Equity Committee Update, Fall 2019
The Equity Committee has been meeting regularly and working on numerous initiatives and issues. Our current membership includes a diverse group of equity-seeking members from across faculties, campuses, and bargaining units. The Equity Committee is always welcoming new members! If you are interested in joining us, please email urfa@uregina.ca for more information.
We held Equity Week last March, and though timing was not in our favour, it was great to connect with members and the campus community and raise our profile on campus. We would love to hear suggestions for Equity Week this year, so if there is a speaker and/or event you would like us to support please get in touch!
Some of the things that we have been working on are looking into the translation of key URFA documents into different languages, notably Cree, Michif, and French as well as potentially others. We have been in touch with different campus bodies to enquire on this issue and are also very open to members being in touch with us!
We have invited members of the campus community to come and speak to us about different initiatives, including Erin Limacher from External Relations about the You Belong, Racism Doesn’t campaign, and Hirsch Greenberg, the current Grievance Officer, about the proposal for a restorative justice option as part of the grievance process.
We are also working on a policy for URFA with respect to Intimate Partner Violence, and have been in contact Human Resources, community organizations, such as PATHS, and other universities in Canada.
As highlighted during Equity Week, there is a new Breastfeed- ing position statement and soon to be space on campus. One of our members, Vanessa Mathews, has led this initiative and we are delighted by all of the campus support.
As a committee, we voted in support of Climate Strikes, which run from September 20 – 7th 2019 and Regina’s is on the 27th and will share information with our colleagues, students, and members of the university community.