At its Nov. 29 meeting, Carleton University’s Senate reviewed updates to Carleton’s human rights policy and said goodbye to interim president Jerry Tomberlin.
Human rights policy
Noel Badiou, associate vice-president of equity and inclusive communities, presented proposed changes to the university’s human rights policy. The proposed changes would mark the first significant revisions since 2010.
The revised policy expands protections to explicitly address anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia, while acknowledging the intersections of academic freedom, anti-hate measures and freedom of expression.
The updates align with the Ontario Human Rights Code and guidelines from the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
“This policy incorporates the legislative definitions of discrimination and harassment, and additional definitions were drawn from the Commission’s policies,” Badiou said.
The revisions also aim to ensure a transparent complaint process, ensuring the Carleton community is aware they can access support external to the university.
The updates include measures to meet Ontario’s directive for publicly funded colleges and universities to enhance student mental health support and anti-racism initiatives, Badiou said.
The proposal outlined a January 2025 implementation deadline, which sparked debate among senators Some expressing concerns about the limited timeframe for feedback and refinement.
“This is ridiculously hard to do in an extremely short period of time, and we need to give [Badiou] more time to get it right,” said senator Sean Burges. “This is going to blow up if it sounds like it’s — I’m going to hate using the phrase — wokeism, and protecting wokeism instead of going along and protecting the human rights code.”
Burges said he believes the new policy should be viewed as an interim document rather than a permanent one, and suggested placing a revision due date at the end of 2025.
Despite these concerns, the revised policy aims to address gaps in Carleton’s human rights framework and modernize its approach to equity and inclusion.
“As part of this commitment, the University provides a range of educational and community-building activities that foster an understanding of human rights issues and of the harm incurred by their violation,” the draft update wrote.
The revised human rights policy will take effect by Jan. 31, 2025.
Farewell for interim president Jerry Tomberlin
This meeting was the final senate session for Tomberlin, who will be succeeded in January by Wisdom Tettey. In a tribute, senator David Hornsby read a poem highlighting Tomberlin’s time at Carleton.
Tomberlin’s 16 years at Carleton were spent as the dean of Sprott School of Business, provost and vice-president academic, and interim president.
Tomberlin said he was thankful for his fellow senators.
“I am speechless. Thanks everyone in this room so much for being so dedicated to Carleton,” he said. “It makes everyone’s jobs so much easier when at least we all have this same direction that we’re headed to, even if we might have different ideas about how we get there.”
The meeting concluded with senators applauding Tomberlin as Carleton prepares for a new academic semester under the leadership of Wisdom Tettey.
Tettey’s term will begin on Jan. 1, 2025.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
