| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 86.18 |
| Liaison | Chris Adam |
| Submission Date | Dec. 30, 2024 |
Dawson College
PA-6: Assessing Diversity and Equity
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Chris
Adam Coordinator Sustainability Office |
Has the institution engaged in a structured assessment process during the previous three years to improve diversity, equity and inclusion on campus?:
A brief description of the assessment process and the framework, scorecard(s) and/or tool(s) used:
From 2022-24, before officially adopting its 2024-29 institutional strategic plan, an equity, diversity, inclusion & accessability (EDIA) committee was created by the college administration to collect and share feedback from the Dawson community to the strategic plan planning and writing group. It was co-chaired by the Dawson Peace Centre director and the HR representaive asigned to the EDIA file.
The equity and diversity assessment process was made public to the community, in particular through the strategic planning process, where our EDIA working group held open focus groups (students and staff). The results of the assessments and community feedback process were outlined to the HR director, the strategic plan working group, the senate, and the board through the strategic plan process. Information was collected from the following by the working group:
- A large student survey (2022)
- Employee Survey (2022)
- Large open online consultation (2022)
- Individual - one on one consultations with students, employees, as well as interested chairs, coordinators or leads of programs, profiles, certificates, and student clubs (2022)
- HR Parity committee - reps from all unions, including management; to align our hiring process with the report; EDIA in pre, during, and post interview & selection process (2022-2024)
- Strat Plan EDIA comittee-Student Services; align services with underrepresented student needs; HR Strat Plan EDIA (2024)
- Events/Activities/PD (2022-2024)
- Sustainable Happiness & EDIA - Community of Practice (COP): Guest workshop (Diana Rice), how do we take the framework of EDIA and apply it to Sustainable Happiness pedagogy (2024)
- Our assessment of the Sustainable Happiness Certificate session includes a questions about EDIA in the sustainability training program. These questions include those aimed to recognize learning about vulnerable, under-represented and / or equity deserving groups in our training, to ensuring that our training groups include a diversity of employees whom exchange and connect in meaningful ways at their workplace.
Does the assessment process address campus climate by engaging stakeholders to assess the attitudes, perceptions and behaviors of employees and students, including the experiences of underrepresented groups?:
Does the assessment process address student outcomes related to diversity, equity and success?:
Does the assessment process address employee outcomes related to diversity and equity?:
A brief description of the most recent assessment findings and how the results are used in shaping policy, programs, and initiatives:
Actions:
1. The 2024-29 college strategic plan has strong representation for Indegenous student support and its associated staffing by indegenous employees. This is the result of surveys, meetings the the indigenous table, community feedback sessions and the EDIA work being done at the college between 2022-2024. EDIA results from the working group are now imbedded in the new staregic plan. Page 21 of the College Strategic Plan states:
"Another priority will be a Dawson-wide approach to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Colleges and universities across Canada are taking steps to create more just and caring environments for students and employees. Every student and employee has the right to be treated respectfully and to feel confident that the college is monitoring practices and evaluating policies for equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.
In community consultations, Dawson employees expressed a desire for greater participation in the life of the college, beyond the strict confines of their job. If well-being for all is to truly be an over-arching value, we must offer all employees pathways to learn and grow in the same spirit as we contribute to the growth of our
students. These commitments point to the importance to stay abreast of best practices in higher education. Realizing our value of Institutional Excellence signals committing time and resources to the implementation and assessment of evidence-based approaches across the college."
2. The Dawson Teacher's Union sent an Equity & Inclusion toolkit to all teachers in 2023
3. Dawson's Accessibility Centre has specialized staff and equipment to cater to th 989 students with special needs.
4. The Dawson Student Union hired a full time support staff and opened an office called "The Hive", a Gender Advocacy Centre. It is a free service tht advocates for a safer school environment by offering information and education to all students and staff, including the design and facilitation of mandatory workshops surrounding consent to all DSU club executives.
5. In 2023, Student Services hired a full-time person to help students with gender advocacy.
Are the results of the most recent structured diversity and equity assessment shared with the campus community?:
A brief description of how the assessment results are shared with the campus community:
Update 2024:
An overview document reviewing the data collection process and the ultimate results of the DAWSON EDIA process is available on the web site at: : https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/sustainable/sustainability-plan/reports-2/edia-reporting-overview/
Feedback on EDIA concerns had a major impact on the development of Dawson's new Strategic Plan 2024-29. An entire goal section was dedicated to EDIA in ithe plan's "Community" section (Goals 4-7; pages 21-28).
