Associate Vice-President: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council Terms of Reference

Print | PDF

Membership

Given the mandate of the Council, membership includes front-facing equity and decolonization staff, as well as members at large across the university’s campuses and faculties. Membership in the Council is drawn from the categories listed below.

Front-facing equity and decolonization practitioners:

• Chair: Associate Vice President: EDI
• Director EDI (Acting Chair in absence of AVP: EDI)
• Office of Indigenous Initiatives Representative
• Equity Case Worker and Support Coordinator, Office of Human Rights and Conflict Management (OHRCM)
• Education and Inclusion Coordinator, Centre for Student Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CSEDI)
• Employment Equity and Accessibility Officer, Human Resources Department
• Director of Accessible Learning

Other recurring positions:

• Black Faculty and Staff Caucus member
• Disability Caucus member
• Alumni Association member
• Wilfrid Laurier University Students' Union (WLUSU) member
• Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) member

Members at large (one-year terms with possibility of renewal for a second year):

• Two student representatives (one undergraduate and one graduate student representing any two campuses)
• Two faculty members/librarians (one full-time and one contract teaching faculty representing any two campuses)
• Two staff members including at least one non-managerial staff (representing any two campuses)

Support (non-voting):

• Office of the Provost and Vice-President: Academic

Criteria for Members at Large

All members of EDI-AC will have a demonstrated commitment to equity in teaching, research, service, professional practice, or leadership. Members representing the interests of specific equity-denied communities will have direct or lived experience within those communities. Faculty/librarians seeking membership should have demonstrated EDI experience in research or teaching or previous experience serving on related university committees. Students should have prior experience working with student groups, organizations, and initiatives with equity related mandates, and staff should show evidence of commitment to building an inclusive university. Members will be selected with a goal of widest representation across faculties and campuses.

Expressions of Interest and Selection Process for Members at Large

In March of each year, the AVP: EDI will issue a call for expressions of interest through the office’s page on the university website and through other widely distributed communications vehicles. Interested faculty, staff and students will be asked to submit expressions of interest through EDI-AC’s Qualtrics Application submission form. The application submission form for members at large will ask applicants to indicate which university community group (faculty, student or staff) they represent, and submit a short (no more than 250-word) expression of interest and a resume/CV.

The Advisory Council will establish three teams to review expressions of interest and bring a short list and their recommendations to EDI-AC for discussion and approval. Each team will consist of three members from the Council and be assigned to reading expressions from specific community groups (faculty, students or staff). The AVP: EDI will be among the members reading expressions from faculty/librarians; the Director EDI will be among the members reading expressions from staff; and the CSEDI representative will be among the members reading expressions from students. Council members will be asked to volunteer for the remaining positions.

Candidates will be assessed based on the membership criteria and the importance of achieving a total membership that includes a wide range of experiences, as well as representation across programs and campuses. The AVP: EDI will work with the Employment Equity and Accessibility Officer, Human Resources Department, to develop a rubric/matrix for accessing applications to be brought to the Council’s first meeting in September 2025.

Members at large who wish to be renewed for a second year must state this in writing to the AVP: EDI by the end of February of their first year, so the request may be brought forward to Council for confirmation. In the case where members at large are renewed, only the available positions on Council will be included in the March call for expressions of interest.

The AVP: EDI will be responsible for seeking replacements for positions reserved for front-facing equity and decolonization practitioners and for the other recurring positions as needed.

Honoraria

The undergraduate and graduate student at large will receive an honorarium of $250 per term for their participation on the Council. The honorarium will be paid out of the budget of the AVP: EDI at the end of each term.

Meetings and Reporting

• Each summer, specific calendar dates will be set for the next academic year.
• Meetings will be set/organized by the Office of the AVP: EDI, and agendas will be set with input from the Council and distributed prior to the meetings.
• EDI-AC will normally meet once monthly between September and May, and meetings will be chaired by the AVP: EDI or the Director EDI, as designate.
• Quorum is 2/3 – 12 of 18 members and is required for meetings and decision making.
• To ensure maximum participation, the meeting format will be hybrid or virtual. Hybrid meetings will rotate between the Waterloo and Brantford campus. There is no obligation for members to travel outside their main campus for meetings. Staff and faculty who choose to do so may submit their mileage claims through Chrome River and charge their department index. Students-at-large who travel to another campus for meetings will be reimbursed for mileage or public transportation (with receipts) through the Office of the AVP: EDI.
• Members should make every effort to attend scheduled meetings. Front-facing EDI staff may designate an alternate if a conflict arises and they are unable to attend a meeting.
• Meetings will be used to make recommendations for change and prioritize initiatives in shifting the university culture through policy reviews, operational and functional assessments, forums to promote meaningful discourse, and training.
• Visitors may request to attend Council meetings to bring forward recommendations. Requests must be made directly to the Chair and brought to Council for confirmation. Special guests may be invited to make presentations on key issues identified by the Council.
• Minutes of each meeting will be kept, including discussion summaries, action items, and consensus decisions.
• The AVP: EDI will provide updates and recommendations to Cabinet twice yearly, and an annual report of activities will be posted to the Council webpage in June with a summary of steps taken toward the implementation of recommendations.
• Laurier shall provide administrative services and meeting space for the Council and its working groups.

Participation

Each member of the EDI-AC accepts that all members’ voices are valued and equal, and that each member brings a unique set of experiences and knowledges we need to collectively advance equity and justice. Students, for example, have unique knowledge critical to helping the Council understand the resources and supports students need. Seniority at the institution does not necessarily translate to greater expertise with respect to this council’s work, and the Chair will encourage as much as possible balanced participation across the membership.

