conducted the EDI data gap analysis for this initiative. It provides EDI data at the institutional level, faculty level and by professorial rank. It includes a mix of available administrative data for women, and self-identification data from the UCalgary 2021 Employment Equity Census with the aim of assessing equity gaps. In 2021, the Census included, for the first time, disaggregated data on the FDGs as well as self-identification data on sexual orientation, gender diversity, religion and language. The trends analysis does not provide EDI data at the level of departments, disciplines or fields of inquiry because they currently do not exist or, to protect privacy and confidentiality, they require the suppression of representations that are less than five persons for each equity-deserving group. This is especially pertinent to EDGs that are constituted by multiple subgroups; for example, racialized/visible minority persons including Arab, Black, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Latin American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, West Asian and multiple racialized (or mixed-race); and the LGBTQ2S+ community that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit and others. Our commitment to data transparency and conducting regular EDI data trends analyses also informs our commitment to developing measures, policies and strategies to ameliorate inequities.
UCalgary’s commitment to EDI data transparency is reflected in our EDI Dashboard and the data available at our EDI Data Hub. Our institutional EDI Trends Report, 2016-2020 shows a pattern of hiring disparity for members of FDGs at UCalgary. Our preliminary analysis of the 2021 Expanded Employment Equity Census data shows the persistence of a pattern of under-representation. The preliminary 2021 disaggregated data analysis is publicly available on the Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring webpage.
Aggregated data for 2016 to 2020 have been available on UCalgary’s EDI Dashboard since March 2021, and also in various infographics on the EDI Data Hub. Although the disaggregated EDI data for 2021 is not yet available in the EDI Dashboard, we have completed a preliminary analysis and have made the findings publicly available online in the UCalgary Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative Data Report, 2022, which has been prepared by the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI) and the Office of Institutional Analysis (OIA), with the support of Human Resources. The report includes:
Despite more than three decades of policies to advance EDI and accessibility, the university’s EDI data shows these efforts of not achieved the desired results. UCalgary’s approach to employment equity dates to the late-1980s when it adopted an Employment Equity Policy (1989) [AFH1] in which it committed, “to achieve and maintain a fair and representative workforce through the design and implementation of an employment equity plan, which meets the requirements of the Employment Equity Act and the Federal Contractor’s Program (FCP). The FCP requires that organizations who do business with the Government of Canada and meet two criteria implement employment equity in their workplace. The two criteria are: first, they have a workforce of over 100 permanent full-time and/or part-time employees; and, second, they have bid on and received federal government funds valued at $1 million dollars or more. An organization must:
UCalgary reaffirmed its commitment in the GFC Academic Staff Criteria & Processes Handbook approved by General Faculties Council in June 2021. The Handbook includes the institutional approval processes for expedited hires (Section 5) and for equitable and inclusive hiring (Section 6) at UCalgary. The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative falls under Section 6 as follows (excerpted from the Handbook[AFH2] ):
Section 6. Equitable and Inclusive Hiring Initiatives
6.1. The university is committed to equitable and inclusive hiring practices consistent with the principles of EDI and Indigenous Strategies in order to achieve diverse representation in its academic staff. From time to time, the university may wish to engage in an Equitable & Inclusive Hiring Initiative in accordance with AHRA [Alberta Human Rights Act].
6.2. An Equitable & Inclusive Hiring Initiative (see also Part A.1.2.viii.) means any job competition that gives preference to, or is only open to, one or more equity-deserving groups with the objective of amelioration, in accordance with the AHRA. In the case of a bona fide occupational requirement, the same procedures will apply.
6.3. The Deputy Provost, a Vice-Provost, or a Dean may propose an Equitable & Inclusive Hiring Initiative which requires approval by the Provost and Vice-President (Academic).
6.4. The following information must accompany a request for the Provost’s approval of an Equitable & Inclusive Hiring Initiative:
6.5. Once an Equitable & Inclusive Hiring Initiative has been approved, the Academic Appointment Selection Committee will be selected as described in Part C.3.1. Once the Academic Appointment Selection Committee is in place, the procedures outlined above in Part C. 3.2 to C. 3.9 shall be followed. The language of the proposed Position Posting listed in Part C. 6.4.v. above, may, however, be revisited by the Committee before being released for publication.
The Eyes High Strategic Plan, 2017-2022 and 2011-2016, which is currently under renewal, stresses that, “Great people are our most valuable assets. We will continue to attract, encourage and recognize talented students, faculty and post-doctoral scholars who conduct globally recognized research. We will also nurture, develop and celebrate the staff who skillfully and passionately support them” (emphasis added). (April 2017).
