Power and privilege on campus

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This article was published 21/02/2022 (995 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University of Manitoba has appointed a historian with expertise in power and privilege, and how both of them are maintained and challenged, to oversee a new office tasked with addressing systemic inequality on campus.

Tina Chen, a distinguished professor of history whose academic work focuses on modern China, became the first executive lead of equity, diversity and inclusion at the Winnipeg institution on Feb. 1.

Since then, Chen has been figuring out how her new post will allow her to work in tandem with staff members who have long been doing anti-racism work at U of M and build on their efforts.

“Without this new role, we would be falling behind,” Chen said.

“Universities (need) to have this position if they are going to put into action the phrases that all universities like, about being committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, about transformative change; we know that these are catchwords now.”

Chen was the first woman of colour and the second woman to head the U of M history department, where she began working in 1999. Over the next two years, she will continue teaching part-time while managing all so-called EDI initiatives at the school and setting up a robust permanent structure that will eventually replace her temporary role.

The position was created in the wake of the release of an extensive internal report that includes frank and, at times, scathing details about how the university has failed to support marginalized staff and students.

In October 2019, then-university president David Barnard founded a task force to examine micro and macro EDI efforts at the institution, and how to improve them.

In the committee’s final 328-page document, published in December 2020, it’s argued that the U of M sees improving inclusion and equity as “decentralized, devalued, and a ‘side project’ that is not co-ordinated or resourced’” and calls for an administrative structure solely focused on that improvement.

Community members critique the absence of visible and invisible minorities among employees and the lack of accessibility infrastructure at the university in the report. Concerns about overt and subtle bias, discrimination, racism and colonialism are also raised, as well as skepticism about the school’s complaint processes.

“Diverse students and faculty report carding and having security called on them when they are doing normal aspects of campus life or work like going to the office, using a photocopier, or looking for your keys to open an office door,” states an excerpt.

Among the eight recommendations in the report are calls to embed the EDI concepts into academic and administrative plans across the school, develop blueprints to increase diversity across student, staff and faculty populations, and create accountability mechanisms for evaluating and reporting progress on such goals.

The panel called on the university to better train academics so they can also address these topics in their teaching and research.

Chen said U of M has accepted all of the above recommendations.

This isn’t the first time the school has created a role focused on tackling systemic racism on campus.

Lynn Lavallée, the first person to fill the school’s vice-provost of Indigenous engagement role, resigned in 2018, one year after she started. At the time, Lavallée said she felt like her anti-racism efforts were being unheard at best and actively hindered at worst.

Chen said she believes “lessons were learned” by Lavallée’s resignation and commended the work of Catherine Cook, who was appointed as the U of M’s first vice-president (Indigenous) in 2020, as an example.

The work of Indigenous leaders at the student and administrative level will guide her work, she said.

Chen will also work alongside U of M’s newly established anti-racism task force, which is in the process of implementing the Scarborough Charter, a document the university officially endorsed last month, in turn pledging its commitment to taking meaningful action to address anti-Black racism.

Naomi Andrew, vice-president (administration) and co-chair of the task force, said her goal — not unlike Chen’s — is to establish a comprehensive approach to dealing with racism at the university.

Current complaint processes do not necessarily address the harm caused by anonymous acts of racism, such as the 2019 vandalization of the teepee at U of M’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Andrew said.

“As a university, we need to figure out how to address and respond to those issues in a way that’s meaningful to the people who are hurt,” she said.

Andrew said the 20-person panel, composed of racialized community members, will determine how to do just that by engaging with students, staff and faculty in the coming months.

“The goal of this is really to ensure that we are understanding how different systems of oppression are interlocked at all times,” said Chen, who, outside the university, is a member of Skate Canada’s working group on EDI.

What does that look like to students? In time, the U of M historian said she hopes students will see a shift in how their school staffs, uplifts and supports marginalized communities on campus.

“It will take some time, I’m sure, but there’s also a lot that’s already been going on,” she said. “We hope this position will also give more visibility to all the work that’s already being done, so that people can know where to find it.”

One example, Chen said, is a new class on the history of race and anti-racism in the modern world, which she co-developed. The course is being offered for the first time this term.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca