Black Leadership Advisory Committee

The UTM Black Leadership Advisory Committee (BLAC) will serve as an advisory body to the Vice President and Principal and the campus’ leadership teams and committees to support transformative changes that promote that promote Black Flourishing and Inclusive Excellence among UTM’s Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, custodians, and librarian communities by dismantling patterns of anti-Black racism and injustice. Using an equity-centered and anti-oppressive lens, the Black Leadership Advisory Committee works collaboratively with campus and divisional partners to co-create a campus where all Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, custodians, and librarians learn, work, teach and thrive by advancing racial equity and creating empowering spaces of belonging in all facets of the University of Toronto Mississauga’s mission and vision.

Drawing on the expertise of UTM’s Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, custodians, and librarians, the BLAC will support a campus-wide approach to upholding, sustaining, and strengthening UTM’s strategic priorities and objectives in alignment with the 58 commitments from the Report of the University of Toronto Anti-Black Racism Task Force (utoronto.ca).

UTM Black Leadership Advisory Committee is an advisory committee to the University of Toronto Mississauga on activities that include, but are not limited to:

1. Providing guidance, feedback and advice about system-level matters and those issues impacting the University’s goal of creating a positive working climate that supports Black-identified staff, students, faculty and librarians’ feelings of belonging and safety at UTM;

2. Advising on and advocate for practices, processes and organizational initiatives throughout the university that identify and address anti-Black racism through evidence-based consultations that center the perspectives of Black-identified stakeholders at UTM;

3. Creating a safe space for reflection, knowledge sharing and capacity building that boosts Black talent, scholarship, and advancement;

4. Increasing institutional accountability to the Black-identifying community for the implementation of the Anti-Black Racism Taskforce Recommendations (https://people.utoronto.ca/inclusion/anti-racism-strategic-tables/anti-black-racism-task-force/);

5. Providing feedback on gaps, needs, and impacts and ensure ongoing engagement with key stakeholder communities within UTM. Feedback from the committee will be used to inform the Vice-President and Principal’s actions and initiatives around areas of need for, and impact to, the Black community, Black learners and Black professionals working within UTM;

6. Cultivating opportunities for meaningful engagement with UTM’s Black community and that of external allies, supporters and networks.

1. Membership in the BLAC is voluntary. The Vice President and Principal, Co-Chairs, and /or the Director, Office at the Office of the Vice-President and Principal will encourage Black-identifying community members to join as and when necessary;

2. Membership will prioritize Black voices and representation, and reflect the intersectionalities of Black/African/Caribbean identities and experiences (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, cultures, etc.) across the diasporas;

3. The BLAC will comprise of UTM’s self-identifying Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, custodians, and librarians. Individuals who identify as “Black” acknowledge their ancestral and diasporic roots as people of African descent (from the African diaspora) in addition to being multiracial or multiethnic individuals with African ancestry; [1]

4. Members must be employed within the University of Toronto Mississauga; and

5. The following qualifications will be considered for appointing members to the UTM Black Leadership Advisory Committee:

a. Experience working with Black-identifying students, faculty, librarians, instructors, community groups, or networks within UTM.

b. Knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion matters patterning to Black communities.

c. Lived experience as a Black individual.

d. Commitment as a change agent in diversity, equity, and inclusion matters at UTM.

[1] Palmer, C. (2000). THE AFRICAN DIASPORA. The Black Scholar, 30(3/4), 56–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41068901

To support the planning and implementation of activities, meetings will be scheduled monthly and at the call of the Co-chairs. A minimum of 5- 6 meetings are expected each year. All Black-identifying UTM staff are welcome to attend monthly meetings.

These meetings are offered in a hybrid or in-person format.