New EDI strategy at Algoma U focused on ‘blowing up the normal’
Algoma University is going all in with its new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, which aims to embed more points of view into the school’s structural framework.
By
Kyle Darbyson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Sault Star
Algoma University is going all in with its new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, which aims to embed more points of view into the school’s structural framework.
These intentions were made clear during Algoma U’s last board of governors meeting on April 25, where Mary Wabano-McKay, vice-president of Nyaagaaniid –Anishinaabe initiatives, equity and student success, went over the new strategy in broad strokes.
Wabano-McKay, who was hired in 2020 to fill this new position, told the board that her team has been working over the last two years to bring this document to fruition.
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After consulting with hundreds of individuals, Wabano-McKay’s team came up with a document that represents Algoma U’s first major effort to coordinate its EDI efforts across all its campuses, departments, classrooms and communities.
“And it’s really about blowing up the normal and rebuilding to include all world views, all experiences in an ecosystem and that ecosystem is Algoma University,” Wabano-McKay said during the meeting.
Wabano-McKay explained that this process involves decolonizing Algoma U so that the perspectives of Indigenous people, and other marginalized groups, are taken into account at the institutional level, as opposed to relying on a single point of view.
“And oftentimes that point of view is based on a white, male standard,” Wabano-McKay said.
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“So when you think about that as the normal, the natural, the standard, anything that falls outside of it is decolonization work.”
According to the document itself, which is available to read online, Algoma U’s new EDI strategy is held up by a number of core principles, including accountability, intersectionality, cross-cultural learning, anti-racism and human rights.
While the document doesn’t offer a specific timeline, it provides some broad objectives on how to weave these principles into Algoma U’s structural framework.
These objectives include mandating equity training for staff involved in the hiring process, expanding scholarship opportunities to different student groups and establishing an Indigenous Advisory Council on the school’s Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Brampton campuses.
“I think a lot of this learning needs to occur across all of our campuses and with all of our folks, whether they’re international students, domestic students or staff and faculty,” Wabano-McKay said.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Algoma U president Asima Vezina hopes that Algoma U students internalize this new EDI strategy and carry its principles with them after graduation.
“If we can graduate a graduate who can actually welcome diverse views to their table, to their work experience, to the business they are running ... then I think we would have accomplished something really incredible,” Vezina said.
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“At the end of the day, we want our graduates to go out and change the world and make it a better place.”
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