A new study by a master’s student in Halifax reveals new findings about faculty diversity in Atlantic Canada.
Isalean Harris found that Black women are underrepresented at two Atlantic Canada universities: Saint Mary’s University (SMU) and Dalhousie University.
She found in her research the employment equity policy at the two schools, “have been institutionalized in ways that fail to acknowledge and address the overrepresentation of whiteness and systemic racism,” according to her dissertation.
Harris’s second major finding is the terms “diversity” and “inclusiveness” were often repeated in both Dalhousie and SMU’s university commitment statements and policy but were used “in a token sense, in that each institution’s equity commitment statement is carefully worded so as not to suggest that preferential treatment will be given to certain people but that everyone is welcome to apply.”
Her report said policies often use such vague language without having concrete plans, procedural requirements, or accountability measures.
“The ambiguity of these statements leaves them open to interpretation by white faculty and administrators who rarely acknowledge the overrepresentation of whiteness,” she wrote.
According to a 2018 report by the Canadian Association of University Teachers on faculty diversity, post-secondary school teachers from “visible minority” groups make up 21 per cent of all university teachers, with significant difference among different populations of visible minorities.
The report shows that qualified Black women scholars experience the third highest unemployment rate of 11 per cent among the 10 racialized minority groups captured within the category of visible minority.
Cale Loney, communications officer at SMU, said in an email that the hiring of faculty members within the university is managed by the faculties themselves and governed by the agreement between the school and SMU’s Faculty Union.
“The university has a clause in the full-time faculty Collective Agreement (10.4) to improve the employment of women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities and Indigenous Peoples,” she said. “Other practices the university has undertaken include equity training, representative search committees and outreach/targeted advertising of positions.”
Dalhousie University was reached for comment but did not respond in time for publication.
Marwah Alshaebi, a fourth-year computer science student at Carleton University, said seeing professors who are Black would help her feel like she belongs to her program.
“All my professors are white, the dean is white, my TAs most of them are white,” she said.
Alshaebi said this made her feel out of place and that she should not be in computer science and that she’s an “outlier” for being in the program.
“Seeing an accurate representation of reality in how everyone can do this, everyone can have this position, and all that will help me mentally and psychologically accept that fact,” she said.
Image by Jasmine Foong
