This Committee provides advice on all matters pertaining to equity, diversity, and inclusion and assists UTFA in developing approaches to pay equity, employment and compensation equity, harassment, personal safety, and accommodation.
It has been my pleasure to serve as interim Equity Chair, for the 2025 Spring term, having previously served for several years as Chair of the Membership Committee. The Equity Committee’s mandate is very broad, particularly if it endeavors to provide advice to the Association on equity, diversity and inclusion that is inclusive of indigeneity, race, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. The Committee also develops programs, research, and outreach in response to members’ campaigns and interests, and reviews the Administration’s measures and initiatives, offering feedback and educating the UTFA Executive Committee and Council. My task this term is to ensure that equity is threaded through all the portfolios at UTFA.
The Equity Committee met in October 2024 to discuss threats to academic freedom and equity implications under the direction of the former Equity Chair, Deb Cowen, who stepped down from the role in late January 2025. In early March 2025, the Committee met to discuss the UTFA Disability Survey that was released to members on March 31st; restructuring and new budget models across Ontario universities (with Sherri Helwig, Vice-President, Grievances); the solicitation for feedback on policies relating to disability, discrimination and harassment, from the University’s HR department; and, Indigenous identity substantiation (with Rob Gillezeau, Treasurer and Girish Daswani, Member-at-Large). The work of our Committee will be shared with UTFA Council, who will continue the practice of apprising constituents of new policies and practices, and listening to constituents’ experiences of the same. In May, I will attend the CAUT forum for equity officers in Ottawa, giving UTFA the latest updates on academic union leadership strategy on equity, and learning more about equity challenges and successes from other campuses across Canada.
Thank you to the UTFA staff, the Executive Committee, and members of the Equity Committee for their support of this important work.
Judith Taylor