UCalgary’s Academic Plan, 2018-2023 prioritizes people: “We must work to continually prioritize our people by creating a safe, inclusive and respectful culture of excellence and engagement where people feel valued for the contributions they are making; where diversity of views, thought and culture exists in a respectful and collaborative work environment; where leadership from all is encouraged; and where all are empowered and enabled” (emphasis added).
UCalgary’s Research Plan, 2018-2023 prioritized three goals that included increasing research capacity, matching strength and opportunities, and driving innovation: “We will demonstrate through discovery, creativity and innovation the impact a research-intensive university can have on societal goals and aspirations, and we will create a student experience that will produce the next generation of leaders.”
UCalgary’s Indigenous Strategy, ii’ taa’poh’to’p, “Together in a Good Way: A Journey of Transformation and Renewal,” recognizes that, “creating and maintaining shared, ethical space inclusive of Indigenous peoples’ representation within the student body, staff, faculty, leadership and governing structures.”
As one of the signatories to the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black inclusion in Canadian Higher Education on Nov. 18, 2021, UCalgary acknowledged that, “By signing this historic document, UCalgary will be operating based on the four principles of the Charter [Black flourishing, inclusive excellence, mutuality and accountability] in order to create equitable and inclusive pathways for Black faculty, staff and students”.
This initiative draws on provincial and federal human rights and equality rights law that enable “ameliorative measures” that reasonably can be expected to change conditions of inequity and disadvantage. The GFC Handbook (2021) is grounded in the Alberta Human Rights Act, Section 10.1:
The Alberta Human Rights Act (Revised Statutes of Alberta 2000, Chapter A-25-5 (Dec. 8, 2021)
Section 10 - “Ameliorative policies, programs and activities”
10.1. It is not a contravention of this Act to plan, advertise, adopt or implement a policy, program or activity that
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 15(2), the “Equality Rights” section, says (excerpt):
Sections 15, Equality Rights
15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
15. (2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability (emphasis added).
The Employment Equity Act (S.C. 1995, c. 44. Assented to 1995-12-15) and the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) both have their origins in the Royal Commission on Equality (1984), which was chaired by then-Judge Rosalie Silberman Abella. Employment Equity is a federal government program created in 1986. The purpose of the Act was “to achieve equality in workplace” and “to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment” for members of four federally designated groups (FDGs) — women, Indigenous peoples, racialized/visible minority persons and persons with disabilities. The Employment Equity program is administered by Economic and Social Development Canada. While the Act applies to federally regulated organizations, the FCP extends it to provincial contractors.
Ameliorative measures are enabled both by the federal Employment Equity Act (or Legislative Employment Equity Program) and the FCP.
The Employment Equity Act (excerpts):
Purpose of the Act
Employer Obligations
Employer’s duty
4.(1) Every employer shall implement employment equity by
Analysis and review
9.(1) For the purposes of implementing employment equity, every employer shall
Employment equity plan
10. (1) The employer shall prepare an employment equity plan that
Establishment of numerical goals
(2) In establishing the short-term numerical goals referred to in paragraph (1)(d), every employer shall consider
Originally created in 1986, the Federal Contractors Program was revised by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in June 2013. It calls upon universities to:
The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative is a short to a medium-term initiative that will begin in the 2022-2023 academic year and continue into the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years. Each year, the university will analyze the EDI data from the ExpandedEmployment Equity Census at the university overall, and within each faculty, to evaluate representational equity gaps and determine what measures it needs to continue to take to close them.
Decision-making on the cluster hires at the faculty level will be based on need, including as shaped by a gap analysis of equity-deserving groups (see accompanying Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring EDI Data Report, 2022) and faculty-level hiring goals. The Initiative aims to recruit tenure-track and tenured professors at all ranks, including assistant, associate and full professors. UCalgary’s proactive recruitment of professors will cover wide-ranging areas of research, scholarship and ways of knowing, as determined at the faculty level. Decision-making on the cluster hires at the faculty level will be based on need, including as shaped by a gap analysis of equity-deserving groups and faculty-level needs assessment.
The cluster hiring initiative is open to professors whose research, scholarship and community engagement are outlined in UCalgary’s Research Plan, 2018-2023, the Board of Governors-approved Framework for Growth, as well as open up new areas of research and scholarship. The new faculty will build upon and expand existing research and teaching strengths, as well as contribute to the building of a more diverse and inclusive curriculum, pedagogy, methodology and ways of knowing in the academy. Needs-based decision-making on priorities will be a mix of institutional and faculty needs. The cluster hiring initiative does not assume a necessary correlation between identity diversity and areas of teaching, research, scholarship and community engagement. This initiative is inclusive of members of equity-deserving groups whose areas of teaching, research and scholarship, and community engagement vary.
