At this university, equity and inclusion is all about responding to societal need

“We're really trying to change traditional admission processes because they often have systemic barriers for equity-seeking groups that are underrepresented,” said De Mello. “Lived experience — being from and working with underrepresented groups, including the Black, 2SLGBTQ+ and Indigenous communities as well as people with disabilities, mature students and students that have a non-traditional path to law school — this intentional admissions process is key to being able to serve these groups effectively,” De Mello adds. 

This experience of a radically different admissions process will be applied to TMU’s new school of medicine, which will welcome its first cohort of students in 2025. Founding dean Dr. Teresa Chan has described the admissions process as “holistic and welcoming” looking to attract students outside the stereotypical “gunners,” often overly ambitious students focused heavily on personal and traditional markers of academic success.

This is in part to meet the medical school’s goal to provide community-centric and culturally respectful care. The location of the school was also decided with these considerations in mind. “Brampton is an area that is extraordinarily diverse, and is extremely underserved,” notes De Mello.

TMU is working with the local community to understand Brampton’s needs and build the new faculty around them, along with ensuring the medical school’s staff and faculty will also reflect the diversity in the student body and curriculum.

TMU has reaffirmed its commitment to reconciliation, as outlined in recommendation nine of the Standing Strong Task Force, by focusing on indigenizing the curriculum across all faculties, appointing an inaugural Special Advisor to the President for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (Curriculum Transformation) to support this goal.

The university has also expanded its academic offerings to students by launching interdisciplinary minors in Black Studies and LGBTQ2S+ Studies. These additions are part of a long tradition of transformative education in the Faculty of Arts that includes a Caribbean Studies Minor, a Middle East and North Africa Studies Minor, and the recent addition of an Indigenous Thought Minor that will be available in fall 2024.

Launched in the 2022-23 academic year, Black Studies is housed in the Department of English, and features courses across TMU, including the Faculty of Community Services, The Creative School and the Ted Rogers School of Management.

The program was founded by Advisor to the Dean on Blackness and Black Diasporic Education, Dr. Mélanie Knight, Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts, Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy, and Associate Professor at the Creative School, Dr. Cheryl Thompson. The minor explores a wide range of subjects including the histories and cultures of Black diasporas and themes of Black resistance to oppression and exploitation.

The LGBTQ2S+ Studies Minor launched last year, providing a curriculum that creates “a structure and a set of connections which would otherwise be invisible to students,” said Dr. Art Blake, a professor with the Department of History and the driving force behind the program. The minor includes 20 courses from 14 departments across three faculties. 

“For students who identify across the 2SLGBTQ+ spectrum, a visible, organized queer and trans curriculum tells them they belong,” said Blake. And inclusion was top of mind when designing the minor itself, with all but one of 20 courses open to any students at TMU. “From curricular structure to content, the Minor, now and as it evolves, makes a vital contribution to TMU’s equity, diversity and inclusion goals,” said Blake. 

For Blake, it’s also a step towards ameliorating the historical and ongoing marginalization, harassment and exclusion the LGBTQ2S+ community has faced, as one of TMU’s recognized equity-seeking groups. “That status does not achieve much unless members of the community push to make our needs known to our colleagues and to the university’s various levels of leadership,” Blake said.

TMU was the first Canadian university that went beyond government requirements to collect, analyze, and report employee and student diversity data to create an institution-wide program that tracks the university’s progress. 

While privacy concerns often dissuade such detailed data collection, De Mello points out that “the community called on us to count them” as a way to be able to evaluate the university. “It is one of the single most important things we’ve done,” said De Mello. 

The data provides a snapshot, said De Mello, that helps set short, medium, and long-term goals that are specific to the department or faculty. It provides a baseline to set realistic goals, especially for parts of the institution that were not built with equity in mind. “We’ve been surprised and overwhelmed by places that traditionally haven't been as diverse coming to us with a hunger for (making progress),” said De Mello. 

The data also provides an opportunity to examine trends that might otherwise go unnoticed, for instance, by seeing the number of women in leadership is declining over a certain number of years or that 2SLGBTQ+ staff are not being promoted at the same rate as their colleagues. 

“We’re hearing from faculties and divisions that this is really important data,” said De Mello. “It shines a light on something without trying to humiliate or upset people, but to say we can do better and the Research, Planning and Assessment in the Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion can help.”

For De Mello, doing better is not just about recruiting more diverse students or hiring more faculty from equity-deserving groups, but also assessing how much they feel part of the TMU community — a sense of belonging is key. De Mello posed poignant questions that delve into the qualitative experience of community members: “Do they leave and put on a sweatshirt with our university's name on it? Do faculty and staff feel a sense of pride to work here?” These inquiries tap into deeper sentiments and experiences beyond an improved EDI audit. 

Moving the needle on these elements is a multi-dimensional challenge, from broadening access to admissions to providing physical spaces for marginalized students to feel safe in. These steps, in addition to hiring and promotion practices, evolving curriculum, and building new faculties from the ground up, are just some of the elements creating meaningful change at TMU to ensure the university doesn’t just reflect elements of the community it’s in, but is truly a part of it.