A joint message from NC President Sean Kennedy and NCSAC President Sam Jemison:
On behalf of our College and its students, we are pleased to introduce Niagara College’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Blueprint.
NC’s EDI Blueprint represents our shared commitment to accessibility, equity, and inclusion, where all members of our diverse community are engaged, valued, and supported. It is a living document which will help us adapt as the needs of our students and employees evolve and change. The Blueprint provides a clear plan to guide our continuous efforts to ensure NC is a community where all are welcomed and where respect for each other is of the utmost importance.
We want to offer our sincere thanks to those who lent their time, voice and experience to this important work. Our Blueprint is a shining example of the tremendous and ongoing collaboration between NC and NCSAC, and informed by more than two years of work by the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce and extensive consultations with our diverse student body, employees, and community members.
Our plan reflects your voices and is a framework of principles to guide and support the work of our operations. The EDI Blueprint aligns with our Strategic Plan, and includes steps that will take place over the short and long term that will help us to ensure all our programs, services, physical spaces and policies are accessible and equitable to all members of our community. And as we celebrate the launch of this plan, we are propelled by the momentum of work that is already underway at our College.
The goals within the plan reflect four key areas of focus which will be championed by members of our Executive Team — Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing; the student experience, the employee experience, and our organization culture and structure.
We cannot do this work alone. Your participation and collaboration are invaluable and will make a difference in our success. The College and NCSAC are pleased to support your EDI learning. We invite you to explore NC’s new EDI Blueprint website which highlights the key elements of our plan, the actions we will take towards our goals, and a helpful glossary of terms and phrases.
We also encourage you to reflect on how the Blueprint connects to your work or your studies and how you can contribute to an equitable and inclusive learning community.
We are incredibly proud of how far we have come together and hope you will join us in our commitment to EDI. As we embark on the important work ahead, there will be many opportunities for learning and collaboration across our great college that will support the strong culture of inclusion and belonging that is so central to our NC identity.
NC President Sean Kennedy & NCSAC President Sam Jemison