We have made public the equity and diversity assessment process to the community in particular through the strategic planning process, where our EDIA working group held open focus groups for students and staff with many separate opportunities to participate.
Results of the assessments and community feedback process were reviewed with the strategic plan working group, the college Senate and the Board of directors through the strategic plan process. The student, facuty, staff feedback was collected presented to key college bodies represented by a cross asection of the college sectors and evemtually given to given to the strategic plan writing committee for integration into the institutional strategic plan.
A reporting overview document was created by the Office of Sustainability.
Are the results (or a summary of the results) of the most recent structured diversity and equity assessment publicly posted?:
The diversity and equity assessment report or summary (upload):
Website URL where the diversity and equity assessment report or summary is publicly posted:
Optional Fields
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Universal Design & Inclusion: Dawson has an established Learning Community whose ultimate objective is to become the leading advocate of the universal design for learning (UDL) paradigm and to provide support to its members in their journey towards inclusion.
Dawson Accessibility Centre - https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/student-accessability/accessibility-policy-for-students/
We offer a variety of services to meet the needs of students with documented disabilities and for whom the disability significantly and persistently impacts their learning. Services are available for students registered in day or evening credit courses.
We provide reasonable accommodations for students with a diagnosis of hearing, visual, motor or organic impairments, learning disabilities, neurological and/or mental health disorders. Services are also offered to students who, due to an accident or illness, will require temporary support.
Dawson Accessibility Centre (helped 989 students 2023-24: Reasonable accommodations are determined by an AccessAbility Counsellor based on medical/psychological documentation provided by the student. The intention is to provide the student an equal opportunity to learn and to demonstrate their knowledge. Students registered with the SAAC do not receive a modified curriculum and are held to the same standards as their peers. https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/student-accessibility/
Dawson Universal Design Learning Group: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/udl/about-us/
Dawson College is an inclusive community for all students regardless of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sexual orientation or gender identity. It has a dedicated Accessibility Department with services that include:
Assistive technology available in the lab:
- Adapted desks – both the monitor and desk are height adjustable to suit a variety of needs.
- Writing assistance software (Antidote Bilingual) – Spelling and grammar checker, dictionaries, guides
- Specialized software (Read&Write) – Text-to-speech, word prediction, scanning tools, etc.
- Note taking (Smartpen, Audio Notetaker, Notability) – Audio recording of lectures with your written notes.
- Voice recognition (Dragon Naturally Speaking) – Speech-to-text
- Screen Magnifier (ZoomText) – magnifies the computer screen up to 36 times the original size.
- Screen reader (JAWS, NVDA) – More than only text-to speech, screen readers read commands, menus, error messages, etc., in addition to text within documents, web browsers, and emails. Screen readers are mostly used to allow accessibility of computers for blind users. It can be used with refreshable Braille displays.
https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/student-accessability/student-accessability-lab/
Overview: Based on a 2018 Student Satisfaction Inventory Survey by the college Quality Assurance and Planning Office and research by the Dawson Accessibility Centre, an Inclusion Solution Assistive technology lab was created (https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/student-accessability/student-accessability-lab/) and a pedagogical councillor hired to specialize in its application and use.
Dawson's partnership with CRISPECH, specializing in EDIA research, presented numerous research findings to Dawson members through webinars and workshops and includes past and present staff researchers that continuously modernize policies and procedures.
Examples: The Intel on AI: Adapteck Looks at Post-Secondary Students with Disabilities and Artificial Intelligence https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/faculty-hub/artificial-intelligence/the-intel-on-ai-adaptech-looks-at-post-secondary-students-with-disabilities-and-artificial-intelligence-april-7-2021/
COVID-19 Policies and Disability Rights: Analysis of the National-Level Policies of 14 Countries in Relation to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2021) https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/faculty-hub/conferences/covid-19-policies-and-disability-rights-analysis-of-the-national-level-policies-of-14-countries-in-relation-to-the-un-convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disability-nov-3/
Student participation in School activities and assessing limiting factors:
A survey was posted by the Quality Assurance and Planning Office to all students to register what activities they are involved with at Dawson and how that compares to homework time, work responsibilities, family responsibilities and social time. The results show the College what activities resinate with the students and why students do not participate more. Factors within the College's control can then be modified and permit better access to students with differing responsibilities and discretionary hours per day.
Survey of Dawson's student population: Report covers gender, language, high school graduation rates, country of birth, success rates and retention rates https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/academic-matters/articles/the-changing-student-profile/
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.