by Joy Mannette, YUFA Equity Officer

12 Dec 07 – As one of YUFA’s Equity Officers, along with Didi Khayatt, I maintain a watching brief on equity issues as a member of YUFA’s Executive Committee and Stewards’ Council. YUFA’s Collective Agreement speaks variously to issues related to equity: “harassment”, “non-discrimination”, and “affirmative action” for Aboriginal peoples, women, visible / racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, and lesbians, gays and transgendered peoples. But equity itself is complex and difficult to understand. The November 2007 CAUT Equity Review speaks to “the lack of consistent and reliable data” on equity-seeking groups which “makes it difficult for…academic staff associations to grasp the full extent of the…nature and extent of the barriers facing academic staff who are members of equity-seeking groups”. Inequity is not only about individual people doing things to people who are members of equity-seeking groups. Inequity is an integral component of the way a society works, a systemic effect, where one’s actions may have an inequitable effect, whether intended or not.

Unions have long protected the rights of workers and recognize the question of systemic inequality. But workers are often simultaneously members of more than one marginalized or minority group. Thus, when speaking of equity, we need to understand that, in the words of York scholar Linda Briskin, “the resonance in the workplace of race, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, age, and ability will need to be greatly enhanced, in particular, the experience of intersectional discrimination.”

I suggest that YUFA, in its next round of bargaining, consider embedding into its Collective Agreement, language from the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ Policy Statement on Equity. The following is excerpted from that.

CAUT Policy Statement on Equity

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is committed to equity for marginalized groups who are excluded from full participation in the academy…[including] but not limited to Aboriginal peoples, women, visible / racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, and lesbians, gays and transgendered peoples. The commitment to equity begins with the acknowledgement of inequity and demands a proactive approach to redress the effects of systemic discrimination. In the university environment, systemic discrimination has manifested itself in barriers to access, employment, inclusion, respect and acceptance. The result has been that particular forms of knowledge production, dissemination and pedagogy have been privileged over others, a practice that has limited the scope of scholarship for equity-seeking groups.

• The goal of equity is to achieve inclusiveness and social and economic justice through recognition, respect, numerical representation, accountability, responsibility and the development of balanced, healthy and harmonious working environments.

• When assessing scholarship for career decisions, recognition must be given to different and diverse experiences of various marginalized groups. Diverse substantive contributions to knowledge must be welcomed in the university. Diversity demands representation of difference in terms of vision, values, cultural mores, methodologies and epistemologies in critical analysis.

• Equity guarantees all people the freedom to realize and fulfill their potential free from restrictions…[including] unvoiced biases and assumptions, employment and education inequities, lack of accommodation and institutional structures, policies and practices which perpetuate systemic discrimination. An inclusive university is one that is active in eliminating these restrictions and promotes the full democratic participation of all its members.

• Realizing equity is both an individual and a collective responsibility, academic staff associations must take a leadership role in its realization by negotiating equity provisions in agreements respecting terms and conditions of employment. Success requires openness, transparency, and accountability in all areas including but not limited to anti-discrimination, harassment, employment equity, accommodation and salary equity.

YUFA should have a pro-active strategic plan on equity, the development of such a plan to be the responsibility of the entire Executive Committee, informed by the expertise of its Equity Officers and its membership. This would require all Officers to understand how equity is a component of their own portfolios. A strategic equity plan would recognize the imperative of representation of equity-seeking groups, and would understand the representational burden of small numbers, avoiding the trap of making members of equity-seeking groups solely responsible for equity. Recognition of equity demands recognition of and respect for differences. Difference of perspective and difference in strategy could be seen as strengths rather than weaknesses which must be argued into submission. Please let me know how you wish to contribute to equity in YUFA: jmannette@edu.yorku.ca.