Dear Humber community,

As I prepare to transition into other roles outside of Humber College, I am taking this moment to thank you for your support, care and kindness over the years. I am honoured and grateful for the opportunities I have had to serve many talented colleagues, students and community members. It truly is the people—especially students, faculty, support and administration staff, alumni and community members—who have made this work challenging and yet deeply fulfilling and rewarding. I would be remiss to not specifically thank the many people who work in facilities to ensure that we have the cleanest college in the world. Many of these individuals who work in this capacity never fail to seek me out on the fifth floor - LRC to check that I am okay. For your gentle kindness, I am grateful, and it is your care that fueled me each day to work towards building dignity and respect for all.

Since joining Humber College on July 8, 2008, and with the input of several equity and human rights practitioners who I have been privileged to call “my team”, Humber has secured a place in the global equity and inclusion arena. This accomplishment is not a result of any one person—it took all of us. I continue to smile when I think of “my” Humber. You all must continue to pursue those uncomfortable conversations that are instrumental to dismantling systemic discrimination in all its interlocking forms.

Remember, you cannot dismantle one form—all of these isms (e.g., racism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism and transphobia) are woven together and reinforce each other—without tackling every form sincerely and simultaneously. I am confident you will keep working at fostering equity, inclusion and antiracism in your personal, institutional and societal areas of influence.

It is difficult to predict what the future will hold. What I can confidently state is that each and every one of you that I have worked alongside will continue to exhibit the same courageous, equitable, and antiracist mindset that propels transformational actions so that Humber can continue to excel at serving its diverse students. You are all well positioned to continue the EDI and antiracism momentum required for the revolution and to respond to all challenges you will encounter.

Thanks for all that you do to advance equity, inclusion and antiracism at Humber.

Ubuntu,

Nancy Simms

Humber College and University of Guelph-Humber (Humber) know that the safety of our community is paramount to ensure our students and staff can study/work in the safest space possible. When incidents do occur, a quick, efficient, reliable response from our security staff is imperative to ensuring a quick resolution.  As part of its ongoing goal of continuous improvement, training and education, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) is implementing an exercise program for security guards. The aim of the exercise program is to provide real-life scenarios to guards that allows them to practice their response to various scenarios in a safe, controlled setting. 

Front-line security guards will be participating in the first of these exercises the week of July 11-15, 2022, at both the North and Lakeshore campuses. In an effort to minimize the impact on the campus community, exercises will take place at times when fewer people are expected to be on campus. Exercises will take place as follows: 

• Lakeshore campus – July 11 and 13 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in the basement of F building
• North campus – July 12 and 14 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. KB cafeteria

Signage will be placed in the exercise area to identify that an exercise is taking place. Exercise participants will be identified by wearing orange vests that indicate “Exercise Participant” on the back. Any community members who may be in the area are asked to not interfere with the exercise activity. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Nancy Deason, Manager, Security Operations, North Campus at nancy.deason@humber.ca or Thomas Urbaniak, Assistant Manager, Security Operations, Lakeshore Campus at thomas.urbaniak@humber.ca. 

Humber’s Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence Policy (SASV) and Procedures were approved in December 2016 based on a directive from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. The leading practice is to review such policies every three to five years. The Centre for Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion worked alongside Student Success & Engagement and the Sexual Violence Committee to review and update the policy and procedures. In 2021/2022, as a result of extensive consultations throughout Humber and the University of Guelph-Humber, the name of the policy was changed from SASV to the Sexual Violence Policy (SV Policy).

Feedback from an external law firm and the Humber community were solicited and taken into account in the finalized version of the Sexual Violence Policy and procedures. Specific updates include an amnesty clause, removal of irrelevant questions, a mechanism to review interim measures for both students and employees, student complainants’ right to appeal in the case of sexual violence and clear reference to student employees.

The online Sexual Violence training for employees has been updated and is available to all employees. To access the training module please follow these instructions: go to learn.humber.ca and login (use your Humber username and password). Click on the course title, "Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence Awareness Training for Employees 2022" and complete the training.

You can print a certificate at the end of the training. Please plan to dedicate approximately 45 minutes to completing the module. All employees are required to complete the updated training.

Please contact humanrightseducation@humber.ca if you require any additional information.

We look forward to your support in ensuring Humber’s commitment to ending sexual violence.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

1) Request Access to SASV Awareness Training 2022

If you do not currently have the “Sexual Assault Sexual Violence Awareness Training for Employees 2022” in your Blackboard. Please complete this form to request the training be added.

2) Certificates:
Screenshots of certificates of completion can be emailed to humanrightseducation@humber.ca. Kindly keep a copy of the certificate for your records, should your faculty/department request it from you at a later time. Please note that your completion of the training module is only registered in the system once a certificate is generated. Until a certificate is generated, your completion status will remain as "Incomplete".

3) Technical Issues:
From time to time there are employees that have challenges accessing the training. Usually these are compatibility issues related to the computer being used. The issues can normally be resolved simply by ensuring you are using Google Chrome to access the training and/or accessing the training from a different computer than you originally attempted from.

4) Compensation:
Questions pertaining to compensation for non-full time faculty can be directed to administration within your respective Faculty.

5) Obtaining your Certificate
Instructions for obtaining your certificate are available in the final section of the training once you have completed all other elements of the training.

Deep thanks to Hamza Ibrahimi, Darren Richards, Heather Lowry, Jesse Agar, Kathy Kim, Naveed Aqeel, Ali Akhbar Khan, Morris Beckford, Errol Cyrus, Kennisha Archer, Kathryn Edgett, Sacha Ally, and Patricia Suleiman for their continued commitment to human rights, equity & inclusion at Humber. 

Live inclusively,

Nancy Simms M.A. ADR
Pronouns: She/Her
Director, Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion

We are happy to announce that the Transformative Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership certificate within the Longo Faculty of Business has been pre-approved for Continuous Professional Development hours with the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA).

If you are an HRPA member looking for a program that qualifies towards your CPD hours, please visit our website to register for our next cohort beginning on October 15.

If you are not an HRPA member, but would like to institute and elevate Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and antiracism principles into your workplace, this also may be a program for you. If you have any questions, please contact Michael MacDougall.