Scarborough Charter Inter-Institutional Forum

The Scarborough Charter (2022) on Anti-Black racism and Black inclusion in Canadian Higher Education steering committee invited signatories to attend a two-day inter-institutional forum hosted in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in May of 2024.

The Scarborough Charter Inter-institutional Forum was organized under the theme ‘Bridging Black: Building Connections for Black Flourishing,’ emphasizing the need to bridge the gaps in both learning and action and to build better connections between the different stakeholders at higher education institutions - senior administration, faculty, staff, students, and Black communities. The forum was jointly hosted by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, with representation from 32 different institutions spanning the country, including attendees from 6 provinces from coast to coast: British Colombia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

This gathering was the second forum in the series, and the first to conduct an evaluation of organizers and attendees. The first report led by Dr. Eden Hennessey and Dr. Ciann Wilson provides information about who attended the forum in terms of demographic characteristics and roles within attendees’ respective institutions, and general perceptions of the forum sessions. In general, respondents indicated that sessions were high-quality, and future forums should provide additional opportunities for signatory institutions to share priorities and effective strategies for combating anti-Black racism in post-secondary education.

Subsequent reports uploaded here will include thematic analyses of qualitative text responses from the survey and affinity spaces for students, staff, and faculty.