Senior Dean Update: Media & Creative Arts Anti-Racism Action Plan

In June 2020, I committed the Faculty of Media, Creative Arts, and Design to seven action items to address the attitudes, behaviours and structures that act as barriers for students from Indigenous and equity-deserving communities. I also committed to being transparent and collaborative in this work.

As a Faculty, we approach this process of transformative change with intention and humility. This means engaging in meaningful consultation with students and employees, especially those from Indigenous communities and equity-deserving groups. It means listening to concerns, engaging in open discussions, and making deliberate, meaningful change in each of our 48 academic programs. It also means understanding that this process will take longer than we had originally anticipated as our original list of action items has evolved into a five-year plan based on the feedback we have received.

We conducted a first round of broader consultations in fall 2020 and are now incorporating the feedback we received during our May 2021 employee town hall. In tandem with these consultations, we have been working with Humber’s Advancement department to create new scholarships for students from equity-deserving communities. Scholarships launched in the 2020-2021 academic year include the Bell Media Public Relations Scholarship, Global News Scholarship, Journalism Post-Grad Career Launch Scholarship, Rogers Diversity in Communications Scholarship, and the SiriusXM Diversity in Radio Broadcasting Scholarship. We have also worked with the Centre for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion to provide additional support to employees so they could complete their human rights training modules.

We will provide a more fulsome planning update to all FMCAD students during student town halls on Monday, September 27 and Friday, October 1. Students will have the opportunity to provide their own input at this time. Town hall registration information will be emailed to students later this week.

In the meantime, please continue to share your experiences in our programs by emailing me directly at guillermo.acosta@humber.ca. The Faculty of Media, Creative Arts, and Design aspires to be a space that places equal importance on both academic excellence and mental and physical well-being. Your ongoing engagement with this planning process will help us to get there.

In solidarity,

Guillermo Acosta
Senior Dean, Faculty of Media, Creative Arts, and Design