The Institute for Management and Innovation is committed to the advancement of an inclusive, open, supportive environment for students, staff and faculty. IMI endeavours to create a safe space to engage in learning, studying and working, and strives to foster a culture of engagement.
2023 Activity Report
IMI is pleased to share our first annual 2023 Activity Report. You can read about our inaugural year, our projects, our accomplishments, and our opportunities for 2024.
IMI's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
This Committee strives to advance IMI's work in EDI centrally, and across our Programs and Units. In alignment with UTM's Strategic Framework, with its emphasis on equity, diversity, inclusion, transparency, sense of community, student support and impact, and in alignment with UTM's EDI Office goals, IMI's Committee serves to:
- Support and facilitate University guidelines and policies/practices at the Institute
- Engage in hands-on initiatives and programming, including events and workshops
- Provide and analyze research, data and annual reports
2024-2025 Committee Timeline
| February '24 | March - April '24 | April-May '24 | May '24 - March '25 | April '25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Committee is Struck | Outline & Framework | Project Plans | Implementation | Reporting |
| IMI launches the EDI Committee | The Committee creates a framework, including goals and processes | The Committee and Sub-Committees strike project plans | The Committee's annual projects and initiatives begin | The Committee reports on goals, and strikes a new team for 2024-25. |
2024-2025 Committee
Ann Armstrong
Debbi Arnold
Simreet Aulakh
Ryan Cerrudo
Afrodite Cruz
Teresa Didiano
Beate Ensminger
Patrice Lee
Michael Marin
Sarah Ogbiti
Nazeem Shamsuddin
Natasha Walli
Claire Westgate
2023-2024 Student Support
- Viktor Lyczywek
- Phillip Simango
Read the Committee's Terms of Reference.
2023-2024 Committee Goals & Focus Areas
The Committee shares plans and framework here, including main areas of attention and key projects for the year, along with a project tracker to share transparency in our progress.
The Committee is focusing on three main sub-group working areas for the inaugural year:
- Research & Teaching
- Student Development & Support
- Institute Culture & Programming
Click here to read the details
Project Progress Tracker: 2023 - 2024
As part of the Committee and IMI's transparency, below you can read about our progress toward our goals for 2023-2024.
| Focus Area* | Category | Initiative | Timeline | Partner or Linked Project | Progress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SDS | Recruitment | Assess diversity numbers in recruitment and cohorts | Winter 2023 | Anti-Black Racism Report Response | 30% |
| 2 | SDS | Recruitment | Assess recruitment materials for diversity and inclusion, including improvement or enhancement of materials | Spring/Summer 2023 | Anti-Black Racism Report Response | 50% |
| 3 | SDS | PD & Career Support | Look at current offerings on preparing students to transition to the working world with success; assess gaps | Spring/Summer 2023 | All Programs | 50% |
| 4 | SDS | PD & Career Support | Design and develop EDI offerings to IMI graduate students, by program, and cross-program | Spring 2023, Ongoing | All Programs | 75% |
| 5 | SDS | Program Support | Provide IMI Orientation materials or content to all incoming students relating to EDI and other topics | Spring/Fall 2023 | All Programs | 100% |
| 6 | SDS | External Partners | Analyze leaders across industries and organizations, and assess IMI’s partnerships within this group, considering areas for future partnership | Fall 2023 | All Programs | 0% |
| 7 | IC | Landscape Scan | IMI to create a scan of all relevant campus, local, regional and country initiatives for best practices | Spring/Summer 2023 | None | 100% |
| 8 | IC | Hiring and Institutional Policies | Create IMI onboarding materials for staff and faculty on EDI, in addition to HR’s offerings | Spring 2023 | HR | 50% |
| 9 | IC | Continual Discussion & Sharing | Add EDI to every meeting for sharing of resources, ideas, initiatives | Ongoing | None | 100% |
| 10 | IC | Ongoing Training | Intentional dissemination of workshops, seminars and events across campus to all Faculty and Staff | Ongoing | ARCDO, EDIO | 100% |
| 11 | IC | Ongoing Training | Creation of in-house training for all Faculty and Staff | Spring 2023 / Ongoing | ARCDO, EDIO, External Partners | 100% |
| 12 | IC | Student Ambassador Training | Support for the IMISC in their initiatives on EDI | Ongoing | IMISC | 0% |
| 13 | IC | Student Ambassador Training | Arrange for annual EDI training for GSC | Ongoing | IMISC | 0% |
