Consideration of the extension of appointment of Dr. Sara-Jane Finlay, Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion
A message from Andrew Szeri, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBC Vancouver, and Gillian Henderson, Executive Director, Human Resources, UBC Okanagan
An Advisory Committee has been established with a mandate to advise the Provost; the Vice-President, Students; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UBC Okanagan; and the Vice-President, Human Resources, on an extension of the appointment for the Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion. While the extension of appointment of a non-academic Associate Vice-President is not formally governed by UBC Board of Governors policy, the UBC Executives to which this role reports have decided to closely mirror the process associated with UBC Policy AP8, “Deans Extension Policy.”
An external review of the Equity and Inclusion Office was conducted last fall by a team of distinguished colleagues, as the first step in the process to consider Dr. Sara-Jane Finlay’s extension of appointment. To assist in informing that process, we wrote to all members of the UBC community (faculty, staff and students), to seek feedback on matters that the review team was tasked with examining. In advance of the site visit, the review team was provided with the unit’s self-study documentation, together with comments from the community. From October 9-11, 2019, the team participated in an intensive series of meetings with representation from the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. We received the External Review Report and released it to Dr. Finlay.
The advisory committee is embarking on a consultative process and is seeking your feedback directly related to Dr. Finlay’s leadership over the past five years with respect to the Equity and Inclusion Office, the University, and the communities to which the unit relates. The committee is specifically interested in your thoughts on:
- Dr. Finlay’s effectiveness as a leader in advancing the broad equity, diversity and inclusion goals of UBC as articulated in the University Strategic Plan (including related documents such as the draft Inclusion Action Plan and the Student Diversity Initiative)
- How the University can assist in advancing the Equity and Inclusion Office’s vision and mission.
We would appreciate receiving your comments as soon as possible, and no later than February 17, 2020. Comments should be forwarded by email care of Jackie Hallet in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic, UBC Vancouver at jackie.hallet@ubc.ca.
Note that anonymous comments will not be considered. However, all comments from the UBC community will be considered in strict confidence by the Co-Chairs and Secretary of the Advisory Committee, and names will be removed prior to being shared with the other Advisory Committee Members. Any information that could reveal the identity of the sender will be redacted.
Please contact Jackie Hallet at jackie.hallet@ubc.ca or 604-827-4072 if you have any questions or comments about the reappointment process.
Membership of the Advisory Committee:
- Andrew Szeri, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, UBCV (Co-chair)
- Gillian Henderson, Executive Director, Human Resources, UBCO (Co-chair)
- Jackie Hallet, Executive Assistant to the Provost (Secretary)
- Shirley Chau, Associate Professor, Faculty of Health & Social Development, UBCO (Member)
- Shirley Nakata, Ombudsperson for Students, Office of the Ombudsperson for Students (Member)
- Handel Wright, Professor, Educational Studies and Network of Centres and Institutes in Education (Member)
- Henry Yu, Associate Professor, History Department and Principal, St. John’s College (Member)
- Roshni Narain, Director, Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion Office (Member)
- Julia Burnham, Vice President Academic and University Affairs, AMS Student Society (Member)