Goal 2: Relationality & belonging
Transform university structures and practices to show value for diverse lived experiences and ways of knowing to build relationships across and beyond UVic.
Why?
During the plan’s creation, university community members noted that UVic's academic environment is based on rigid and colonial measures of success. As a result, efforts to build meaningful relationships with those outside the academic "tradition" are affected by strict ideas of what type of knowledge belongs at UVic. By expanding the meaning of success and valuing all forms of knowledge and lived experiences, we will broaden the UVic community.
- Increasing tuition costs combined with the housing crisis excludes people with a lower socioeconomic status. The lack of commitment to building relationships with this community reinforces barriers to their inclusion on campus.
- UVic lacks meaningful engagement and connection across and beyond the campus community. This means that students, staff, faculty and librarian recruitment efforts are narrow, repetitive and reinforce inequitable ideas about who is included within the campus environment.
- The siloed and divided nature of UVic – across students, staff, faculty, librarians, leadership as well as positions, units, offices and faculties – impacts individuals' ability to feel like a valued part of UVic's community.
- Prioritizing colonial academic knowledge in assessments and evaluations of students and employees reproduces the dominant structures of power. This limits the meaningful involvement of systemically and historically marginalized groups in higher education.
- Strict and narrow measures of academic knowledge and/or success silences creativity and non-colonial, diverse forms of knowledge and experience. As a result, traditional and narrow ideas of who belongs at UVic and who doesn’t, are reinforced.
Committed actions
Community-wide impact
- Articulate the university’s anti-racist approach and embed into the academic and operational strategic direction of the institution, including informing decision making and resource allocation. Lead: Executive Council
- Promote and support professional development opportunities and events that build an inclusive campus and culture. Lead: All portfolios
- Build robust partnerships with community organizations whose work centers systemically and historically marginalized communities. Lead: All portfolios
- Update university policies and procedures related to campus signage and other naming practices to increase the representation of historic and present-day Indigenous communities and to ensure alignment with the university’s strategic principles. Leads: VP Indigenous, VP Finance & Operations, VP External Relations
- Review university policies and existing initiatives and develop opportunities for engagement to better understand the current state of community safety at UVic. Leads: VP Academic & Provost (Student Affairs), VP Finance & Operations (Campus Security), University Secretary (Equity & Human Rights)
- Require, within the limits of academic freedom, that research about communities, respects the principles of co-construction, non-exploitation and non-extraction. Lead: VP Research & Innovation
- Design a process for supporting ad hoc committees and affinity groups including supporting their formation and ensuring that their resulting recommendations are heard and valued. Lead: University Secretary (Equity & Human Rights)
Student-specific impact
- Encourage and support instructors and teaching assistants to learn about and implement inclusive course design, teaching practices and accommodations. Lead: VP Academic & Provost (Learning and Teaching Innovation)
- Create and leverage opportunities for student feedback to be considered in curriculum and program changes and reviews. Lead: VP Academic & Provost (Deans)
Employee-specific impact
- Create opportunities for community building among researchers whose work focuses on advancing equity and social justice. Where appropriate, uplift internal expertise to support UVic’s equity-related work. Leads: VP Indigenous, VP Academic & Provost, VP Research & Innovation
- Review existing appointment, re-appointment, promotion and tenure processes to ensure scholarship rooted in different worldviews is accounted for, valued, recognized, and rewarded equitably. Leads: VP Indigenous, VP Academic & Provost (Deans)
| Action | Completion notes |
|---|---|
| Review and update UVic’s Policy on University Policies and Procedures to include a requirement to evaluate policies through an equity lens and in accordance with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). Lead: University Secretary | A tool was developed to support individuals and teams in applying an equity lens to all phases of the policy lifecycle - from development through to implementation and review. Users of this tool are invited to question the implications of policy decisions on underrepresented groups, and to reflect how policies can advance equity. |
| Develop an implementation plan that responds to the findings of the Rick Hansen Accessibility Audit and other feedback on creating affirming and physically accessible spaces. Leads: VP Academic & Provost, VP Finance & Operations | A prioritized list of projects has been developed in response to the audit. Accessibility has also been integrated into standards for ongoing repair and renewal. |
Updated October 2026
What's next
Ready to take action?
- Learn how units, departments and faculties can be part of advancing the actions listed above in the Implementation Framework and Toolkit
- Learn how you can put this goal into action as a UVic student, employee, educator, researcher or campus leader in the Reflection and Action Guides
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