Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) Measurement Issues for Research Administrators CASRAI ReConnect 2018

Session objectives What are the questions we want/need to answer? What data do we need to do so? How do we ensure that the data are actually robust and comparable? What does this mean for data definitions, measurement etc? Statistics Canada will present EDI insights and new directions

What questions are being asked? What directions pursued? Some examples Budget 2018: Address gaps in gathering data and to better use data related to gender and diversity (STC) Achieve greater diversity among research funding recipients, including improved support for women, underrepresented groups and early-career researchers (TC3) CIHR – what groups/populations may experience bias in the system? Need data to assess equity, e.g. with consideration of: Gender Career stage Official languages Indigenous status Size/locale of institution TIPS - How are the core values (or core principles) of equity, diversity and inclusion integrated into the institutional culture (or research environment) of a proposed Chair? What is the institutional EDI landscape? Describe current and future state using qualitative and quantitative data. Identify where gaps in data lie.

CAUT 2018 – Diversity & Equity Among Canada’s Post-Secondary Education Teachers “To better understand the problem and measure progress, universities and colleges need to improve their reporting of employment and pay equity related data, and data collection needs to be centralized and standardized. Data on successful and unsuccessful applicants, as well as retention, tenure and promotion data from the point of hiring should be collected for all equity groups and made available. Data should be gathered for contract and regular academic staff, and a census of all staff should be periodically conducted for adequate record capture.”

Where to start? What directions to pursue? Terminology – define what we mean by equity, diversity, inclusivity Identify what groups we are dealing with – e.g. faculty, research chairs, graduate students, discipline of activity, and …. Identify what activities this touches – e.g. faculty hiring, student access, peer review … Identify key populations we want to understand – e.g. visible minorities, Indigenous, and at what level; what issues in terminology Examine data availability – institutional and national ….

Questions to discuss today What EDI questions can you answer/not answer that you need to, or would like to, answer? What barriers and challenges are you facing in tracking EDI? How do you formulate questions to get relevant data and what issues of privacy & confidentiality arise? What policies and practices have worked well? What data gaps and inadequacies?