Anti-Racism Framework
BCIT aspires and commits to creating a learning and working environment that is actively engaged in the elimination of racism and discrimination.
Our Starting Point
BCIT acknowledges that racism exists within our community, just as it does within the broader community, both on an individual level as well as systemically.
BCIT recognizes that without removing barriers to inclusion, racialized staff and students will not feel valued on an equal level, and we will miss out on the experience, knowledge, and talent that racially diverse people contribute to an organization.
We are committed to actively working and committing resources towards the ultimate goal of eliminating all forms of racism within our community. To further this goal, BCIT’s Respect, Diversity and Inclusion Office formed an Anti-Racism Working Group and developed an Anti-Racism Framework.
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Local and global events have compelled us to acknowledge our role in perpetuating systemic racism and to take action.
Priorities for Action
The BCIT Anti-Racism Working Group identified four key priority actions to advance anti-racism, including short-term goals and longer-term aspirations:
- Education and raising awareness: Building awareness that racism of different forms exists everywhere, educating the BCIT community about the various forms that racism can take, and developing approaches to preventing or addressing racism.
- Data collection, analysis, and utilization: Using data to increase our understanding of the impacts of race on student and staff recruitment, retention and advancement, as well as the broader experiences of racialized staff at BCIT.
- Human resources and policies: Enacting strategies that will result in greater racial diversity in hiring; reviewing and adjusting policies to enable racial equity for staff and students; and applying a lens of anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all new endeavours, including curriculum development, long-term strategic planning, campus development, and space and event planning.
- Inclusive learning environments: Creating an environment where students feel a sense of belonging and respect at BCIT by enacting strategies within programs, co-curricular activities, and services that contribute to a more racially inclusive and aware environment.
Next Steps
There is much work to be done to eliminate all forms of racism within our community. This work requires transparency, accountability, and a framework with specific actions. It is integral to what it means to be the British Columbia Institute of Technology at this time in our history.
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The British Columbia Institute of Technology acknowledges that our campuses are located on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Nations of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam).
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