A message from Dr. Annette Trimbee, president and vice-chancellor
This past month I have been inspired by the return of energy and life to our campus. I’m glad to see so many of you, and hope you are enjoying connecting with colleagues and students. As I walked the halls the first day after Reading Break, it dawned on me that I was finally getting a fuller glimpse into the faculty, staff and students who make MacEwan the vibrant, creative culture I know it to be. It was an emotional and joyful moment. The pandemic has brought constant change and I hope you are finding new routines and feeling the vibrancy of our wonderful campus.
On March 22, World Water Day, I facilitated a science and policy panel on water security at an event in Ottawa. Not surprisingly, one of the themes was the need to value diverse perspectives as we search for innovative and collaborative solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Universities play a unique role in bringing together individuals and groups with diverse experiences, identities and ideas. A learning environment that embraces the principles of inclusive excellence is one that sparks creativity and innovation.
This week, EDI Week at MacEwan, is a time to reflect on the strength of these collaborations and to acknowledge the qualities that make us unique.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
At MacEwan, we are working towards building a university that is reflective of our student body and of the diverse society around us. Last year, when we marked EDI Week, and we were in the first stages of our strategic vision, I wrote about the progress I hoped we would make.
Today we have a new vision, Teaching Greatness: Strategic Vision 2030, that integrates our connection to community and sense of place. The O-day’min way is about how our place is a reflection of our values. We are partners in reconciliation and committed to Indigeneity and inclusive excellence.
To grow our diversity and create a more inclusive community, we need data to help us understand who we are right now. Data will guide us as we create and implement strategies to build an environment where diversity and inclusivity in our leadership, faculty and staff is encouraged and supported.
That is why we launched an employee demographic survey last fall. I want to thank those of you who took the time to participate. Out of 2,216 employees, 1,106 participated in the survey, resulting in a response rate of 48 per cent, which is similar to previous campus EDI surveys.
While we are just in the early stages of analyzing our results, I have some initial observations on senior leadership, faculty and support staff based on a subset of data that includes comparative data: MacEwan University 2021 Employee Demographic Results.
Who we are
Fifty-four per cent of senior leadership positions at our university are held by women, and 60 per cent of our faculty are women. A more detailed look shows that our professoriate is composed of 48 per cent women. Sixty-five per cent of sessional instructors and 68 per cent of support staff are women. When we look at our other academic staff including librarians, counsellors, lab instructors and professional resource faculty without rank, we find 78 per cent are women.
Our survey results also show that 17 per cent of MacEwan’s senior leadership and 21 per cent of our professoriate identify as visible minorities. Twenty-four per cent of our sessional instructors and 10 per cent of our other academic staff are identifying as such. Twenty-three per cent of our support staff identify as a visible minority.
In relation to persons with a disability, our survey shows that eight per cent of our senior leaders and 11 per cent of our professoriate identify as having a disability. Eleven per cent of our sessional instructors and 18 per cent of our academic staff identify as having a disability. As well, 11 per cent of our support staff identify as having a disability.
A look at the data has also revealed that four per cent of the university’s senior leaders and two per cent of our professoriate identify as Indigenous. Six per cent of our other academic staff have identified as Indigenous, and similarly two per cent of both sessional and support staff identify as Indigenous.
The survey asked our community if they identify as a sexual minority. Eight per cent of our senior leaders and nine per cent of our professoriate identify as a sexual minority. Fifteen per cent of our sessional instructors and 11 per cent of our other academic staff identify as a sexual minority, while 14 per cent of support staff do so.
Our results show that we are doing relatively well in relation to women when we consider the data on MacEwan’s 1st year student population and the community around us. We are, however, somewhat behind in visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and our Indigenous populations. While we do not have comparative data on sexual minorities, we are working to build this data, including for our LGBTQ2S+ student population.
I hope that you find the summarized table of results of interest, and I know there are many more conclusions that we can draw from this data, beyond the sample results shared here. A more detailed report will be shared with the university community once it is finalized. As we examine the data, we will be able to determine more clearly where we have gaps in strategies and areas that require more of our attention. Demographic data is just a part of the story. It tells us how diverse we are but does not on its own tell us enough about how inclusive we are.
