Alison participated in the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ Equity Conference.
A main goal of the conference was translating issues into action.
Key ideas
Equity is not negotiable
Good data is needed but we cannot demand that people disclose their status. Sometimes access to data is difficult.
University culture needs to change
Session One – Celebrating Progress
Jean-Daniel Jacob, Professor in the Nursing Department, uOttawa, recently member of the latest bargaining team
Described how equity was a central point both during APUO member elections and for bargaining.
Equity provisions included existing ones (e.g., university-wide pay equity) and new ones (e.g., increasing on-campus child care spots)
Described some challenges to ensure representation in areas where decisions are made that affect everyone, such as committees, hiring, etc.
Spoke to importance of communications with members, including specific bulletins on equity
Specific propositions and results that JDJ has been involved in:
Gender salary gap: discussed outside bargaining (brought at the bargaining table to ensure the issue was addressed)—discussed outside besides it’s an incongruent idea to have equity as a bargaining chip; equity should be a commonly understood and baseline principle.
Article 17: Academic postings—having targeted job postings to increase diversity in professorial ranks
TPC and equity: composition and training of TPCs—all members of selection/hiring committees will have baseline training (awareness)
Childcare letter of understanding: did not make progress in this area during the last round of bargaining
Victoria Wyatt, University of Victoria, Faculty Association
https://www.uvic.ca/finearts/ahvs/people/faculty/profiles/wyatt-victoria.php
Celebrating Success in disability advocacy (strategies over 15 years)
Three principles that underly our strategies
Time: it takes a long time to get progress; necessity for creating time for people to work on these issues
Structures: Incorporating structures into the group so there is a consistent and ongoing engagement (not just reacting when there is a crisis)
People: diverse array of people helping with these issues (e.g., lived experiences of issue, deep/long institutional knowledge, policy knowledge, familiarity of medical contexts and public policy such as nurses and social workers)
Implementing these principles
Executive committee member (elected) takes on portfolio on equity and disability with course release: create the time to have regular engagement with these issues
Has historical knowledge of issues
Consultant to officers
Access to meeting with higher admin
Chair of faculty advisory disability committee
Member of many committees
Examples of work of her portfolio
HR website language changed (to be legally accurate rather than misrepresent information)
Created disability FAQs
Education and visibility are essential
Having professional staff who have in their job description that they work in the area (e.g., disability, equity)—can make contacts to ask questions, do research in preparation for meetings, establish baselines, etc.
Collective agreement committee
Adding principles and language (voted on by members): E.g., Partial or full leave with pay while legally allowed accommodations are put in place, Member going on sick leave not required to find their own replacement
Louise Forsyth, University of Saskatchewan
Slow and uneven progress of the Canada Research Chairs Program towards equity, diversity, and inclusion since 2000
CRC program used to be just “research excellence” (2000) à now “research excellence and equity” (2015)
Canada needs to be more equitable, more diverse, and more inclusive if we are going to produce research of quality that will lead in the world.
2003: Human rights violation complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) over the under-representation of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities
2015: 15th year evaluation of the CRC program
2017: Launch of the EDI Action plans
2019: promising progress being made (from the new CRC numbers coming in), BUT:
Still remaining is the transformation of the university culture, which remains racist, sexist.
Still difficult to study equity (Canada census certainly doesn’t give us good numbers—the statistics are not clear). We need stronger methodologies and therefore better data
On collecting data
Essential but messy
Can’t get so caught up by the numbers that we are slow to act—don’t let it get in the way from action
Session Two - Drawing on Our Strengths
Issues that arise
Recruitment, retention, training needs to go beyond awareness raising (and going through the motions) toward developing skills for change
How to have more representation in equity groups (e.g., advocates)
Improve physical spaces (equitable, inclusive, accessible)
Questions around accommodations
Ouverture à tous les différents sortes de diversité
How to effect culture change at the university
How to change perpetuating white male culture
How to change the educational environments
People in equity-deserving groups are often overburdened
Recent efforts : Indigenize the campus (Indigenous Office), more conversations, Special advisor to the president, changes in bargaining, caucuses on campus
Barriers
Quotas versus targets?
Member apathy/complacency
Time constraints
Tenure and promotion culture
Importance of data
Risk of identifying self (woman, gay, Indigenous)
Governance
Disciplinary barriers/siloes (between the disciplines and problematic practices within the disciplines)
Bridges
Conversation: Talking to each other
Allies and accomplices (ideally well-informed)
Students
Training
Support: time (e.g., course release), staff (help with work, logistics)
Governance
Recognition
Session Three — Yes, We Can Do This
Michael Lynk, Western University
Proud of how we can uplift through human rights work
Seeing a “rights culture” in Canada. Expansion of number of protected grounds, growth in the right to accommodate, and human rights are receiving a quasi constitutional status now in Canada
However, still very far to go. In particular in the academy, underreprsentation of women, racialized minorities, and Indigenous people. In law, uneven application of human rights terms. Litigating human rights is still an expensive and prolonged process.
Two mechanisms for protecting and advancing human rights
Collective agreements (unions) have an important ability and responsibility to advance human rights.
Colleen Bauman, Goldblatt Partners
How faculty associations can use complaints and grievances to move issues forward. Examples of issues:
Discrimination in pay: FAs are engaged in a range of approaches. Individual cases make it hard to push forward systemic change. Learn whether it can be made with a systemic argument/case
Students evaluations in teaching
Equity hiring agreements
Wassim Gargouzi, RavenLaw
The reason we don’t have all the same rights is because of money
When presenting or defending a grievance, I look at what the cost perspective is going to be
These decisions can take years and cost enormous amounts of money (Johnstone case: https://www.ciu-sdi.ca/representation/duty-accommodate-johnstone-decision/)
Example of part-time law professors at the University of Ottawa who received a 93% pay increased after joining the Association
Example of nurses who have to come in 15 minutes early
Communication strategies
One approach
Identify the hook—convince the journalist of the necessity to cover your story. What angle will interest them?
Negative often raises more attention (not “ne pas” but rather “fermer x va causer x”)
What is the conflict, what’s at stake?
What are the fundamental values involved?
What is the solution?
How can people get involved?
E.g., petition, demonstration, social media campaign
Grouping together around key principles, finding allies and accomplices
