Dear ECU Community,

The current academic year is like no other in our university’s history. It’s been difficult to come together as a community without the opportunity to talk face to face. But I’m so proud of the incredible work you’ve all been doing from a distance, and I’m particularly heartened by the resilience our students have shown by continuing to learn and grow under the most challenging circumstances.

Last summer, our university’s leadership team made a commitment to real, substantive change at Emily Carr. Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan documents the specific commitments we made in response to your calls to dismantle oppression, white supremacy and racism within our institution.

Today we’re sharing an update on the progress we have made so far. On our EDI Action Plan webpage, you can see the actions that have been taken and the next steps required to advance our goals. These short summaries reflect months of effort from our staff and faculty, and I’m honoured to work alongside them to transform this university.

I want to call attention to one commitment in particular, which was to offer every community member the chance to share their experiences of racism and discrimination, and express their ideas for how we can move forward.

We convened 12 listening sessions in the fall and heard from dozens of students, staff, faculty and alumni. I’m grateful to those who participated and spoke with honesty and courage.

I reflected on everything that was said, and compiled those statements into a summary that I wish to share with you. You can find it on our new EDI Resources page, or click here to download it as a PDF. I hope that it inspires you to consider how you would like to see Emily Carr evolve in the years to come.

Many of these themes and suggestions are reflected in the revised EDI Action Plan, and more will be incorporated in future updates. These sessions were only one of the ways we are bringing community members together, and we’ll continue to identify opportunities for doing that.

I also continue to be inspired by the important social and environmental justice work being done by our students, staff, faculty and alumni. I’m always keen to hear about these efforts and find ways to support them.

One theme that emerged from the listening sessions was the need for the university to build on and mobilize the amazing grassroots work that is happening across the campus by bringing together disparate groups engaged in these efforts. I welcome your ideas on ways we can break down silos to facilitate dialogue and collaboration across the university so that we can work together to fight injustice and oppression and advance our work on decolonization, Indigenization and reconciliation.

I invite you to reach out to me any time by email at president@ecuad.ca. This work can only succeed if it reflects the needs and desires of our community members. If you’d like to share yours, I’m listening.

Gillian Siddall
President + Vice-Chancellor