Measuring up on equity, diversity and inclusion

Text on screen: [Measuring up on equality, diversity and inclusion]

Mike Mahon, president, Lethbridge University and chair of Universities Canada:

Universities have always been committed on one level to inclusion. We’re entities that have believed strongly in supporting all kinds of students and trying to ensure that our students are exposed to as many different kinds of professors as possible. But there’s no question that, while we’ve had that commitment historically, we haven’t necessarily delivered in terms of ensuring that we have a really good mix from a gender perspective, that we are inclusive of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, that we have representation of people with disabilities on our campuses, both students, faculty, and staff.

So, I think the principles sort of force us, in a very positive way, to say to ourselves, “We need to do better.” We need to actually deliver on this promise of inclusivity, promise of diversity. We have to set metrics for ourselves to say, “If we’re going to be committed to inclusion, to ensuring diversity on our campuses, then let’s measure it.”

Text on screen: [Universities Canada/Universités Canada logo. The Voice of Canada’s Universities. archives.univcan.ca]