{"id":13142,"date":"2020-06-11T19:33:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T23:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?page_id=13142"},"modified":"2021-08-24T10:03:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T14:03:26","slug":"an-open-letter-to-our-students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/journalism\/equity-and-inclusion\/an-open-letter-to-our-students\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to our students"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":13192,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An open 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As such we have a responsibility to acknowledge the role we have played in the perpetuation of systemic racism in the education of young journalists. Equally important, we have a responsibility to be clear about the actions we are undertaking as we try to address the very real concerns about the lack of diversity and inclusion in our program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have not done enough to ensure that our racialized students* feel welcome and heard in our classrooms. Nor have we done enough to ensure that all of you acquire the capabilities you need to report on the full diversity of communities and individuals who make up Canadian society and the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have read \u2013 and endorse in principle \u2013 the <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1dLSILA-yQVSJ-HwKgmUW74mXM-BrDoH65qTG23ZH1B8\/edit\">Call to Action<\/a> published on June 11 by a group of graduates and current students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you for speaking out to us about this, loudly and clearly. We will continue to listen to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have been working on a plan of action and will immediately implement the following in order to begin providing you with a richly diverse and inclusive program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The changes we commit to below aim to address racism against Black, Indigenous and People of Colour as well as<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> intolerance based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and ability<\/span>.**<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. We will start recruiting for our newly mandated academic post \u2013 the Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies. Our goal is to hire a new faculty member for this endowed chair by July 2021. The successful applicant will create new course offerings, establish a program of research and bring a focus to the Journalism program\u2019s efforts to foster an environment that cultivates a diversity of journalists* and fully recognizes and engages with all members of Canadian society. We won\u2019t stop there \u2013 we commit to more diversity in the people we hire to teach you and work with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. We will redesign our first-year introductory undergraduate courses and ensure they have a strong central focus on diversity and inclusion. For example, the winter term course will be renamed \u201cFoundations: Practising Journalism in a Diverse Society\u201d and will be anchored firmly in the belief that real change starts with a clear understanding of how to cover communities that have long been marginalized. It will provide our first-year students with the means to approach and practice journalism from varying perspectives. We will make the same curricular changes in courses in other years of the program.** At the graduate level, we ensure our foundational courses reflect the same focus. We will launch our new Master\u2019s course on journalism, race and diversity in September.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. We will give clear guidance to instructors to be mindful of diversity and inclusion issues in course design and delivery and in interactions with you. To ensure we have real change in course content throughout our program, including the selection of topics, readings, assignments, examples and guest speakers, we will continually assess our curriculum and provide a Diversity and Inclusion checklist to assist instructors as they build their courses. And to support the use of that checklist \u2013 to ensure you and your story ideas are truly heard, understood and welcomed \u2013 we will ask everyone who teaches you to participate in unconscious bias training in preparation for this coming fall and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. We will make it mandatory for all of our students to complete a course in Indigenous history<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0in order to meet <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our responsibilities more fully as a journalism program under the Truth and Reconciliation\u2019s Call to Action 86. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several years ago, we created one course that probes the historical and present-day relationship between journalists and Indigenous peoples in Canada and another that took students to Indigenous communities in Canada\u2019s North. We made a calendar change to add an option from Indigenous Studies to our required history credit. But we know there\u2019s more to it than optional offerings. That is why we will commit to this more fundamental change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. We will continue to support the work of the Journalism program\u2019s student <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/journalism\/equity-and-inclusion\/student-association\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Equity and Inclusion Committee<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as well as its efforts to engage with all of you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last year, after discussions with current and former students, we hired an expert journalist with lived experience to conduct a consultation with our faculty and staff on issues of diversity. This expert then organized a \u201cstory circle\u201d for students to share their experiences in our program and suggest changes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Out of that process emerged the committee, which includes faculty members as liaisons. The committee gathered and presented student concerns to us, along with specific recommendations for how we could make progress. It began examining how students could comfortably raise their complaints and have them addressed. It offered to provide feedback to us as we worked to improve the scope of our teaching practices and materials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With financial support from the Journalism program and the Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA), the Committee scheduled a second story circle \u2013 this one to bring students and instructors face-to-face so that we could listen to the hard truths and then together explore ways of making our program better. This initiative was cut short by COVID-19, as was the committee\u2019s planned public event that would have brought in journalists of colour and from other marginalized groups to discuss challenges in modern newsrooms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee plans to hold the story circle online in August. It also hopes to mount further online programming, and will reschedule the journalists\u2019 panel in the fall term.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>*********<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It does not end with this. The faculty and leadership of the Journalism program recognize that addressing diversity and inclusion is a central challenge to our credibility as an institution serving the full diversity of Canadian society \u2013 not only with regard to race, but also ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and ability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We do not underestimate the scale of this ongoing challenge. Each year we will release <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/journalism\/equity-and-inclusion\/annual-report-on-the-journalism-programs-commitments-to-edi\/\">a report to chart our progress<\/a> \u2013 where we achieved positive change, what we still need to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we work to build a diverse and inclusive Journalism program for all of you, we will keep this conversation going. We invite you \u2013 as well as our former students and working journalists \u2013 to join in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Susan Harada<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Director (Interim) \u2013 School of Journalism and Communication<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Program Head \u2013 Journalism<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carleton University\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allan Thompson<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incoming Associate Director \u2013 School of Journalism and Communication<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incoming Program Head \u2013 Journalism\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carleton University<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">**Clarification June 14, 2:15 p.m. EDT of the wording in the original letter posted June 11, 7:33 p.m. EDT<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">*Updated Feb. 6, 2021, 2:30 p.m. EST<\/span><\/p>\n"}],"text_columns_background":"white","custom_block_title":""}],"add_thumbnail":"no"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16738,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13142\/revisions\/16738"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}