In conjunction with the launch of the Anti-Black Racism Task Force, the University is announcing two new initiatives related to combatting anti-Black racism on campus: a faculty recruitment strategy and an Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund.

“The work of the task force will provide us with current and detailed guidance in terms of long-term, structural interventions to combat racism on campus,” says UWindsor president Robert Gordon. “That being said, there are many initiatives, identified from previous campus reports and promising practices elsewhere, that we can start immediately, in consultation with the task force and the campus community.

“The Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund is intended to provide support for students, staff, and faculty driven activities in the short-term, while the task force does its work.”

The University is committing to hiring 12 Black faculty members by the end of the 2023 hiring cycle. The procedures overseeing this process will be consistent with policy and the Collective Agreement, and will also be guided by the advice of the deans and the task force.

The Anti-Black Racism Initiatives Fund provides project and initiative funding, focusing on supporting teaching and curriculum change and development, research and faculty leadership, initiatives that will help us to learn to do better, and student opportunities.

The fund will provide $10,000 grants for research; teaching, learning, and curriculum projects; and student leadership opportunities. A call will also be launched for a two-year Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies Teaching Leadership Chair, and funds have been allocated for staff and faculty to apply for up to $2,000 — or potentially more — for professional development in this area.

Units across campus including the Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Research and Innovation Services will provide support for these initiatives, but the University will be seeking guidance and input from the task force and the campus community more generally in the design of the calls and on selection committees.

Faculty, staff, students, and departments will all have access to resources for a range of initiatives through this fund.