ABR progress tracker

The McGill Student Census helps us understand the composition of our student body. Analyzing this demographic data helps us to better plan for and serve our student population. This data collection initiative began in Fall 2020 and is a continuous effort. As of 2023 McGill’s student census, 4.4% students self-identify as Black.

The role of the Local Wellness Advisor in the Student Wellness Hub is to support the mental health and well-being of students through guided interventions and wellness plans, support resources, outreach, prevention, awareness, and other factors that may support student wellness either one-on-one or via mental health workshops, programs, or events. Visit the Wellness hub page: Support for Racialized Students.

Camille Georges was appointed as Black Community Outreach Associate in Enrolment Services in April 2021. Her role focuses on the planning, execution, and continuous improvement of McGill’s outreach and recruitment endeavors to Black youth, including the Student Leadership Program. Camille’s role is also focused on developing relationships with Black communities and on working with and delivering mentorship programming to secondary school and CEGEP students and other young adults to increase access to higher education for Black youth. 

To learn more, contact: camille.georges [at] mcgill.ca

The Equity Team led consultations with student associations in 2020 to hear what students believed the module should address. Since spring 2021, McGill’s Equity Team, Teaching and Learning Services, and Communications & External Relations units have collaborated to integrate the content into an online platform accessible to all members of the McGill community.

The role of Black Student Affairs Liaison (BSAL) was assigned in January 2021. More than 85 Black students have been advised on individual challenges and questions. Most importantly, McGill’s BSAL role is becoming a trusted site for student advice and connections to opportunities for Black students.

Melissa N. Shaw and Joana Joachim have been appointed as Provostial Research Scholars pursuing postdoctoral fellowships funded by the Provost’s Office investigating McGill’s connections to transatlantic slavery and colonialism. Plans for a wider McGill History Project have been developed in collaboration with the Dr Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty & Staff Caucus. Further discussions on a McGill institutional history project will resume following the appointment and installation of McGill’s next Principal and Vice-Chancellor.

McGill’s application for membership was accepted in 2020. Participation in USS events provides an opportunity for working with and learning from academic institutions studying their respective institutional relationships to the transatlantic slave trade. Further, these networks promote the awareness and advancement of campus efforts across North America to enhance equity and inclusion for Black students.

McGill’s Visiting Fellows-in-Residence on Black Life and History Program was established in the reference year 2022/2023. Through fruitful collaborations with McGill academic colleagues, McGill recruited Dr. Dennis Perez (University of Havana) and Dr. Samaila Suleiman (Bayero University, Kano), two outstanding scholars, to join the University as inaugural Fellows. They will be welcomed in Winter 2024 within the Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences and Education and will carry out and share their scholarship through lectures and workshops.

Over the Fall of 2021, the African and Black Studies Working Group conducted outreach to faculty, notably through the Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, staff, students, and other stakeholders, including alumni. The Working Group, led by Professors Khalid Medani and Debra Thompson, submitted a visionary report to the Provost & Vice-Principal (Academic) in the Winter 2022 term. A committee will be established to oversee the implementation of the recommendations in this report.

The efforts to expand student opportunities are still ongoing. Recently, the following opportunities have been offered. 

The McGill Black Alumni Association (MBAA) remained vibrant and active in 2022-23, holding three events for Black students and alumni. These included an event focused on career networking and job search strategies, a Black History Month discussion with author Perry C. Douglas (BA'91), as well as a Homecoming event, “Blackness and belonging”. In total, the events gathered over 550 participants.

In response to the Action Plan, an Advisory and Accountability Panel on Black Student Life (“Panel”) completed its mandate to advise University leadership on key areas affecting Black students at McGill. The Panel was chaired by McGill’s Associate Director, Black Inclusion, Success, and Strategic Initiatives and Black Student Affairs Liaison, and included membership from the McGill and Montreal Black communities. Throughout the reference year, the University worked to implement the recommendations from the Panel’s report, all of which have been accepted. The Panel’s final report can be accessed here.

In 2021, McGill established a partnership with the University of West Indies (UWI) that will allow for the further exploration and expansion of current collaborative McGill-UWI projects as well as the development of new opportunities. As McGill’s only Caribbean exchange partner, UWI has welcomed McGill students since 2011. The program will contribute to developing a community of young, engaged leaders and to advancing policy, practice, and research to confront the pressing challenges of climate change. The project involves sending twenty McGill students to the UWI to carry out three-month internships, as well as receiving twenty UWI students at McGill as Graduate Research Trainees for three-month periods.

