Welcoming the unique talents, perspectives and contributions of the different people who make up our campus community implies fair treatment for all and will lead us toward excellence in our delivery of education, service, scholarly activities and research. In Canada and worldwide, there is a growing realization that diversity is vital for communities to flourish, to be at their healthiest and most successful.
People from different backgrounds and identities bring unique perspectives, talents and ways of knowing that benefit all of us. Vancouver Island University is committed to achieving improved and lasting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan pledges to weave equity, diversity, and inclusion measures across all of the university's planning. In addition, we have signed on to Universities Canada’s “Inclusive Excellence Principles” and the Dimensions Charter and have received support from the Federal Tri-Agencies, to help us advance our equity, diversity and inclusion goals.
At VIU, we believe that having employees who reflect the diversity of our students and our community makes us a better university. One of the ways to move towards greater diversity is through collecting diversity data to assess the recruitment, representation and retention of employees from five equity-deserving groups: women, persons with disabilities, racialized persons, Indigenous peoples, and persons of a minority sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Through the development of evidence-driven practices and systems, including gathering self-identification data on job applicants, the University commits to attracting and retaining faculty, staff, and leaders from all backgrounds. In Human Resources, we are committed to identifying where barriers exist in our recruitment process, creating strategies to address them and measuring our success.
Understanding the diversity of our applicants and their progress through the hiring process will inform our goals, strategies and actions.
