The EDI Community of Practice (EDI CoP) is a group of members who are leading EDI initiatives in their units within the Faculty of Science.
The EDI CoP meets each term to share current practices within the Faculty of Science and discuss where EDI-related practices can be implemented and improved.
Our principles
The efforts of the Community of Practice are geared towards improving the material and social conditions under which our members (students, postdocs, staff and faculty) study, work and live. We recognize that there are systemic barriers that could prevent prospective members of the Faculty in achieving the success that is accessible to non-marginalized members.
Addressing entrenched practices that are rooted in a long history of white dominance, colonialism and patriarchy will take time and thus a major aspect of the EDI CoP work will be to prioritize actions.
Our CoP works from the following understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), copied from the UBC Equity & Inclusion Glossary of Terms:
- Equity refers to achieving parity in policy, processes and outcomes for people with diverse identities. It considers power, access to resources and opportunities, how people are treated, and how they treat each other.
- Diversity captures differences in the lived experiences and perspectives of people that include race and ethnicity, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical and mental disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, class, socio-economic situations, and educational background.
- Inclusion is an active, intentional, and continuous process to address inequities in power and privilege, and to build a respectful and diverse community that includes welcoming spaces and opportunities for all to flourish.
Our purpose
Our overall focus will be exchanging promising practices to advance EDI across the Faculty of Science, and to provide guidance and recommendations for policies and procedures for our units and leadership within UBC Science.
In the initial stages, we will aim to better understand what is happening across all the UBC Science units, across STEM and across the university to support EDI, as well as the potential gaps in current practices.
Our priorities
- Transparency in both learning and resources.
- Identifying actions that units have the power and responsibility to address.
- Actions that we can more easily 'scaled-out' to other units. The actions have some degree of generality and can be applied to other units.
- Procedures, actions and policies and practices that might begin to create changes in key barriers in culture and discourse.
- Key priority procedures, policies and actions that will support well-being of equity-deserving groups.
- A focus on areas that will help lead to long-term systemic change across the institution.