Consensus and Voting

• Decision-making as much as is possible will be by consensus.
• To identify a consensus, the meeting chair will state the decisions as they understand it for the record.
• In the case where there is no clear consensus, the meeting chair should first ask every member in attendance to state their opinion on the subject at hand. If no consensus exists, the meeting chair may call a vote or defer the decision until the next meeting.

Working Groups

EDI-AC will establish three working groups in fall 2025 that will liaise between the university community and the Council. The three core working groups are a student working group, staff working group, and faculty /librarian working group. These working groups will represent the interests of their group members across the university and be tasked with assessing Laurier’s Strategic Plan for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to determine the most pressing outstanding priorities as they relate to these groups. In addition, the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association (WLUAA) Board will form a working group as a Committee of the Whole to assess the sections of the Strategic Plan related to alumni.

Each of the three core working groups will be chaired by a member of the EDI-AC, and it is the Chair’s responsibility to guide the group in developing a set of deliverables, recommendations or action items from that group. Chairs will be selected at the first meeting of the working groups. While working groups focus on the specific needs of their community groups, they are expected to bring a wide equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization lens to their work, including a commitment to disability justice, anti-racism, employment equity, gender equity, and 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion.

The three core working groups will meet separately in October and November and bring recommendations to the EDI-AC in early December for discussion and strategic planning and direction. The WLUAA Board Working Group will form a Committee of the Whole at two of their regularly scheduled meetings, and the WLUAA Representative will report back to the EDI-AC on behalf of the WLUAA Working Group. The EDI-AC will use the winter semester to begin carrying out priorities identified by each group in the December meeting.

Each of the core working groups will include up to five members of the Council. Working groups will also be open to other members of the university. Maximum membership on each working group is 7 members:

• The student working group will include the four student members of the EDI-AC, one other member of the Council, and an undergraduate and graduate student from the wider university community. In 2025, the AVP: EDI may return to the strongest undergraduate and graduate candidates identified through the spring call and offer them the two available positions. All subsequent working groups will be through expressions of interest.
• The staff working group will include the two staff members at large, the employment equity and accessibility officer, up to two other members of the Council, and a managerial and non-managerial staff from the wider university community. In 2025, the AVP: EDI may return to the strongest staff in both categories identified through the spring call and offer them the positions. All subsequent working groups will be through expressions of interest.
• The faculty/librarian working group will include the two faculty/librarians at large, the Black faculty and/or disability caucus member, up to two other members of the Council, and a full-time faculty/librarian and contract teaching faculty/librarian from the wider university community. In 2025, the AVP: EDI may return to the strongest faculty/librarians in both categories identified through the spring call and offer them the positions. All subsequent working groups will be through expressions of interest.

Guiding Principles

The guiding principles and core concepts outlined in this document form the values by which the Council commits to operating. The Council commits to continuous self-reflection on the meaning of each section and how these values look in practice.

These guiding principles shall inform all activities of the EDI-AC:

We are Community-Driven. The work of the EDI-AC shall take lead from members of the Laurier community who represent identities that have been historically marginalized within and/or excluded from post-secondary education. This principle ensures that the Council’s work remains relevant and responsive to the communities it aims to serve. The Council will enable leadership from people in the communities we represent.

We are Accountable. The EDI-AC shall ensure that initiatives that address the concerns of a community or communities are accountable to those very communities. The Council will solicit feedback and critique of initiatives to ensure they meet the needs of our communities. The Council will follow through with addressing feedback and critique in good faith.

We value Reciprocity. The EDI-AC will make every attempt to avoid operating with an extractive dynamic between itself and the communities it aims to serve. When we seek the time, expertise, and other resources from the communities we serve, we will ensure that partnerships are equitable and benefit the communities and those who engage with the Council.

We value Humility. Although we bring a diversity of lived experiences, perspectives, and areas of expertise, we as individual members and as a Council must recognize where our own knowledge gaps lie. We cannot presume to know what is best for the communities we serve. Council members commit to listening actively and avoiding defensiveness when communities bring concerns and other items to our attention.

We Embrace Complexity and Encourage Curiosity. Anti-oppression work involves working to understand the complexity and messiness that our collective lived experiences and histories bring to Laurier. Our work will consider intersectional experiences, complex historical legacies, and changing contemporary realities.

We Recognize and Mitigate Power Imbalance. The Council will pay attention to institutional power structures and how they impact its work. Council members will work to recognize how their own positionalities impact their relationships with each other and the rest of the Laurier community. Members will seek to ensure power imbalance does not lead to the silencing of those with less power.

We take a Structural Approach. The Council will dedicate its efforts to understanding and tackling the structural impacts of oppression. The focus of its work will be on bringing concrete and material change to the lives of the communities it serves. While statements of purpose, values, and intent are important, they will not become the focus of the Council’s work. Doing so will help us avoid becoming performative.

We are Non-Hierarchical. The Council will aim to prioritize understanding and addressing the entanglements between different forms of oppression in an effort toward collective liberation. The Council will work to avoid situations where different marginalized communities are pitted against each other to ensure a thriving community.

Sharing of Information and Confidentiality

Council members and members of working groups will maintain the confidentiality of any information, discussions, and proceedings held in camera. Council members in recurring roles may provide regular updates to their groups on Council priorities, but they may not discuss any issues addressed in camera. Community members who wish to bring matters forward to the Council must do so directly through the Chair. The AVP: EDI will draft reports to Cabinet and the annual public report with input from Council. Drafts will be shared with Council for feedback, and Council must approve final drafts before they are distributed publicly.