Universities Canada, an organization of Canadian university presidents, recently adopted a set of principles to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at post-secondary institutions across the country. These principles will guide the organization's 5-year action plan to address the diversity gaps that exist in universities across the country.

The four-pillar action plan focuses on building capacity to change university culture, creating new ways to measure diversity, developing related policies, and requesting further federal investment into advancing diversity as early as elementary school. The organization’s member universities also affirm that they aim to reduce barriers to entry into university and create inclusive learning environments for members of currently underrepresented racial groups.

Universities Canada’s announcement comes in the wake of a CBC investigation published earlier this year that found that most universities have no conception of the racial distribution of their student body. With the adoption of the action plan, universities have committed to begin collecting and reporting data on students’ race to empirically measure the race gaps in Canadian universities. One thing that remains to be seen is how the U of A will collect data on race; options range from distributing voluntary surveys to students to adding ethnicity as an aspect of each student’s profile with the university.

Shane Scott, Vice President (Academic) of the University of Alberta Students’ Union, is thrilled to see that the U of A and other universities have committed to start collecting data on students’ race. He said, “collecting data on racial diversity is an important step toward creating a truly diverse University community. With that data, we’ll have evidence to base future advocacy on, from working to make the University more accessible to prospective students, to identifying representation gaps in student governance.”

Victoria deJong is a fourth-year Political Science student and a Research Analyst for the University of Alberta Students’ Union. Questions, comments, and concerns about this article can be directed to victoria.dejong@su.ualberta.ca.