Student Success & Engagement continues to commit to and support Humber’s strategic plan of building a healthy and inclusive community through optimizing student success and embedding health and well-being into all aspects of campus culture. The health and safety of our students, especially equity-deserving students is a top priority, and why we are announcing today that Black Academic Success & Engagement (BASE) has undergone a name change.   

This name change came in response to concerns about a white supremacist organization that uses the same acronym as BASE and wanting to ensure we are creating safer spaces for our community.   

This name change decision incorporated many intentional steps and Humber community participation. Rainbow Diversity Institute (RDI) was hired to support Humber in changing the name of this Black student service. RDI engaged a comprehensive environmental scan of Canadian institutions to assess leading practices and trends regarding naming Black student services, followed by focus group sessions to gather student and staff feedback on name options.   

We also held a town hall for all students to participate in and a survey for students to provide further feedback and suggestions. This change was led by the student voice.  

We are excited to announce to the Humber community that the new name is:  

Black Student Support & Engagement (BSSE)   

We invite our community to check out our new website https://humber.ca/bsse and to follow us on social media @bssehumber.

While the BASE will always have a place in our hearts for the powerful ways in which it supported Black-identifying students we are very much looking forward to continuing to support students at Black Student Support & Engagement with community, resources, and guidance to help students fully maximize their time at Humber.  

In the coming weeks, members of the BSSE team will be in touch with the Humber community to talk about partnerships and ways the Humber community can continue to support Black Heritage 365.

If you have any questions or would like to partner with Black Student Support & Engagement please email kimberly.daniels@humber.ca or jemeisha.williams@humber.ca or BSSE@humber.ca.