Workplace diversity is misleading if all higher-ups are white
Amid the Black Lives Matter protests that happened this past summer and McMaster University’s very own report that highlighted systemic anti-Black racism in the athletics department, diversity has become an important topic of discussion.
Notably, many organizations — such as McMaster — are trying to do better with their diversity by prioritizing hiring individuals that are Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks and people with disabilities.
Workplaces have huddled together to improve their diversity — for example, in November, McMaster committed to hiring up to 12 new academics and scholars that contribute to Black academic excellence at the university. This effort is to increase the number of Black faculty, as well as provide opportunities for Black academics.
Yet, this movement towards diversity wields a double-edged sword: in many ways, the words “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion” have become buzzwords. While companies and organizations try to diversify their workplace, many have been criticized for the ways in which they approach diversity.
For example, last summer Bon Appétit went under fire for not paying its BIPOC employees as much (or at all) as the white employees for on-screen appearances. While the new editor-in-chief and other hires are BIPOC, it took inequitable pay and several racialized chefs leaving Bon Appétit for this change to occur.
Unfortunately, we aren’t doing much better in terms of diversity at McMaster.
Within the McMaster Students Union, there are many opportunities for students to get involved in both volunteer and paid positions. Fortunately, our student community is quite diverse and a lot of this is reflected in the students involved in the MSU services. But the higher up you get in the MSU, the whiter it gets.
Fortunately, our student community is quite diverse and a lot of this is reflected in the students involved in the MSU services. But the higher up you get in the MSU, the whiter it gets.
Since my second year, the MSU board of directors has only had one racialized member per board. Let me repeat that: every year, one of the four board members that lead the student union was racialized.
It gets worse — when you look at the full-time staff in the MSU that aren’t in a student opportunity position, they’re all white. The people who are at the top, in positions of power over everyone else, are anything but diverse.
The MSU is supposed to represent the undergraduate student body, but how can it do that if it isn’t as racially diverse as our student body? Sure, the people volunteering, working part-time, or in one-year contracts may be diverse, but the people who work for the MSU year after year and have control of it beyond one contracted year are white. I don’t know about you, but that isn’t diversity to me.
The Silhouette isn’t exempt from surface-level diversity, either. In the past four years that I’ve been here, every Editor-in-Chief has been white — and I’m sure that if I looked back even further, this would apply for many more years.
While I would say we have a very diverse staff team, we have a similar issue that the MSU has, which is the fact that the person with the most “powerful” position is white.
This raises the question: what is stopping BIPOC or even people from other marginalized identities from being Editor-in-Chief? The Editor-in-Chief has a role in hiring the following Editor-in-Chief. When several Editors-in-Chief have been white, they can — consciously or unconsciously — play a role in continuing this cycle.
We’re a student newspaper. We exist to represent students fairly and equitably, but how can we do that if we don’t even have important, diverse identities leading our newspaper? How do we hold others accountable if we don’t hold ourselves accountable first?
There are plenty of skilled and diverse writers and aspiring journalists that attend Mac. We should be wondering why more of these people — why not many Indigenous students, trans students or disabled students are applying for these roles.
These issues are not exclusive to the MSU or the Sil by any means. However, if we want to see change and true diversity in the workplace, we should lead by example within our student body first.
From the Student Representative Assembly requiring a survivor to disclose their assault in order for the removal of a perpetrator on the assembly to news of rampant sexual assault within the McMaster Students Union Maroons, this past year has been filled with controversy.
Given the events of this year, and what has occurred in the past, it is shocking that the MSU lacks a formal human resources department.
HR departments exist to deal with workplace disputes and ultimately ensure that employees are aware of their rights as minimally outlined by the Ontario Employment Standards Act. This includes the creation, implementation and enforcement of policies and structures that support employee rights like formal complaint structures and disciplinary policies.
Currently, the only HR presence that exists within the MSU is through the operations coordinator, Maddison Hampel. Though Hampel has formalized HR training and experience, her role does not allow her to adequately support all HR functions of the MSU.
Unfortunately, the only HR-focused training for student employees ends at the mandatory online workplace health and safety training modules that all employees of McMaster University are required to complete.
The majority of student employees, myself included, have never even been formally introduced to Hampel or made aware of our employment rights during our training sessions.
If we had a formal HR department, it is extremely likely that the Maroons sexual assault allegations would have been dealt with appropriately.
In fact, with a proper HR department, policies for sexual assault and workplace harassment would likely already be in place, and be created by individuals with the expertise to do so.
A formal HR department could also allow for better and more comprehensive hiring practices wherein individuals who were previously reported to the department are properly dealt with and not re-hired for other positions within the MSU, a consistent problem of the institution.
At the very least, an HR department that is independent of the MSU could allow student workers to feel comfortable reporting any issues. As it stands, I report my workplace issues to my direct supervisors, but this gets complicated if my concerns are about individuals in positions of power.
An HR department can ensure supervisors are accountable for their actions and held to an expected level of professionalism.
Josh Marando, president-elect of the MSU for the 2019-2020 year, has acknowledged that the lack of a formal HR department is an issue. One of his platform points is to restructure the internal operations of the MSU.
