09 December 2020
Developing a respectful, diverse and inclusive culture is key to ensuring everyone who passes through our doors feels safe, welcome, valued and heard. At the Desautels Faculty of Management, we are committed to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion to better serve our community.
This statement, taken from the newly created EDI webpage, reflects Desautels’ commitment to embedding EDI in the fabric of the Faculty. Consistent with this, Advancing EDI is one of four themes that cuts across the Faculty’s planning and projects. It is in this spirit that the new position, Director of EDI, was created and in which I am performing my role.
As the Fall term comes to a close, I’d like to provide an update on the work done to date honouring our EDI commitments within the Faculty. We offer this update to be transparent about what we are doing and as a way to elicit feedback from all of you.
We are in the first phase of our EDI activities. In this phase, we are working to 1) build an EDI infrastructure; and 2) collect and analyze data on the representation and lived experiences of under-represented students, faculty and staff and learn more about EDI-related processes and outcomes at the Faculty. This data will be used to build longer-term plans for EDI at Desautels that will help dismantle systemic barriers to EDI, assess whether we are succeeding, and develop resources for related initiatives. These early-stage activities and our preliminary findings will inform the search for a new dean, and will provide the new dean with a proposal for a path forward on these issues.
We have made progress in building infrastructure and collecting data, highlighted below. We look forward to continuing these efforts.
Data Collection
- Focus Groups. We began to hold focus groups to learn more about the experiences of students, faculty and staff. Student groups run by an independent outside facilitator began in November; in the New Year, these will continue with additional groups for students as well as for staff and faculty.
- Program Directors. We spoke with 14 program directors (academic and administrative) and deans to understand what EDI issues they were aware of and how we could help them. These conversations have already generated many ideas about actions we might take, including how programs can share and implement better processes.
- Teaching Survey. We conducted a survey that asked faculty members how they incorporate EDI topics and practices into their teaching. The response rate was impressive: 81 per cent (87/107). We are still analyzing their responses but have learned that many were already doing some things well (for example, discussing various aspects of equity, diversity and inclusion; using gender neutral language; choosing cases and speakers from under-represented groups) and found some areas where we can help the Faculty advance EDI goals in their teaching. We also learned that many faculty members are interested in creating more inclusive classrooms and adding or enhancing EDI content in their courses; we plan to help them find ways to do that.
EDI Infrastructure
- EDI Webpage. One of the things we learned is that our students, staff and faculty need to know more about how to report EDI issues and what is being done concerning EDI. We created a webpage that is a central repository for information about EDI at Desautels. It provides information on how to report issues, where to find support when faced with issues, and on EDI-related research, teaching and events.
- Working and Advisory Groups. In order to advance our goals, we need to engage a broad set of stakeholders. We are working to do that by creating a series of groups. These include a working group, academic-area representatives, and alumni and corporate advisory groups. We are defining roles and mandates for each of these and continue to invite participants.
- First Responders. It became apparent that many Desautels students, faculty and staff were unclear about what to do if they experience or witness an EDI-related issues. To remedy this, we created the First Responders program; six staff and faculty members are now available to help with these issues.
Other initiatives
Establishing initial EDI infrastructure and collecting and analyzing data will take time, but that doesn’t mean we are not taking action now. As we gather data and build infrastructure, we are opportunistically undertaking new initiatives, described below, that honour our EDI commitment:
- Student Recruitment and Admissions. We are exploring ways to improve processes for recruiting and admitting students to our master’s programs. At the undergraduate level, we are working with colleagues from Enrolment Services to increase outreach and establish a more welcoming environment for students from diverse backgrounds and identities.
- Mentoring Pilot. We are creating a pilot mentoring program for students from under-represented groups.
- Admissions for Special Opportunities. We are reviewing processes for admission to special opportunities (e.g., study trips, case competitions, the Career Services Toronto trip) to make sure they comply with EDI best practices.
- Faculty Hiring. We are applied for a special faculty hiring license related to McGill’s Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism (ABRP).
- EDI in Teaching - Brown Bag. We held a brown bag presentation and group discussion for Desautels instructors on EDI in teaching, with plans for a second one next semester.
- Presentation on Responses to EDI Issues. We helped organize a live presentation (video and slide deck) describing what students, staff and faculty should do if they experience or witness EDI issues.
- We applied successfully to host Prof. Renée Adams for the annual Laurent Picard Distinguished Lecture in 2021. Adams is a professor of finance focusing on gender research and corporate governance at the SaÏd School of Business at Oxford University.
As we move into the Winter term, there will be some changes to our team. Anna Birnie-Lefcovitch will be leaving the team for a developmental opportunity. She has been instrumental in keeping these efforts moving forward and will be greatly missed. Catherine Lavoie and Jordana Saada will be stepping in to help keep our initiatives moving forward.
In the working group, the MBA representative’s role now filled by Meghan McCoubrey and Forum Ccheda will be filled by Ilias Xerovasilas.
Thank you to them and to all of you who are helping us to make progress on these issues.
