EDMONTON — The president of the University of Alberta says the decision to rebrand its diversity, equity and inclusion policy was not influenced by critics of the initiative in North America.
Bill Flanagan says the university in Edmonton officially renamed its policy this month to"access, community and belonging" after consultations with more than 1,000 members of the campus community, including students, faculty and staff.
He said he believes the university is the first major Canadian post-secondary institution to make the change while others are also considering a rebrand. In Canada, Alberta's governing United Conservative Party has signalled its support for the anti-DEI movement. He said the university's vice-provost used recordings of the consultations to generate a"word cloud," which found most participants mentioned"access, community and belonging."
The University of Alberta's rebrand appears"superficial," she added, as the policy's replacement terms may be less polarizing but really aren't that different. She said the University of Alberta's rebrand seems to give into the growing momentum against DEI and to be an attempt to build a better relationship with the provincial government."A lot of arguments are based on misinformation around meritocracy, that somehow if you implement EDI targets you're not using merit anymore, which has been debunked numerous times."
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