Hoop 1: The institution

Why

Provide Indigenous voice(s) and perspective(s) from the local Algonquin community and the broader Indigenous community at the senior level of academic governance and institutional management. The Board of Governors and Senate members will be able to share with their community information available to the public.

When

Medium term

How

Requires resolutions by these bodies to modify bylaws as appropriate. As a part of the onboarding process, existing Board of Governors and Senate members will be required to take the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit 101 (see Hoop 1.5) competency course, in order to be familiar with the contextual realities and experiences of Indigenous peoples.

Cost

None, other than investment of political capital.

Who

President | Provost | Secretary General

Why

Other U15 universities are making strong commitments in this area. To keep pace as a leading research institution, uOttawa must establish a competitive and comprehensive recruitment strategy for hiring Indigenous faculty members. This strategy is directly tied to national research funding, since Tri-Council allocations are increasingly dedicated to Indigenous-focused research led by Indigenous academics in partnership with Indigenous communities. For uOttawa to have access to these types of research funds, it must increase the numbers of Indigenous researchers. Such a strategy will ensure that uOttawa continues to be regarded as a leading research-intensive institution.

When

Short term

How

Select tactics to give us a competitive edge, such as:

• Locate and offer tenure-track positions to Indigenous people from the local area (Quebec and Ontario) currently enrolled in doctoral programs and find ways to support them as they complete their programs before they take up these permanent positions.
• Hire Indigenous scholars for positions, though they will not assume their responsibilities as faculty until year two. Instead, provide bridge funding in year one that supports them to finish their dissertations and start publishing. Their appointments as faculty members will be conditional on their completion of the dissertation.
• The University (via the faculty or department they are hired into) must provide them with mentoring/assistance to be able to complete their studies.
• Create more bursaries and scholarships for Indigenous graduate students. There is a lack of sufficient funding within communities to support First Nations, Inuit, and Metis students through graduate programming.

Cost

Departments and faculties need to commit resources to hiring a range of Indigenous scholars— tenure-track and part-time—in the interest of broader equity and diversity. This process will comply with the beyond self-ID Indigenous hiring policy (in draft form as yet):

• Hiring Indigenous scholars regardless of whether or not they do “Indigenous-based” scholarship, in order to have a full and rich complement of professors from Indigenous societies.
• Committing to hiring at all ranks: assistant, associate, and full professor.
• Creating a complement of tenure-track professors requires central allocation of special funding for cluster hires.
• Committing to hiring part-time instructors either with PhDs in the required discipline or MAs if they have the appropriate professional background and/or competencies in Indigenous knowledge.

Who

President | Provost | Deans | Chairs | Collective Bargaining Units

Why

There is an insufficient number of Indigenous staff members.

When

Medium term

How

Faculties will need to prioritize the creation of an Indigenous coordinator position; Human Resources must prioritize the hiring of Indigenous staff; an appropriate environment fostering language support should be provided (see below).

Cost

Indigenous coordinators working with the Office of Indigenous Affairs will be able to effectively share resources with a goal towards increasing the overall campus PEFAL allocation as well as applying to external bodies for special event funding. However, each faculty will assume the salary cost for these positions. Additionally, each faculty will have its own budget, which its coordinator will manage. However, everyone should be aware of what is being spent and how it is spent in order to ensure faculties, the Indigenous Resource Centre and the director’s office are not working at cross purposes.

Budgets for staffing positions already exist within faculties and the hiring of Indigenous peoples at all levels of the University workforce will not affect that process (although positions themselves may require reallocation).

Indigenous people tend to speak either English or French (not both) and, if they speak a second language, are more likely to speak their own mother tongue. Therefore, it will be necessary for the University to build into its Human Resources recruitment strategy a recognition of this linguistic barrier and identify strategies and means by which Indigenous staff can become bilingual in French and English at the same time that they are supported and encouraged to learn their own language (if they do not know it already). This is in the interests of reconciliation, which includes efforts to preserve Indigenous languages.

