Student leadership in equity work is the best avenue towards institutional anti-racism

As an anti-racist institution, Queen’s must invest in student initiatives to further promote meaningful equity work.

As a person who’s faced discrimination, harassment, and othering my whole life due to my racial background, I have a deep-seated mistrust of the colonial state and its institutions.

This includes Queen’s University.

Yet, despite my mistrust, I’m convinced Queen’s is committed to anti-racism.

Racism exists at Queen’s, and it isn’t a rare occurrence. Besides personal run-ins with racism, many of my racialized peers have shared experiences with microaggressions, slurs, and blatant violence.

However, the University administration isn’t indifferent to such issues.

In May, the University instated Stephanie Simpson as the inaugural Vice-Principal (Culture, Equity and Inclusion). Programs such as The Shift Project, and the establishment of the Yellow House Student Centre for Equity and Inclusion and The Nest provide services and safer spaces for racialized students.

Queen’s has expanded academic initiatives and supports to better represent marginalized groups. In 2013, Queen’s created an Indigenous Studies degree plan. The University established the Yakwanastahentéha Aankenjigemi Extending the Rafters project five years later to expand the presence of Indigenous persons, knowledge, and supports on campus, pursuant to the findings of Queen’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Task Force.

More recently, Queen’s introduced the interdisciplinary Black Studies program in 2022, while  dedicating medical school admission pathways for Black students. Black-specific wellness supports like counselling services, and Black-oriented programmingavailable through offices like the Yellow House and Student Wellness Services.

These programs emerged after Queen’s became a signatory of the Scarborough Charter in 2021—a cross-institutional collaborative call to action to combat anti-Black racism and promote Black inclusion in post-secondary spaces.

The University has shifted financial resources to better address equity concerns, including the creation of the Commitment Scholarship in 2021, and the addition of several other bursaries directed towards mitigating financial barriers racialized students face when pursuing post-secondary education.

Despite these initiatives, the University’s ostensibly anti-racist commitments don’t necessarily improve the student experience.

According to the 2021 Campus Climate Survey, students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPoC) report higher rates of harassment, discrimination, feelings of isolation, feeling unsafe, and not being accepted.

Myself and several of my peers still feel Queen’s isn’t adequately addressing racialized students’ concerns.

This disconnect stems in part from the University’s failure to properly communicate the array of supports and programs available to students.

While terms like “PICRDI,” “UCARE,” and “Scarborough” are thrown around within the University’s administration, these sound like more opaque acronyms and performative bureaucratic jargon to the few students who have heard these terms.

Students are still exposed to blatant acts of racism. This year alone, photos of a candidate who was allegedly partaking in blackface surfaced during the AMS executive election, this resulted in the candidate’s entire team forfeiting the ballot.

An anti-Indigenous and homophobic letter was posted in Chown Hall in 2019, attracting media attention.  Over the past three years, the University has dealt with racist and anti-Semitic hacks in online learning environments, and the campus has likewise experienced racist and anti-Semitic acts of vandalism.

These are just a few extreme examples, and don’t include everyday encounters with racial microaggressions and harassment marginalized students face.

While students see and experience racism, they don’t notice the anti-racism efforts occurring behind the scenes. Further, when students take notice of the University’s efforts, these efforts often appear as performative and disconnected from students’ needs to adequately address their concerns.

This issue is especially prominent among racialized students who often don’t observe adequate representation in all levels of Queen’s administration.

For this reason, it’s not surprising racialized students may connect better withtheir communities through student clubs and initiatives. Spending time with peers can be a more genuine way to resolve feelings of isolation and alienation at Queen’s.

Rather than introducing new administrative changes that may go unnoticed, Queen’s should uplift and invest in student organizations’ leadership on anti-racism.

According to the 2021 Campus Climate Survey students are twice as likely to feel student-led organizations are better equipped to address issues of diversity and inclusion than the University’s senior administration. Respondents likewise felt student leaders were significantly more committed to cultivating respect for diversity than senior administration.

In other words, students have greater trust in their peers when creating an inclusive campus atmosphere than the University itself. This suggests the University should direct more of its resources towards student groups to lead anti-racism and equity initiatives.

Clubs such as the Queen’s Black Academic Society (QBAS), the African and Caribbean Students’ Association (ACSA), and Queen’s Asian Students’ Association (QASA) focus on identity and community building, connecting racialized students with opportunities, as well as fostering a positive university experience for underrepresented students.

The Black Clubs Caucus is another group that embodies a strong ethos against anti-Black racism among student equity leaders to make definite change to the racialized student experience.

These student organizations need financial resources and a platform to carry out their work. A first step would be for senior administration to speak with students face-to-face and listen openly to their needs and concerns.

The University must take a more active role in not only financially supporting student initiatives, but using its administrative privileges and communication channels to disseminate this work.

Communication is only half the work. At the end of the day, the University’s commitments to anti-racism are meaningless if students don’t feel safe and accepted.

The University is putting in the legwork. Now, we need greater collaboration between the administration and the students they serve.

Kai is a fourth-year Global Development and History student.

Tags

anti-racism, EDII, Scarborough Charter, Student Leadership

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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