Our Shared Commitments
Overview
The School of Environmental Studies includes a diverse group of students, staff, faculty and community partners working together on and off campus. Their work happens in classrooms, research sites and spaces focused on collaboration and community action.The school is dedicated to creating an inclusive and respectful environment, aiming for a more just and sustainable world. This document helps turn these commitments into real actions shared by everyone in the ES community. It outlines five key principles: anti-oppression, Indigenous self-determination, diversity, consent and community care. Discussion questions are also included to encourage conversations on how to apply these values.
This is a living document, meant to be reviewed and discussed regularly within the ES community. Currently, it is used in graduate courses (ES 500/600 and ES 501/601), at the annual school retreat and by the People, Justice and Culture Committee and the Indigenous Committee. We also hope it can be adapted for other settings, such as undergraduate courses and research group meetings.
Principles and questions to inspire action
Five principles are identified below, along with a commitment to uphold each principle. Guiding questions are provided to inspire conversation, creativity, and the development of action-oriented questions tailored to the application of each principle in your own ES community context.
Commitment statement:
The school is committed to actively working to end all forms of discrimination, harassment and bullying, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism and other forms of systemic inequity.
In the classroom (instructors, TAs and students):
- How is systemic inequity relevant to the topic of the course?
- Does the class have resources for seeking support if they experience discrimination?
- How can students safely share information with TA’s or instructors if harassment or bullying occurs?
In the field (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- What forms of social inequity are important to learn about before working in the field in your specific context?
- How are questions of accessibility being integrated into fieldwork planning?
- Is the research team equipped to address discrimination, harassment or bullying if it occurs?
Student community (undergrad and grad students):
- How can students increase their shared understanding of anti-oppression approaches to environmental studies?
- What opportunities are available for students to learn about respectful communication and student organizing?
Department level (faculty, staff and community partners):
- How is the school addressing systematic inequity in unit planning activities?
- What training opportunities are available to faculty and staff?
- Are there dimensions of school governance where social inequality should be considered?
Research groups (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- How is our lab addressing systematic inequity in the different dimensions of research (planning, implementation, analysis and reporting)?
Commitment Statement:
In recognition of Indigenous peoples’ self-determination, the school is committed to unsettling, anti-colonial, and decolonial practices.
In the classroom (instructors, TAs and students):
- How does this class integrate knowledge about the peoples on whose land the course is being taught?
- How do the readings recognize and address settler colonialism, as it relates to the topic of this course?
In the field (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- What cross-cultural learning do we need to do before engaging in field research in this particular site?
- How has colonialism impacted the communities in which we are conducting our field research?
Student community (undergrad and grad students):
- What meaningful actions are students taking to align our organizing with the aims of Indigenous self-determination?
- What opportunities are there to act in ‘consensual allyship’ with Indigenous nations?
Department level (faculty, staff and community partners):
- How do school planning and governance activities support decolonization?
- What training opportunities are available to faculty and staff?
Research groups (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- How do lab activities support decolonization?
Commitment statement:
The school values diversity as foundational to transformative work in environmental studies, including interconnections among diverse peoples, communities, environments and forms of life.
In the classroom (instructors, TAs and students):
- What can be done to increase the diversity of voices being represented in classroom curriculum and teaching materials?
In the field (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- How are diverse sources of knowledge being recognized in our research?
- How are we demonstrating respect for diverse voices on our research team?
Student community (undergrad and grad students):
- What steps are we taking to actively center diverse student voices in our community-building?
Department level (faculty, staff and community partners):
- How is diversity addressed in the faculty hiring plan?
- What training opportunities are available to faculty and staff?
Research groups (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- How are diverse sources of knowledge being recognized in our research?
- How are we demonstrating respect for diverse voices in our research group?
Commitment statement:
All activities in the school are founded on a culture of consent, which requires that we respect one anothers’ autonomy, ensuring consent to any activity is ongoing, informed and freely given.
In the classroom (instructors, TAs and students):
- What shared language do we have in the class for asking one another’s consent in everyday activities?
- What shared language do we have for saying no?
- What processes can we develop to show respect for one another’s boundaries?
In the field (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- What shared language do we have in the research team for asking one another’s consent in everyday activities?
- What shared language do we have for saying no?
- What processes can we develop to show respect for one another’s boundaries and the boundaries of our research collaborators?
Student community (undergrad and grad students):
- What shared language do we have among our peers for asking one another’s consent in everyday activities?
- What shared language do we have for saying no?
- What processes can we develop to show respect for one another’s boundaries?
Department level (faculty, staff and community partners):
- What processes can we develop to show respect for one another’s boundaries?
Research groups (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- What processes can we develop to show respect for one another’s boundaries?
- What shared language do we have among our peers for asking one another’s consent in everyday activities?
Commitment statement:
All activities within the school are based on principles of collegiality, care and wellbeing that enrich a safe and supportive place of work and study.
In the classroom (instructors, TAs and students):
- What practices can we develop throughout the term to foster one anothers’ wellbeing?
In the field (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- How are safety and wellness integrated into fieldwork planning?
Student community (undergrad and grad students):
- How is community care being integrated into student organizing?
Department level (faculty, staff and community partners):
- What actions can the school take to better support a culture of community care?
- How does the school adapt to unforeseen events?
Research groups (faculty, students, staff and community partners):
- What practices can we develop throughout the term to foster one anothers’ wellbeing?
Annual actions
Steps we will take to support EAP and put our shared commitments into action.
2025-2026:
- Consider delegating someone within the School to pay attention to different training opportunities across campus and share them with faculty, staff, and graduate students.
- Create yearly fund using some of our endowment funds that faculty and students can apply to for professional development opportunities, culture building, and to implement EDI and Indigenization into curricula. Director will decide on allocation.
- Returning to our shared commitments when making all unit-level plans and for School processes.
- Recognizing ballooning workload, set aside time in School meetings to collectively read/jointly review important documents such as the SOSC Indigenous plan.
- Following other units like Psychology and Economics and pursuing a yearly survey that gauges experiences of inclusion in ES
- Plan anti-oppressive practice training for Spring retreat. Focus will be on bringing shared commitments alive in the everyday of the School.
- Better integrating students into all school planning. Creating a practice where the grad/undergrad advisor speaks every September to ENVI/ESSA (respectively) about representation opportunities (including on upcoming things like hiring committees).
- Skill labs in ES 501/601 for trainings, particularly sexual violence prevention training