Who

President | VP Resources | Provost | Deans | CAOs | AVP, HR

Why

On March 22, 2017, uOttawa signed an MOU with the University of Manitoba in which we agreed to contribute materially to the purposes and objectives of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. While several faculties, including Law, Education, and Medicine, have begun implementing formal responses to the TRC (see attached), uOttawa has not, as yet, developed its institutional response or determined how it will fulfill its obligations under the MOU. We will begin a comprehensive survey and review what other faculties have done to support the Calls to Action, in order to determine the best plan to move forward as a university and address these calls, while reviewing the MOU to determine how to meet our commitments.

When

Short-term start, medium-term completion

How

This is a multi-staged, and multi-year process to take place between 2019-2024:

1. Hold a president’s town hall on the TRC and MOU to underscore and encourage University-wide participation.
2. Simultaneously, establish a process (appointment of a committee, etc.) by which we decide what Calls to Action uOttawa needs to/is best positioned to address given its institutional needs, capacity, and mission; initiate a survey of what each faculty, department and unit has undertaken, or what it currently has in terms of curriculum and supports, in order to determine what actions must be taken.
3. All senior managers, including VPs, AVPs, heads of services, deans, VDs, and department/institute chairs, should have their job descriptions amended to include responsibility for implementing the TRC Calls to Action.
4. Once the process is created and an assessment is undertaken, develop a response to these Calls to Action that makes the most sense in the context of uOttawa.
5. Until 2024, the University should require annual updates from all faculties, department, and units on their progress toward meeting the Calls to Action. These reports will be public documents, made available on the Indigenous Portal.

Cost

Faculties need to commit to determining how the Calls to Action are reflected in their curricula and then commit the appropriate resources to either developing new courses or ensuring that they have the appropriate staffing to ensure that courses that already exist are offered. In some instances, this will necessitate the hiring of Indigenous instructors.

The University of Ottawa will commit to ensuring that the commitments of the MOU are met. As a partner, we’ve agreed to a number of actions, including ensuring that the Centre’s archives are more accessible and used, contributing additional holdings to the Centre’s archives and supporting a broad scope of public education, research and other reconciliation activities. As an institution founded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic male religious order, uOttawa has a direct historical link to the residential schools themselves. With its ongoing relationship to Saint Paul University, and, as a result, the Deschâtelets Archive of the Oblates, along with its own institutional archive, uOttawa must task its archivists and librarians to work with Saint Paul and the Oblate archive to build an institutional history of the University that reflects its connection to the establishment and operation of Indian residential schools.

Who

President | Provost | Secretary General

Why

All faculty and staff will be required to complete a First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) 101 workshop including competency modules related to their specific employment sector. For instance, the finance teams should understand the many different ways by which Indigenous students are funded to attend postsecondary institutions. At the same time, all staff should know the legal and sociocultural differences between FNMI peoples, and be aware of treaties, scrip, UNDRIP, the Indian Act, and other colonial laws and policies that continue to affect all Canadians, in order to have a better understanding of the contexts in which the University’s Indigenous students, faculty, and staff live.

When

Medium term

How

The FNMI 101 competency course and attendant modules will initially be offered in face to face sessions to current employees by the staff from Indigenous Affairs and/or faculty and staff with expertise, but they will also be transformed into a hybrid offering with a combined in-person and online interface that will be used by future employees as a part of their onboarding. This is already done with the University at a Glance workshops, so we have a framework for such onboarding practices already in place.

It is especially critical for the University to create a network (in French and English) of expertise in Indigenous realities and issues. This involves training deans to train deans, professors to train professors, department chairs to train department chairs, and key leaders in services to train others in service sectors. An online module can provide general content knowledge, but these modules must be followed up by in-person action planning workshops led by experts within the realm of those taking the competency training in order to bridge the two realities of Indigenization and the particular position, discipline and/or service area.

