The Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education’s Task Force on Race and Indigeneity reached an early milestone on October 24th when they invited members of their newly-formed working groups to meet, engage and familiarize themselves with the ambitious project.
The event marked the culmination of a two-year long conversation that began when Toronto hosted the Pan and ParaPan Am Games in 2015. The Faculty saw the high-profile games as an opportunity to contribute to a promising and positive legacy—an outcome strongly advocated for by KPE experts in the field of sport and social impact. KPE hosted several events which examined issues of equity and access to sport. One such initiative was “A Hurdle to Success”, a series of panel discussions hosted by KPE in partnership with the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office, First Nations House, Hart House and the University of Toronto Scarborough. The discussions explored the relationship between sport, race and access to post-secondary education, and the experiences of Indigenous and racialized youth seeking athletic and academic success, once they have entered post-secondary institutions. As part of that initiative Dr. Janelle Joseph, a KPE adjunct lecture and director of the academic success centre, authored a discussion paper which addressed issues related to these issues. That paper spearheaded the creation of the Task Force. KPE leadership also called for the creation of this task force in response to U of T’s Truth & Reconciliation Steering Committee recommendation to engage in an ongoing process of reconciliation. This task force will also enable KPE to come closer to realizing its equity goals as expressed in the Faculty’s 2013-2018 Academic Plan.
“Our Faculty has a unique opportunity and responsibility to connect with more students than almost any other division,” says Professor Ira Jacobs, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. “Our co-curricular programs must welcome, invite and contribute to the health and wellbeing of all of our students. We are grateful to have this opportunity to improve our programming to better reflect the racial and cultural diversity of our campus community, in particular our current and future Indigenous students, faculty and staff.”
Finalizing these working groups represents a fundamental component of the task force initiative—they will gather data, solicit input and provide recommendations on the various aspects of the Faculty’s processes, policies and programs. The Faculty took several months to recruit working group volunteers, sending invitations to apply far and wide across campus over the summer and into the fall.
“The tremendous response to our call for applicants to join our working groups is indicative of just how timely this initiative is,” says Sharon Grandison, KPE’s director of HR and co-chair of the task force. “We had over 90 strong applicants, from students to staff to tenured faculty from inside and outside of the institution submit an application saying they want to be part of this conversation. We couldn’t be more pleased to have this level of engagement.”
The four task force groups will focus on: Student recruitment, admissions, success and retention; staff and faculty recruitment, retention and advancement; research, pedagogy and Learning and recreation and sport community, outreach and recruitment.
Equity has been a guiding principle at the Faculty for decades, as outlined in the task force’s terms of reference; nonetheless the task force will have significant work to do in a short period of time.
“We recognize that addressing the issues related to this initiative is a tremendous challenge and this task force will not be able to address all of our shortcomings on this very complex issue,” says Jacobs. “But we firmly believe that the this task force is needed to provide valuable insight on how we can move forward to augment and enhance opportunities for Indigenous and racialized individuals, to better reflect our values of integrity, respect, equity and diversity and contribute to the process of reconciliation.”