University of Victoria
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The Equity and Human Rights (EQHR) office leads UVic in developing and coordinating plans, policies and procedures to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in employment and education. There are currently fourteen positions within the EQHR office, each working on specific areas to continue strengthening equity and diversity at UVic.
There are three main focuses within EQHR.

1) EQHR leads UVic’s efforts to prevent and respond to discrimination, harassment, and/or sexualized violence on campus. They are responsible for implementing the Discrimination and Harassment Policy and the Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response Policy in both a trauma-informed and procedurally fair manner. The case management team have extensive training and expertise in EDI. Educational sessions are offered regularly to prevent sexualized violence and discrimination and harassment at UVic. An online bystander intervention training is offered to students through the Office of Student Life.

2) EQHR leads and supports the strategic implementation of equitable practices at UVic to promote a culture of respect, consent, equity, diversity, and inclusion. This includes offering education and training on how to work together through an intersectional and anti-oppressive lens. EQHR shares available resources through our website and offers workshops, courses, or training sessions to support the learning and unlearning journey. The staff at EQHR are open for consultations for projects, programs, or initiatives that would benefit from being reviewed through an anti-oppressive and equity-centred lens.

3) EQHR works to strengthen partnerships and further community engagement to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion for communities on- and off-campus. This is accomplished by leading campus-wide projects, initiative-specific committees and advisory groups such as departmental equity reviews, all-gender washrooms project, and a community-informed self-ID data governance structure guided by equity data collection principles.

The Academic Equity Advisory Structure serves as a key advisory body for prioritizing major initiatives and programs that relate to faculty, librarians and the academic environment under the Equity Action Plan. The structure provides consultation and advice on issues relating to equity, diversity and inclusion to leaders, academic units, and program designers. The structure aims to break siloed work and foster collaborative strategies through its composition of representatives from faculty equity committees and advocacy groups across campus including union representatives and student leaders.

At the University of Victoria, there are many opportunities for students, staff, faculty and members of the general public to part-take in anti-racism, anti-oppression, anti-discrimination and social inclusion trainings and activities. Some examples of these opportunities include but are not limited to:

Employee mandatory online “Awareness and Prevention of Workplace Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Training”: This course needs to be completed in order to be issued an employee number and set up any new UVic payroll account.

Supervisor mandatory online training “Addressing Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Complaints for Supervisors”: This is a course for supervisors to learn how to address bullying and harassment complaints in the workplace and effectively navigate UVic's Discrimination and Harassment Policy (GV0205)

"Tools for Change" is an online program which provides students with introductory knowledge about sexualized violence, how to receive a disclosure, policy and support options and basic prevention strategies. Student athletes are required to complete "Safe Sport", "Bystander Intervention", and "Anti-Racism Training". For this coming 2023/2024 school year, there may be changes to the training offered as the "Anti-Racism Training" is being replaced by "Anti-Oppression Training" and the "Bystander Intervention" program is being reviewed. Students in Residence also recieve training on sexualized violence prevention and intervention with an online Tools for Change, program during orientation.

The "Indigenous Cultural Acumen Training (ICAT)" is offered by the Indigenous Acadmeic and Community Engagement office. It is designed to offer foundational information about the colonial context (historical and current) of Indigenous people in Canada to all members of the university community.

Workshops, courses and training offered by the EQHR office: There are many workshops, courses and other forms of training offered by EQHR at UVic. Targeted workshops are offered to meet particular UVic department’s needs. Courses are available for managers and supervisors, and are offered through UVic’s Human Resources Learning and Development page. Public workshops and presentations are available for the UVic community about human rights, equity, power, privilege, anti-oppression practices, social justice, diversity and inclusion, and many more. Workshop topics include but are not limited to:
• Increasing Equity in Decision Making Processes – For academic appointments, reappointments, promotions and tenure committee members and senior hiring committees
• Equitable Hiring Practice
• Core Considerations of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in your Daily Life
• Tools for Change: Preventing Sexualized Violence at UVic – For students
• Starting the Conversation: Preventing and Responding to Sexualized Violence at UVic – For employees
• Social and Professional Leadership Training – For graduate students
• Spotlight on Inclusion – For UVic’s theatre production teams including cast and crew
• Power, Privilege and Accountability: A Workshop for UVic Leaders