Cost

A central budgetary commitment to develop the FNMI 101 and specific modules related to each employment sector:

• Current FNMI faculty could be provided with course relief to begin building Indigenous 101 in consultation with the Indigenous Affairs team and the TLSS, to develop the modules for an online interface.
• The Teaching and Learning Support Service (TLSS) will hire content specialists (on contract/ module) when necessary in order to work with Indigenous Affairs on the faculty, department and unit-specific modules. The TLSS has the resource capacity to manage much of this work. Each faculty may need to assist in the development of its own modules via financial or in-kind contributions.

Who

Vice-Provost, Academic Affairs

Why

A dedicated position for an Indigenous curriculum specialist within the TLSS will be created in order to help faculties, departments and professors develop content, courses and curriculum that reflect Indigenization, decolonization, and empowerment.

This specialist will assist interested uOttawa professors (full and part time) to redesign their courses and programs, as well as work to develop new courses, to include appropriate Indigenous content in a way that supports their disciplinary specializations. The specialist will also work to introduce Indigenous research methodologies to faculties, departments and professors. This position is integral to Indigenizing the curriculum and creating additional course offerings for those students interested in pursuing this area of learning. Furthermore, as the realities of Tri-Council funding shift in post-TRC Canada, faculty need to understand that Indigenization supports their research efforts, and research productivity is critical to transforming the curriculum.

The specialist will also assist with the FNMI 101 course and onboarding new faculty, staff, and members of the BOG and Senate, because they will be the person who can gather the network of experts needed for Hoop 1.5.

When

Short term

How

Requires the creation of a position for a curriculum specialist with deep knowledge and experience with Indigenous traditions, ontologies, pedagogies, epistemologies, methodologies and general knowledge(s), as well as a background in the academy. The TLSS will host a series of seminars/events inviting specialists from other universities to discuss with uOttawa faculty and staff their own best practices when undertaking this work.

Cost

A salary line and position will need to be created within the TLSS for this position.

Who

Provost | Vice-Provost, Academic Affairs

Why

One of the requirements of the PEFAL funding package provided by the Province of Ontario is to create and fund a position for an Indigenous counsellor. Student health and well-being support will contribute to better, successful outcomes for Indigenous students and aid in retention strategies.

When

Short term

How

This position requires a counselling or social work degree. Ideally, the incumbent would be a traditional knowledge keeper (although that is not a requirement).

Cost

This position is a condition of the ongoing PEFAL funding, but, ideally, would be paid for by the University budget (leaving PEFAL to support student activities and outreach).

Who

Provost (budget recommendation)

Why

An LLC within the uOttawa Housing Service is a dedicated space in one of uOttawa’s residence facilities where residents are grouped according to their interest in a particular area. Programming for LLCs focuses on these areas of interest and offers enhanced opportunities for connection and development beyond the classroom. The University will establish an LCC for Indigenous students in one of the residence buildings. This space will have the capacity for students to engage in traditional spiritual practices (such as smudging and/or lighting the qulliq) without requiring permission from Ottawa Fire Services and uOttawa Protection Services. The Housing Service will work with the staff at Mashkawazìwogamig to ensure that appropriate activities and principles are established for this dedicated LLC.

When

Long term

How

Work with the Housing Service to locate appropriate floors in appropriate residence buildings that will be preapproved for traditional ceremonies.

Cost

No additional cost since students already pay for the cost of the LLCs via their residence fees. However, additional administrative costs may be incurred during the startup phase of the LCC.

Who

Provost | AVP, Student Life

Why

To provide any Indigenous student in need with financial support to go home due to unforeseen and/ or unexpected events such as a death in the family.

When

Short to medium term, following needs assessment.

How

Work with Financial Aid and Awards to determine how many scholarships and bursaries dedicated to Indigenous learners are not currently applied for and then implement a plan to redirect the unspent funds to establish an emergency travel fund for those students who need to travel home unexpectedly during the school year

Cost

Funds already exist, so this is an issue of reallocation, not creation.

Who

Provost | AVP, Student Life | Director, Indigenous Affairs