What comes next
While we know we have work to do, we have already taken intentional steps to incrementally build towards a more inclusive community. This past fall, we introduced a pilot program where two term assistant professors are cross appointed with our kihêw waciston Indigenous Centre. These cross-appointments build capacity in kihêw waciston, contribute to the development and delivery of programs to our students and embed Indigenous ways of knowing in our program content. An initial examination of the pilot has shown great success. To grow our complement of Indigenous faculty, as many as five additional cross appointment hires with kihêw waciston are now planned each academic year.
We are also working on other actions to advance inclusive excellence. The Faculty of Nursing Council is the most recent area to recommend equity admissions, earmarking up to 10 per cent of seats for qualified Indigenous applicants. We expect General Faculties Council to consider this in the near future.
We are working to align our equity goals with our hiring practices by improving the language in our recruitment advertising to outline our commitment to recruit qualified equity-deserving candidates. We want to encourage academic units to write advertisements that reflect more fully how an applicant’s background, lived experience and training are relevant to any opportunity.
As well, the university’s approved 2022/23 budget will support equity admissions and investment in scholarships, awards and bursaries to reward excellence and expand needs-based funding, including targeted and support funding for students who are equity-deserving.
We continue to strengthen our efforts to build an inclusive and welcoming campus that extends into our community. We recently celebrated Pride Week with partner post-secondaries to create the NorthSide Pride Collaborative Project. The goals of the Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity have been strengthened with the work of Canada Research Chair Dr. Kristopher Wells. The recent launch of the Edmonton Queer History Project demonstrates how community-based scholarship can create innovative solutions to address community need.
Our EDI Accelerator team continues to advance ways to build equity, diversity and inclusion across our campus. To support informed decision making we will continue to collect relevant data on our current demographics. Students, faculty and staff are now able to share relevant demographic data as part of their university profile information.
Advancing the Strategic Vision
I’d like to thank everyone who joined the recent Teaching Greatness: Strategic Vision 2030 events. These events were an opportunity to explore how we can integrate the new vision and directions into our everyday work. I look forward to the conversations we’ll have with our faculty and staff at the MacEwan Connects event on May 10. I hope you’ll join us at this in-person event to discuss Teaching Greatness: Strategic Vision 2030 and how we build on the strengths of our culture and expertise. More details are coming soon.
Our new vision is already influencing the decisions we are making. Our 2022/23 financial plan, approved by the Board of Governors on March 17, invests new resources in our students, in teaching and learning, and in the priorities to advance Teaching Greatness: Strategic Vision 2030.
I am excited to share that we are beginning to work on a new diploma program, Accelerating Accounting Competencies. This initiative smashes the calendar by providing new opportunities for students who are looking to pursue a career change into the accounting field.
We are also making progress on our plans to build a new academic building for the School of Business. This new building is key to realizing the direction of Perpetual Motion, which includes a target of 20,000 full load equivalent students by 2030. The Board of Governors has approved the schematic design, and we are now moving to the design phase of the project. Located on the corner of 109 Street and 105 Avenue, the new building will provide program space to expand our business programs and will allow for cascading growth of other programs on campus. It will also house Careers and Experience, MacEwan International and the Office of Research Services.
In advancing our strategic vision in tactical ways, we are creating a strong future for MacEwan University and our students. I am excited by what we can accomplish together.
50th on Fourth
On April 29 and 30, we will welcome our university and surrounding community to celebrate our 50th anniversary and our place in O-day’min. It will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy our campus spaces, have breakfast or a barbecue together, enjoy cabarets, and see the recent showing at the Mitchell Art Gallery. A full schedule of events can be found on the 50th on Fourth page with RSVPs closing on April 14. Volunteers are also needed, and this is a fantastic way to get directly involved!
I hope to see you all there!
Dr. Annette Trimbee
President and Vice-Chancellor