Fanshawe College launches new framework for equity, diversity and inclusion

New strategic framework empowers students, faculty and staff to foster a sense of belonging on Fanshawe’s campuses.

Fanshawe College is proud to launch its first equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, entitled A College Where We Belong. The strategic framework is a blueprint for EDI work, setting a vision for the future and charting a course toward a sincere sense of belonging for equity-deserving students and staff.  

“Belonging is at the core of Fanshawe’s mission to unlock potential,” says Fanshawe College President, Peter Devlin. “When we harness the power of EDI and anti-oppression frameworks, we unlock immense innovative potential for our work as a College and within our communities. We are a rich community of diverse students and employees. We are better because of our diverse identities.” 

A College Where We Belong is the culmination of a year-long process overseen by the EDI and Anti-Oppression Task Force, a group of 30 equity-deserving staff, students and administrators, tasked with advising the President and executive leadership team on EDI, consulting with equity-deserving communities, identifying core priorities and barriers, and presenting a vision for belonging at Fanshawe.  

The strategic framework identifies six core priorities: 

• Belonging in our workplaces
• Belonging in our classrooms
• Belonging on our campuses
• Belonging on our research teams
• Belonging fostered by equity-informed supports
• Belonging fostered by equity-informed leadership  

Each priority identifies goals for the College to achieve and is informed by the College’s own EDI data collection, consultations and evidence-based equity research.  

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“It has been an honour and a privilege to chair the EDI and Anti-Oppression Task Force and be trusted with the stories and experiences that folks shared with me over the last couple of years,” says Joseph Pazzano, Fanshawe’s director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. “This strategic framework isn’t a starting point or an endpoint but rather a catalyst for furthering this work on our campuses. These conversations are ones that equity-deserving groups have been having for a long time. Our communities are ready for deliberate action, and that’s what we intend to deliver with this framework.”      

Over the coming months, the EDI and Anti-Oppression Task Force, along with College leaders, employees and students, will identify goals and projects to bring life to the priorities identified in the framework and generate a multi-year EDI action plan.  

The framework augments the existing public commitments Fanshawe has made to EDI, including the federal government’s Dimensions Charter, the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and the 50 – 30 Challenge. Fanshawe’s 50 – 30 Challenge Hub, in collaboration with Colleges and Institutes Canada, continues to offer EDI leadership in the community, as one of four English-language regional hubs located across the country.