The overall initiative was launched in late summer of 2022. The number and timing of faculty-level recruitment may vary throughout 2022, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. These positions will be advertised consistently with better and promising practices outlined in the GFC Handbook, Part C, Sections 1-5 and Section 6.
At the Schulich School of Engineering, we strive to be a leader in equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. We aim to foster a community where students, faculty and staff of all backgrounds can thrive. We are dedicated to increasing the number of designated groups in engineering, and the Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative will help us remove barriers for equity-deserving groups.
As a top five research institution, UCalgary has the ability to change the face of success in Canadian science. We need “all brains on deck” to answer the world’s most pressing problems. Through our commitment to the Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative, the Faculty of Science is taking action to create an environment of excellence where diverse ideas and ways of knowing are valued and celebrated.
The Cumming School of Medicine is committed to creating the future of health. The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative represents an important opportunity to elevate the CSM’s capacity to attract dynamic physicians and scientists that reflect the equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible communities we serve.
Cluster hiring is the promising practice of recruiting and hiring professors in groups or cohorts. Across the Canadian postsecondary sector, clusters of professors have been hired within departments, across faculties, and/or within research and teaching areas. There are many benefits to this practice, including cultivating epistemic pluralism, cognitive justice, and ecologies of knowledge. Cluster hiring of professors creates social webs that link together professors who, in concert, can ignite curriculum innovations, transdisciplinary teaching, research and scholarship and expand Indigenous knowledge, languages, and ways of knowing. The social diversity of researchers, teachers, mentors, and role models also can fuel ingenuity, creativity, and innovation. These, in turn, enhance the student, faculty and staff experience. Cluster hiring enables the university to take steps towards a more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible campus, which better reflects the student body and our greater community.
Over 30 years ago, UCalgary, “committed to achieve and maintain a fair and representative workforce” (Employment Equity Policy, February 16, 1989). Then, as now, our students and the wider community are demanding change, including that the professoriate reflect the diversity of the student body and wider Calgary community, which is Canada’s third most diverse city. While we have made some progress, our analysis of hiring trends has shown that the hiring gaps and underrepresentation of members of equity-deserving groups persist overall and by rank (see our Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative EDI Data Report, October 2022). We are committed to transformative changes in policies, practices, systems, and structures that have historically prevented equitable pathways for the advancement of women, racialized/visible minority persons, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ persons and that have blocked parallel paths for Indigenous peoples on our campuses.
The Faculty of Social Work supports the University’s vital action to develop respectful and accountable relationships and protocols with marginalized people. Amplifying the knowledges and research contributions of Black, Indigenous, and racialized people, and those with intersectional and marginalized identities, will strengthen our ability to create positive change in society.
This initiative is a welcome and valued next step in advancing equity, diversity and inclusion at the Werklund School, where we have long recognized decolonizing and Indigenizing education as priorities. Recruiting additional Indigenous scholars will have a meaningful impact on our work in educational research, in deepening our community engagement, and in ensuring we continue to foster understanding and awareness of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing among our students.
Animal health is at the core of the veterinary profession and the need for animal care crosses all societal, racial, economical and geographic borders. Working to EDIA principles is hence at the core of what we do at UCVM including research, teaching, clinical work and outreach. This cluster hire initiative will be truly transformative for our faculty and also for the veterinary sector to the benefit of animals, people and the environment.
Canadian cities have diverse populations and it is critical that faculty teaching in the city-building professions of architecture, planning and landscape architecture reflect this diversity of experience and worldview. These expanded frames of reference and ways of seeing the world better prepare our students to meet the many challenges and opportunities found in contemporary urban environments, particularly with respect to climate action and social justice.
The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative directly supports the Faculty of Arts’ ongoing commitment to creating a genuinely diverse community where Indigeneity, diversity and inclusive pluralism are thoughtfully woven into the fabric of research, academic and creative excellence, student experience and community relationships. This initiative is an opportunity to continue on a path to building a culture where diverse life experiences, perspectives, and ways of knowing are valued. Here, difficult, innovative and engaging conversations and ideas can be explored respectfully and in ways that always enrich the learning, teaching and research environment, strengthening collaboration, relational accountability, and intentional inclusion. This forward-looking and ambitious initiative will reinforce our collective culture of inclusion by ensuring that all people in the Faculty of Arts have the opportunities they seek to reach their full potential.