According to his #BuildTogether platform, he plans to divide the current full-time staff position of operations coordinator to create a specific HR coordinator who is independent from the board.
While the operations coordinator’s role would be shifted to focus largely on supporting clubs and internal operations, the proposed HR coordinator is meant to “support our students through connecting with university programs that have a focus on equity and anti-discrimination.”
Though creation of an independent HR coordinator is an important first step, it is not enough. The MSU is comprised of over 40 full-time permanent staff and 300 part-time student staff. A singular HR coordinator cannot possibly support this vast number of employees.
The lumping of the HR coordinator role with equity and anti-discrimination programs can also be problematic. Certainly the future HR coordinator can and should consult with equity groups to ensure their policies are consistent with student needs, but it is important that the two ultimately remain separate.
This is because it is possible that issues concerning diversity and discrimination may arise from the HR department. This would then make it difficult for individuals to report issues to the same department where the issues stem from.
What the MSU needs is a full-blown autonomous HR department, with policies in place and trained personnel. Only through implementation of an HR department can the MSU truly account for the safety of its student employees.
It’s important to remember that students employed by the MSU are employees. They deserve the same respect and safety enforced by a HR department in any other workplace.
Honestly, student workers should be unionized to ensure their rights are defended. Until they are, the MSU must do a better job in the 2019-2020 year of protecting their employees through implementation of formal HR resources and personnel.
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The McMaster Students Union and McMaster University are preparing to re-examine their policies and protocols on sexual violence in light of the recent Student Voices on Sexual Violence report released by the provincial government earlier this month.
The Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey was sent out last year and involved 160,000 students from over 40 Ontario post-secondary institutions outlining their experiences of sexual violence and harassment.
According to the survey, three in five McMaster students disclosed at least one experience of sexual harassment.
Sixty-one per cent of McMaster students said they do not have knowledge of McMaster’s sexual violence supports and services.
A McMaster Daily News article responding to the report states that McMaster has provided sexual violence prevention and response training to more than 8,600 students, staff and faculty over the past year.
Arig al Shaibah, McMaster’s associate vice president (Equity and Inclusion), said the university’s sexual violence education team will begin planning a bystander intervention training program in April.
In response to the report, the university will also shortly be reviewing the McMaster’s sexual violence policy, which was created in 2017.
“We are just in the beginning processes of looking at the policy,” al Shaibah said. “We know the numbers that come through our offices are not necessarily indicative of the full picture, so periodically going out there and being able to anonymously get a good gauge of people’s experiences and perceptions is really important.”
Every year, the EIO releases a report highlighting statistics on disclosures of sexual violence and harassment.
However, al Shaibah said the EIO needs to make sure that definitions used to classify disclosures are standardized.
“We have just improved the way we are collecting and centralizing data,” al Shaibah said. “Moving forward, one of the things we are doing is trying to make sure that everyone in the intake office is using the same definition so that we can start to capture trend data over time.”
MSU vice president (Administration) Kristina Epifano will be revising the current “Workplace Anti-Violence, Harassment, and Sexual Assault Prevention Policy” in response to the survey.
“With these revisions, we will host some feedback sessions, inviting student-staff and volunteers to share some of the challenges they've experienced with policies in the past and recommendations they would like to see moving forward,” Epifano said in an email. “I believe it is important to adapt the policy to highlight different options and courses of action that a survivor can take during the process.”
The provincial report comes against the backdrop of multiple allegations of sexual assault within the MSU Maroons.
On March 29, Farah released a statement addressing the subject, promising a formal investigation.
Nevertheless, Farah states that she hasn’t “found actual reports, anonymous or otherwise, of sexual violence within the Maroons team this year.”
The statement also said Epifano will be standardizing an anonymous online reporting tool used for Marrons for all MSU volunteers.
Jocelyn Heaton, the coordinator of the MSU Women and Gender Equity Network, said the MSU’s steps in addressing sexual violence are helpful, but there remains a lot of work to be done.
“The fact that less than three quarters of students know that there are supports and services available is pretty harmful for people who experience sexual violence,” said Heaton. “Also, knowing that a lot of that group is going to receive a disclosure during their time at university and they're not going to know where to refer people to is harmful as well,” she said.
Heaton also mentioned that there has been no consultation thus far with services like WGEN when it comes to the Maroons incident and revising the MSU’s workplace sexual assault prevention policy.
“As the coordinator of a service, the only service specifically meant to address sexual violence, I was never once consulted or brought in to talk about that situation,” Heaton said. “Students have not been consulted on what the policy should look like.”
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When Jess completed her undergraduate degree, she found herself at a crossroads. Look for an entry-level position in primary health care? Or pursue additional studies to streamline her career path?
Having decided to take the further education route, Jess began her search for a graduate certificate program that would provide the experience she needed to make her resume stand out. She found the right fit in Hamilton at Mohawk College and enrolled in the Mental Health and Disability Management Graduate Certificate program.
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As a university graduate, these opportunities to specialize and gain industry-relevant experiences can build on your degree and make a difference in your job search. In fact, 88.6% of Mohawk grads find employment within six months of graduating. *
Securing a job in a field directly related to your undergraduate studies? Consider a graduate certificate program that complements your existing knowledge base.
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* 2017-18 KPI Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey
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