A core commitment of the Action Plan was to increase substantially the representation of Black academic staff. At the time of the Action Plan’s development, there were 14 tenure-track or tenured Black academic staff at McGill. The Action Plan committed to targets of 40 and 85 Black tenure-track or tenured professors by 2025 and 2032, respectively.

Support for Black faculty occurs through initiatives that center networking, mentoring, and professional development. University-wide mentorship and professional development initiatives (Provost's Faculty Mentorship Network, First Manuscript Project, and the Development Initiative for Academic Leadership) were put in place or grown over the reference year. These efforts are shown to have a disproportionate benefit for faculty from underrepresented groups, including Black faculty. 

The Dr. Kenneth Melville McGill Black Faculty and Staff Caucus (“Caucus”) played a key role in the success of these recruitment and retention efforts. Caucus members who were appointed as provostial delegates for the searches tied to the Action Plan made crucial contributions that deserve recognition and gratitude.

The HR Anti-Black Racism Working Group worked on the recruitment and retention of Black administrative and support staff. 

• The representation of Black administrative and support staff in the MPEX/EXEC categories grew from 4.1% to 4.4% in the reference year. This progress is important, given that the Action Plan sets a target of 5% representation of Black M-level and executive staff by 2025.
• Human Resources staffing professionals have all participated in learning workshops on equity in hiring and the Action Plan.
• McGill’s supervisors also participate in growing numbers of equity education workshops related to anti-racism and microaggressions.

• Outreach to 29 Black Associations in the Montreal area offering employment services. Since July 2022, a total of 453 applicants, 11 of whom were eventually hired, indicated in their applications that they applied to a position of which they had become aware through our Black community association partners.

• Internal Internships Pilot Program (IIP) for Black staff launched in February 2022. In its pilot iteration, eight Black staff were paired with six hosts, allowing staff members to shadow their host and gain unique professional opportunities. Participants deemed the pilot a success, and the program has now become a permanent initiative entitled the Professional Exchange Program (PEP).

• Testimonials of Black staff are included on McGill’s career website.  

• Review of McGill’s onboarding website to foster a greater sense of belonging as they join the organization.   

• Initial development of an optional orientation/onboarding buddy program to support newly hired Black administrative staff.  

The curriculum developed by the Equity Team broadened in scope considerably over AY2020/21. Workshops focusing on equity in recruitment and hiring are a core component of this curriculum. These trainings are designed to ensure that colleagues, once at McGill, experience equitable and inclusive environments where they believe they can succeed.  

With a view to expanding the representativeness of iconography and imagery across McGill, discussions began during the reference year to form the terms of reference for a committee that will be charged with expanding opportunities and criteria for the naming of University assets. Its mandate will align with the 2017 Final Report of the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education, the 2018 Final Report of the Principal’s Task Force on Respect and Inclusion in Campus Life, the 2018 Final Report of the Working Group on Principles of Commemoration and Renaming, the 2020 Strategic EDI Plan, and the 2020 Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism, each of which acknowledges the importance of inclusive use of space and the power of physical representation. The Working Group will be initiated in 2023-24.

The history of James McGill presented through university channels was rewritten to provide a wider breadth of information regarding his complex history, including his ownership of enslaved persons within his household and his participation in the transatlantic slave trade. This history has been shared on McGill’s website. It was also set out on a plaque that was installed next to the sculpture of James McGill on the lower campus. 

Preliminary meetings with key stakeholders at McGill have taken place to determine how best to move forward with Bellairs in a manner that preserves its important academic activities while advancing on commitments made in relation to Bellairs in the Action Plan. 

McGill has committed to highlighting the history and contemporary presence of diverse peoples within our campuses through multiple sites and modes of communication. This began with the Bicentennial website. See: https://200.mcgill.ca/history.   

After several months of planning, a dedicated space for McGill’s Black students officially opened in the reference year. The ABR Working Group organized a launch to welcome students to their space, and the reception was wonderful. Students across McGill are free to drop in and use this space reserved to rest or catch up on work between courses or to network and socialize.