For diversity and equity to be achieved in any profession, it first needs to be achieved in our classrooms. Having more diversity in our faculty and researchers across campus will bring more diversity to our student body, and more diversity to the professions they will join after graduation.
The main objective of the Dimensions program is to foster transformational change within the research ecosystem at Canadian post-secondary institutions. The program aims to identify and eliminate obstacles and inequities in order to support equitable access to funding opportunities, increase equitable and inclusive participation in the research ecosystem, and embed EDI-related considerations in research design and practices.
This action plan is intended to guide efforts for sustaining the participation of and/or addressing the underrepresentation of individuals from the four designated groups (FDGs) — women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities — among institutional chair allocations, in accordance with the Canada Research Chairs program requirements.
The University of Calgary Research and Teaching Awards Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan was developed to embed a foundational commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in identifying and nominating candidates for external research and teaching excellence awards.
In research and education, as in business, diversity is a critical investment principle. Having a diverse faculty members enhances breadth and depth of knowledge and ensures leadership examples for all students.
Nursing as a discipline supports the health of diverse communities in a myriad of health-care environments. At UCalgary Nursing, we seek to reflect the diversity that we see in the world in which we work: the Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative allows us to continue our commitment to an inclusive and equitable workplace. The health challenges we face as a global community can only be addressed through diversity of perspective, and engagement of all voices.
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A core feature of graduate education, whether that means upskilling through a certificate program or contributing new knowledge in a doctoral degree, is plurality and diversity of thought. That is certainly the case at the University of Calgary, where the graduate student experience is rooted in the exploration of new and different ideas. The Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative and the growth in diversity of our faculty that it supports will continue to enhance and elevate the graduate experience as our students engage with inspiring minds and broad, new perspectives.
Excellence is enabled by diversity, not limited by it. Dominant research, scholarship and experiences highlight how a wider array of thoughts and perspectives improves critical thinking, cultivates a wider range of knowledge and skills, improves problem-solving, and enhances intercultural insights and capacity. On equity and excellence see FAQ #3.
Representation is a first and necessary step to closing educational access and opportunity gaps, ameliorating underrepresentation and marginalization, and creating a campus community that reflects the diversity of the student body and the wider community. While representation alone will not create an equitable and inclusive campus, it helps to reduce implicit biases and prejudices, support intercultural capacities and synergies, and enhance student, faculty and staff experience and retention. Representation opens doors to different experiences and ways of knowing plural knowledge, allowing students to see people like themselves as teachers and researchers, in our shared histories, and in course materials.
Good EDI data can help us better understand and close equity gaps and whether our campus community reflects the diversity of the student body and Calgary and the Canadian population. To make meaningful change, and to achieve an equitable, diverse, and inclusive university, key demographic data must be collected and analyzed. Reflecting its commitment to EDI data transparency, UCalgary was the first Canadian post-secondary institution to launch a publicly accessible EDI dashboard, which was created by the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI) in partnership with the Office of Institutional Analysis (OIA). In 2022 the OEDI launched its EDI Data Hub with university, city, national and international data sources and data visualizations. Quantitative and qualitative EDI data helps us track our progress and monitor whether our policies and procedures are making a measurable difference so that we can continue to keep ourselves accountable in our journey towards more equitable futures.
Presented to Dean's Council by Dr. Malinda S. Smith, PhD, Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President Research (EDI) and Dr. Bill Rosehart, PhD, Dean, Schulich School of Engineering
July 2022
The members of Universities Canada make an explicit public commitment to seven principles. These principles acknowledge the differences between university communities across Canada and the autonomy of individual institutions to advance change appropriate to local context and needs.
The University of Calgary joined over 40 universities, colleges, and partner institutions across Canada in signing the National Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion. This follows the promises made by the university at the October 2020 National Dialogues and Action for Inclusive Higher Education and Communities.
To make meaningful changes to achieve an equitable, diverse, and inclusive university, key demographic data must be collected, and efforts to identify and close the diversity gaps must be tracked.
See our roadmaps and progress reports, and get a look at how we're doing at reaching our goals.
Launched in 2017, ii' taa'poh'to'p guides the University of Calgary on its path to truth and reconciliation.
The framework will serve as the formal definition of the University’s intent, provide a common understanding of our approach and set the parameters under which future initiatives for growth will be considered. Individual initiatives for growth must still follow routing and approval stages set out in the University of Calgary’s governance processes.
