This Committee provides advice to the Executive and Council on all matters pertaining to equity, diversity, and inclusion. It assists UTFA in developing strategies to oppose systemic discrimination, encourage inclusivity, and to hold the University’s Administration accountable for substantive, binding commitments to foster diversity, equity and inclusion.
Many thanks to Judith Taylor who served as interim Chair, Equity from July 1st to December 31st, 2025. She contributed significantly to the work of the Committee and to this report. This year we have focused on key projects: outreach to Indigenous faculty and librarians, the UTFA disability survey, tracking OCUFA and CAUT reports on anti-EDI initiatives in Canadian government and universities and their implications for U of T, and thinking about how the new graduate funding model may have considerable adverse effects for vulnerable faculty and the departments where they are concentrated. In addition, we participated in consultations on the U of T Indigenous Substantiation Framework and the U of T Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Discrimination Working Group (MAP DWG).
Equity-Focused Surveys
The Disability Survey could not have been accomplished without the impetus and direction of the UTFA Disability working group members. One of the survey’s most significant findings is that faculty and librarians feel a disjuncture between student accommodation, which appears robust, and faculty and librarian accommodation, characterized by inattention, suspicion, and refusal. The survey has been an incredible tool for raising issues with the Administration and will inform bargaining with the Administration. UTFA is taking direction from OCUFA and CAUT in its research about how faculty associations can be responsive to Indigenous members. We have been thinking about the implications of the University’s Indigenous Substantiation policy for UTFA members and we will be setting up an Indigenous advisory group to advise the Executive on the priorities, suggestions, and concerns of Indigenous faculty and librarians.
The disability survey summary can be found here, and the results from our survey about the new graduate funding model will be studied. We continue to watch for and share concerns from our members around increasingly important issues surrounding academic freedom and the adverse impacts that AI and the new graduate funding model may have on academic units and on faculty and librarian workloads.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the members of the Equity Committee, Nellie De Lorenzi, Jess Martin, the whole of the UTFA staff, the UTFA Executive, and Terezia Zorić, UTFA President for their leadership, good works, and patience with us, and thanks to Arjumand Siddiqi, former Equity Chair, from whom we continue to learn a great deal.
Girish Daswani
Chair, Equity Committee