REDI

Official Statement

The Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences (CPS) condemns all racist action and inaction that continually threatens the wellbeing of Black lives, Indigenous lives, LGBTQ lives and the lives of all marginalized groups.

Discrimination and racism in all its forms is antithetical to a flourishing, free and equal society. It cannot be tolerated. In the wake of world-wide protests calling for long-overdue justice, CPS is committed to taking actions to address entrenched and institutionalized racism in meaningful and lasting ways.

The CPS community, including Faculty, staff and leadership, will discuss the concrete actions we can deploy alongside, and in support of, UBC and the Faculty of Medicine to create a better work environment for current and future members of our community; and to properly represent those who call the Department home.

Action Plan

CPS Action Plan

To address discrimination and racism, CPS will begin with the following steps:

  • Form a Respect, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (REDI) with the mandate of reviewing current curriculum, teaching, mentoring, hiring and research practices for racial and gender biases, and develop and deploy effective solutions for what they find;
  • Ensure that all initiatives, activities and implemented changes are informed by, and founded upon, the best evidence-based, peer-reviewed scholarship and concrete strategies in the field of racism and marginalization in academia;
  • Create space and mechanisms, including seminars, to actively listen to and understand the experiences of racialized students, staff and faculty;
  • Provide funding to develop initiatives that facilitate dialogue concerning discrimination and racism;
  • Provide our faculty, staff and students with resources to connect, align and collaborate with all REDI efforts across campus to ensure that we are adding tangible value to those initiatives which are already active and expanding on those efforts through our own programs;
  • Establish a list of measurable and relevant key performance indicators, as outlined by the current literature on implicit bias and social identity, that can be tracked and reported on annually;
  • Recognizing that there are many inequities that limit participation, such as family and caregiving responsibilities or that some racialized and marginalized people are often asked to overcommit time to committees, develop multiple avenues to participation that provide and account for these limitations; and
  • Commit to an annual review and augmentation of the above actions so that we are always holding ourselves accountable to our goal of continuous improvement toward an equitable and inclusive culture.
  • Work with the newly created office of Assistant Dean, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Faculty of Medicine and the opportunities it affords to address systemic discrimination and racism.

Real change can only happen over the course of committed and sustained action; this is just a beginning. The CPS community will continue to educate ourselves and our partners as we push for an equitable academia for all.

Terms of Reference

The purpose of the committee is to advise the Head on:

  1. Evidence-based and peer-reviewed (if applicable) practices that can be adopted by the Dept to combat racism, discrimination, and marginalization in academia.
  2. Developing and maintaining a document of REDI resources and best practices to share across Dept faculty, staff and students. This document will amplify REDI efforts across campus with the goal of leveraging and expanding the committee’s work, and provide all Dept members with a resource to guide REDI efforts for individuals, teams, and Dept-level initiatives.
  3. Resources required to implement the CPS REDI goals/mission statement, and how to use these funds to facilitate a dialogue about racism, discrimination, and marginalization within the Dept and more broadly at UBC.
  4. Biases (including racial, gender, identity, disability, and others) in current mentoring, hiring, research and teaching practices (within CPS, and UBC more broadly), and to suggest evidence-based solutions if bias is discovered.
  5. Best practices in creating a constructive environment where Dept members have the opportunity to share experiences, to report instances of discrimination, and to provide feedback on the Dept’s progress in combating systemic racism and discrimination.
  6. Strategies to ensure the workload expectations of racialized and marginalized individuals are equitable, particularly as it relates to service to the Department, Faculty, and University; and advising on ways to recognize and understand individual limitations on service based on personal factors (g. caregiving, disability).
  7. The Department’s demographics (as they relate to REDI issues) compared with the Faculty, University and Province, and best practices to address any inequalities found.
  8. Developing and implementing a Dept strategic plan on racism and discrimination in all its forms, and the frequency of self-reflection using the ISAT tool to monitor progress and areas for improvement.
  9. Dept REDI Committee See below.
  10. How to liaise and interact with other committees in CPS and more broadly at UBC (FoM, grad societies, postdoc office) to integrate REDI principles into all Dept operations.

Meeting Frequency and Transparency

The REDI committee will meet approximately once per month. Minutes from the meeting will be distributed to the Head and Faculty, and will be accessible to all Dept members. Committee membership should include one representative per rank for faculty (including at least one educational leadership stream and one research stream), one representative from each stage of early- career scientist (graduate student/postdoc/undergraduate), and one staff representative. The committee is formed of volunteers (self-identified from a general call), and those asked by the Head to serve. The service term is for three years for Faculty and staff, and one year for early career scientists, and can be renewed by mutual agreement with the Head.

Chair

There will be co-Chairs of the committee who represent diverse perspectives to ensure the work of the committee reflects the needs of underrepresented groups, while not overburdening underrepresented groups. Prior to each monthly meeting, the Chair will distribute an agenda, and send out minutes from the previous meeting. During meetings, the Chair will keep the meeting on time, on-topic, ensure respectful conduct of all committee members, encourage contributions from all committee members, and discuss action items. Between meetings, the Chair will review the meeting minutes.

Committee Members

Members will actively listen to each other with only one committee member speaking at a time.

Minutes

Minutes will be captured by a member of staff and distributed to the Chair for review prior to distribution to the committee.

Approved at the Faculty Meeting November 24, 2020


REDI Committee Members

2023 – 2024 REDI Committee Members

Meeting Agenda & Minutes

REDI Meeting #27September 20th, 2023Meeting AgendaMeeting Minutes


These resources includes useful guides, information and training on EDI to help you better understand equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles and integrate them in your education, research and environment.

Hiring Equity

Mistreatment Help

Anti-Racism

  • Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence at UBC
  • Task Force Reports – Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence at UBC: This Report includes the full list of recommendations and final report from the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force. You can also find the individual reports from the following committees: Indigenous, Blackness, People of colour, students, Staff and Faculty
  • Addressing Racism: An independent investigation into Indigenous-specific discrimination in B.C. health care
  • Watch: Being Anti-Racist, Not Non-Racist
  • Events – Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence at UBC

Indigenous Engagement

Gender Diversity

EDI in Research