The Anti-Oppression education and activitity offerings include:
• EQHR offers Kil KaahlGaalangdal – “'Hear Someone’s Voice Before You See Them': Anti-Oppression Key Principles, Knowledges, and Equity-Focused Action-Based Frameworks". This workshop guides participants through critical equity-seeking topics in-depth.
• The Office of Student Life (OSL) offers to students an Anti-Racism Grant to address racism and engage anti-racism strategies.
• Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation Office (LTSI) offers an Anti-Racism Initiative Grant to engage faculty and staff to embed anti-racist practices in teaching and learning with a focus to improve the student experience.
• Libraries has an online guide on Anti-racism and Anti-oppression for everyone to access additional learning resources.

Through the Equity Action Plan, there are also reflection & action guides to provide UVic students, employees, educators, researchers and campus leaders a tailored experience to reflect on how they can begin working towards achieving the 5 goals set forward by the Equity Action Plan.

Events for equity advocacy: In addition to formal training opportunities, UVic also holds events that raise awareness of issues of oppression, racism and discrimination while advocating for equality. Such events include but are not limited to:
- Sexualized Violence Awareness Week/Month; collaborating with the Office of Student Life, UVic’s Undergraduate Students’ Society and the Anti-Violence Project.
- A Walk to End Gender-Based Violence on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women which includes guest speakers; provides topics for thoughts during the walk; and ends in the Engineering Lab Wing with art activities, refreshments and thoughts sharing for participants
- 5 Days of Action which provides five calls to action, one for each day of the school week. Each “call” includes curated ideas on what you can read, watch, and do to address discrimination, harassment, sexualized violence and intersecting forms of oppression. Many on-campus and off-campus groups hold events during the week including UVic Pride, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Social Work, Sexualized Violence Prevention coalition, the Transgender Archives, Multifaith Services, Office of Student Life, Victoria Brain Injury Society, Greater Victoria Art Gallery.
- A panel event discussing Black Excellence on Black History Month
- Partnering with the Office of Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement to host an annual event on Orange Shirt Day/National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The University of Victoria has been recognized as one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers for the 12th consecutive year. Winners of the 2023 competition were announced March 7, with UVic among two BC universities to be honoured.

UVic was selected for a range of leading diversity initiatives, including:
- In 2022, establishing the role of Vice-President Indigenous, who has the responsibility of furthering the university’s commitment to truth, respect and reconciliation. Central to the role's responsibilities is the development of a strategy that integrates Indigenous cultures, histories, beliefs and ways of being and knowing across all aspects of the university’s mission.
- Hosting the fifth annual Five Days of Action: 365 Days of Commitment event. Participants were invited to attend virtual events and workshops and to listen, reflect, dialogue, engage and show solidarity toward ending discrimination, harassment and sexualized violence.

Other diversity initiatives that have previously been recognized include:
- UVic's Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (CARSA) for its improved accessibility, space for transgender individuals, and space for CanAssist.
- Establishment of the world’s first Joint Degree Program in Canadian Common Law and Indigenous Legal Orders.
- Appointing the world’s first Chair in Transgender Studies to further research related to the lives of trans and gender non-conforming people.
- Creating the position of Associate University Librarian–Reconciliation in 2020.

UVic has been recognized as one of BC’s Top 100 Employers for 2022 and 2023, and as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers seven times.

New Student Checklist: https://www.uvic.ca/orientation/new-student-handbook/new-student-checklist/index.php
Equity and Human Rights Office: https://www.uvic.ca/equity/index.php
5 Days of Action: https://www.uvic.ca/equity/education/5-days-action/index.php
New Employee Onboarding: https://www.uvic.ca/hr/assets/docs/onboarding/employee-handbook.pdf
Workplace Bullying and Harassment Prevention: https://www.uvic.ca/equity/discrimination-harassment/index.php