For years, the Diversity & Human Rights (DHR) office has provided the University of Guelph with a variety of crucial resources regarding the equity and inclusion of all students. The office, located on the north end of campus in the Fielding House, offers students a safe space to seek out any information they may have about inclusion, accessibility, and equity issues. The DHR office and its dedicated staff strive towards helping students reach their full potential while acting meaningfully within the frameworks of an inclusive community.
The Ontarion spoke with the DHR team about the importance of raising awareness and educating students about inclusion and various human rights issues.
“In terms of human rights, DHR acts as a resource to students who are seeking information, advice, and support,” said Jane Ngobia, assistant-vice president of DHR. “We see ourselves as a department of five, but the five of us act like a guide where our goal is to support everybody else, because building an inclusive community depends on everybody on campus.”
The DHR team places a large emphasis on helping all members who are a part of the University of Guelph community. Not only does DHR provide university staff members and faculty with proper resources to ensure equity, but they have also built a framework allowing students the opportunity to speak up and have their voices heard.
“We train, partner, and provide resources to people. Building an inclusive community is a work in progress, it is not a one-time thing—we keep working at it,” commented Ngobia, regarding the efforts of upholding human rights to all. “Everybody—a first year student, a professor, someone working in the arboretum or working in a lab—they are all involved with building an inclusive community across campus.”
With a team of five staff members, the amount of influence and reach the DHR team has across the U of G community is astounding. While providing students with a safe space to learn and obtain valuable resources, DHR’s agenda essentially shapes the way we think and act on-campus.
One of the core components of DHR’s work revolves around issues of accessibility. Although it may not be apparent to those just beginning their university careers, there are a variety of visible and non-visible barriers that prevent students from participating in the community fully.
“The University of Guelph in general does an excellent job in terms of supporting students,” said Kian Merrikh, DHR’s accessibility officer. “We have Student Accessibility Services, which provides a great deal of student support. The DHR office, working in collaboration with various groups on campus, aims to remove various accessibility barriers that get in the way of full participation.”
Dealing with accessibility issues and providing the opportunity to surpass physical and educational barriers is a crucial tenant of DHR’s mission—not only in dealing with what is visible, but also on a systemic level.
“One of the ways that we do that is by creating a course in conjunction with OpenEd for faculty—the course is all about how faculty can make their course instruction more accessible for students,” said Merrikh. “So every faculty is required to take this course in order to enhance the accessibility of their courses.”
“Accessibility is very much a communal effort. In that respect, one of the things that DHR encourages and welcomes is input from the students themselves about how we can solve accessibility on campus,” concluded Merrikh.
Not only does DHR aim towards providing accessibility to students through education as an institution, but they also strive towards reframing the existing administrative rules.
“We have just recently undertaken a major review of the U of G human rights policy and procedures and we are going to have a huge campaign in terms of awareness,” said Anny Strojin, an advisor at the DHR office. “We want every student to be aware of the policies and procedures because currently they are not aware.”
Through her work with the university, Strojin aims towards providing students with a voice and ultimately encouraging their participation in the ongoing projects of DHR.
“As part of our reflection on human rights, we try to offer a safe place for students to come and ask questions, especially for first-year students I think they experience a lot of intimidation coming to a huge place like this,” said Strojin.
Strojin also placed an emphasis on addressing issues of sexual assault and sexual harassment throughout the upcoming year.
“A large focus this year will be sexual harassment and sexual assault. This change is happening on a federal level as well—all the universities and colleges have a mandate to create assault and sexual harassment policies,” said Strojin. “A lot of students are not aware of questions like ‘what is consent?’ and we need to know where to draw the line on those kinds of issues. It’s better to be proactive and prevent these things from happening as opposed to dealing with them after they occur, and I think education and awareness will contribute hugely to preventing incidents.”
While also providing key services that promote accessibility and educational equity all across campus, the DHR office also devotes a variety of resources towards upholding employment equity. Sonja Christopherson, an advisor at DHR, commented about the importance of implementing and using the student voice to further address issues on-campus.
“Employment equity is a program for our full-time employees that recognizes that students need to have a voice, and our goal is to help support students to be members of our community and to make a meaningful contribution,” said Christopherson. “We support students and other members of U of G to create an inclusive community for everyone. One of the ways we do this is through student peers. We have students that we hire every year to help us engage other students in the community by helping us understand what is important to them.”
The DHR office has a large presence on campus—extending from the administrative policies and procedures, to listening to the individual needs of the students themselves. It is important to recognize, however, that the DHR team directly encourages students to speak with them at any point during the semester. Whether you want to become involved and volunteer, or if you are seeking a safe space to speak your mind, the staff is ready and more than willing to help you.
David Gibson, the administrative officer at DHR, takes note of the ways students can become a part of the work that the DHR office provides.
“I think the message that all of us have hit upon here is that we all create inclusion and we all have a responsibility in building and creating the most inclusive campus possible, concluded Gibson. “We are not just a house on the north end of campus, we are everywhere—our office is always open. Some of the things students can do to get involved include the peer helper program, a work-study position, but there are also a variety of day-to-day volunteer opportunities that are available to anyone interested.”
About
The Ontarion publishes independent, student-produced news, opinion, and commentary for University of Guelph students so that they can make informed decisions in their lives. To do this, The Ontarion provides learning opportunities and training in journalism, media production, leadership, board governance, and other aspects of nonprofit news.
The Ontarion is the University of Guelph’s independent student newspaper. It began in 1951 as part of the Ontario Agricultural College and then began to represent the entire University of Guelph once it amalgamated in 1964. The Ontarion incorporated in May 1970 as The Ontarion, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation registered with the province of Ontario.