| 14 | IC | Ongoing Assessment | Annual reviews of all EDI related initiatives or programming at the IMI, Program and Unit level to look for gaps | Annually - December | None | 90% |
| 15 | IC | Communications | IMI Comms Team to provide a brief on inclusive language and communications approaches to all units and programs | Summer 2023 | None | 100% |
| 16 | IC | Communications | IMI to review all website content at the IMI level for inclusivity; support Programs in the same | Summer 2023 | All Programs | 30% |
| 17 | IC | Communications | IMI to maintain an EDI Website with transparent posting of reports, reviews, and projects | Spring 2023 / Ongoing | None | 100% |
| 18 | R&T | Courses | Course Outlines: Create consistent IMI course outlines that include appropriate and broad range inclusivity and diversity elements | Spring/Summer 2023 | All Programs | 100% |
| 19 | R&T | Courses | Course Materials: Ensure that diversity and inclusivity are considered in materials selection, and course content. Coursework should be reflective of IMI’s demographics, and culturally responsive. | Ongoing | All Programs | 0% |
| 20 | R&T | Teaching | Conduct a scan of available grants and funding for researchers related to EDI, and make available to colleagues. | Fall/Winter 2023-24 | None | 0% |
*Focus Areas:
- SDS: Student Development & Support
- IC: Institute Culture
- R&T: Research & Teaching
IMI's Inclusive Communications & Practice Guide
IMI is pleased to share our Inclusive Communications & Practice Guide. We hope that this tool will support our work across our community in writing, meetings, presentations, events, and more.
New! The University of Toronto is has developing resources on inclusive communications tools, available through the University's Brand Portal. We encourage you to read these resources and use them widely in your work.
We welcome your feedback on all initiatives at: imi@utoronto.ca.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives in IMI's Programs
IMI
- Equity-based recruitment: IMI and its Programs/Units work extensively with HR at UTM to ensure that there are EDI-related interview questions, and that the hiring process is transparent
- EDI Committee: launched in 2023, the EDI committee strives to advance IMI's work.
- Centralized course outlines include extensive statements on EDI and supporting resources for students.
ICUBE
- ICUBE's EDI Statement: ICUBE's dedication to promoting diversity in our teams includes a commitment to ensuring every cohort accurately reflects the UTM community, welcoming folks of all gender identities, sexual orientations, races and ages, and actively creating space for marginalized change-makers and under-represented disciplines. All creators, entrepreneurial thinkers, and leaders are encouraged to apply. Read more »
- Health-Focused Start Ups: Mastercard Foundation, H2i, The African Impact Challenge: ICUBE is currently supporting the work of the African Impact Challenge. It is partnering with the Bridge at UTSC, and H2i to support Health Entrepreneurship in Africa. This is part of the multi-year relationship between the University and the Mastercard Foundation. We expect soon to learn more about ICUBE’s specific and ongoing African university partnerships.
- Additional EDI Initiatives
MScSM
- Awards: MScSM Program Director Shashi Kant recently created the UTM Equity & Diversity award, which launched in January 2022. Read more »
- Works with MUI to offer a joint panel discussion session for students on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion annually, including speakers from partner organizations who speak on EDI principles in the workplace, EDI initiatives, and more.
MUI
- Emphasizes Equity-based language in syllabi
- Encourages all instructors to include EDI statements
- Works with MScSM to offer a joint panel discussion session for students on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion annually, including speakers from partner organizations who speak on EDI principles in the workplace, EDI initiatives, and more.
MMI
- Innovation Essentials Coaching: EDI: MMI offers a session for graduate students focusing on how lack of openness to EDI can hinder innovation, and offers advice and training on working to open channels for diversity in the workplace. The session will examine how EDI has become increasingly important in professional and academic settings and encourages students to think about how to take real action to make EDI a priority – not just new buzz words.
MMPA
- EDI Staff & Student Training: The Program hosts session on "Gender Identity, Gender Expression & Inclusive Classroom Practices" for all MMPA students and staff in the Fall term and all students/faculty/staff sign a “Statement of Expectations & Commitments” upon joining the program.
- The Program includes EDI statements in all course outlines
Resources and References