On June 26, 2020 President Alan Davis convened a meeting of concerned faculty and administrators (including members of the President’s Diversity and Equity Committee) to discuss some initial ideas generated by the Associate Deans of the Faculty of Arts for how our university community might address the serious issue of racism. That meeting concluded with the formation of a steering committee that includes Dr. Asma Sayed (Department of English), Dr. Deepak Gupta (Associate Vice-President, Research), and Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani (Acting Vice-Provost, Teaching & Learning). This steering committee was tasked with making some recommendations and outlining next steps.
The steering committee held its first meeting on June 29 and decided to create this website to share periodic updates with the broader university community. One of the recommendations of the steering committee was the creation of a task force on antiracism.