JSGS EDI Guiding Principles

• Schedule university-offered implicit bias training to hiring/search committee members.
• Expand recruitment practices to include networks and communities outside the Universities where possible.
• Work with International Office on work visa matters as needed.

• Ensure team complement planning, including faculty, staff, sessional instructors, and Executives-in-Residence, considers diversity and representation within JSGS.

• Provide continual learning opportunities for all JSGS members. This may include a collection of information regarding EDI principles (e.g., Canvas).
• Encourage a welcoming environment in which team members feel safe to ask questions on topics where individuals have no first-hand knowledge.

• Create/enlist a basic online course for all team members to take, followed by a debriefing session.

• Assess existing advisory committees through an EDI lens and address any areas of low representation.
• Ensure new advisory committees include a representation of diverse lived experiences.
• Create a JSGS EDI Advisory committee of BIPOC and Indigenous People(s), work to sustain the committee.

• Ensure website redesign considers EDI.
• Provide faculty and instructors with information about the accessibility of online resources.

• Assess existing JSGS artwork, photos, and other images through an EDI lens and address any areas of low representation.
• Ensure new JSGS artwork, photos, and other images reflect diversity.
• Consult with University about spaces to see how accessibility can be improved for better accommodations.

• Maintain and utilize one online shared folder of diverse images curated by JSGS staff, and available for all staff and faculty, that reflects JSGS diversity.

• Ensure the JSGS website is meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by consulting with USask IT support.
• Work with the universities to co-create guidelines for JSGS staff, faculty, and editors to help them (1) use inclusive language, and (2) develop JSGS style guidelines (including what words to capitalize etc.) The guideline document will include a list of resources and tools.

Email signatures and business cards reflect consistent, school-wide JSGS identity and commitment to EDI.

Email signatures include a land-based acknowledgement.

• Encourage JSGS team members to include their preferred pronouns.
• Hold a workshop to help JSGS team members write personalized acknowledgments of the Traditional Lands.

• Have Community Engagement Coordinator continue to collect EDI data on speakers and Policy Brief authors. Data is collected non-invasively through speaker biographies.
• Keep aspirational targets for representation top of mind in the following ways:
  • Report EDI Data for events and Policy Briefs every four months at our Joint Faculty Council meetings. Present data as part of the Advancement Team report (or possibly during the EDI Committee updates, if appropriate) along with corresponding population data for Saskatchewan.
  • Specifically mention EDI data during comments for the Advancement Team reporting, in case any JSGS team members have not had the opportunity to read the report prior to the meeting.
  • Provide annual EDI data year-end reporting to the Executive Team along with reference to population data for Saskatchewan.
• Use historical EDI data for JSGS events to develop a baseline of where we have been. This will help us monitor improvement over time. Incorporate population data from Saskatchewan to assist in setting goals for our speaker diversity.
• Create guidelines to help individuals planning events ensure representative speakers.
• Establish EDI criteria (or a checklist) for those making decisions about partnering/sponsoring events and for those planning speakers and panels for events.
• Establish Traditional Protocol criteria for those making a request to Knowledge Keepers and Elders.

• Establish a template for regular reporting on progress on the EDI strategy and the EDI environment of the school.
• Conduct annual surveys of JSGS people for anonymous feedback on the experience of inclusivity and advancement of EDI practises. Assess if student surveys can be updated and utilized annually.
• Create feedback surveys that can be used across the school following classes, workshops, and events across different platforms (virtually and in-person).
• Create guidance for when those survey questions will be used and when it is optional.

• Add language to syllabus template for optional instructor use:
  • “In recognition that studies show that women are underrepresented as authors on course materials across disciplines and that this limits the exposure of students to women experts—the instructors of this course have made efforts to ensure at least a level of 1:1 gender parity is achieved and reflected in the readings.” OR
  • “Studies show that women are underrepresented as authors on course materials across disciplines and that this limits the exposure of students to women experts. The instructors of this course have made efforts to achieve gender parity in the reading list. In the spirit of joining the instructor in these efforts, we encourage all students who know of any relevant readings to email their recommendations at the course’s end.”

• Find a way to ensure that JSGS programming and initiatives reflect and respect the distinction of each Indigenous group in Canada (First Nation, Inuit and Métis).
• Find a way to ensure that each group is properly represented in JSGS programming and initiatives.

• Invite the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning to provide a workshop on teaching neurodiverse students.
• Update the supervision agreement to consider individual student learning needs in the following way:
  • 1. Create a box for specific amendments (nature of deliverables, meeting structure etc.).
  • 2. Include a clause that states the student and potential supervisor have met and engaged in a dialogue aimed at determining what amendments to the agreement should be made to ensure that the overall structure of supervision genuinely reflects and provides for the unique learning needs of each student.

• Create/enlist a basic online course for all students to take, followed by a debriefing session. Ensure it provides proper representation of all three Indigenous groups. Engage with the MHA to ensure the inclusion of social determinants of health.

• Review funding opportunities to identify those with barriers to Indigenous students. Propose changes to remove those obstacles.

• Replace wording on “disability” with “different accessibility needs.”
• Ensure that the syllabus template is OCR’d (Optical Character Recognition) so that anyone with a need to listen to the document via text-to-speech software, is able.
• Advise instructors to avoid tables in syllabi.
• Make a general statement in the syllabus template regarding adjustments that have been made (new and updated policies) and provide a means for students to provide further feedback.
• Provide instructors with optional text regarding children in the classroom.

• Develop EDI guidelines for online spaces.

• Ensure recruitment strategy includes EDI considerations.

• Schedule university-offered implicit bias training to admissions and scholarship team members. Schedule an EDI / sensitivity training scheduled in the fall, prior to the first intake. It should be done every year for new committee members.
• Revise the ASC and JASC terms of reference in order to include EDI principles and norms, since the majority of applications that are reviewed are from international applicants. Consult with JASC members in order to schedule a meeting that will focus exclusively on this issue.
• Define policies and practices for “non-standard” admission of students.

• Establish scholarships to recruit a diverse student body.

• Ensure all researchers review EDI principles to support their research activities and proposals for research funding.
• Provide researchers with supports to include EDI considerations in their research design and processes.
• Provide researchers with support to assess the diversity of their research teams and to increase equitable and inclusive participation in their projects.

• Determine available resources for the establishment of a rotating “Elder in Residence” position.

• Request that supervisors ask each MPP and PhD student to consider this.

• Incorporate EDI learning objectives in core courses. This may be advanced by adding EDI as a module in JSGS 882.