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Climate Review of the Department of English

On March 7, 2019, the Report and recommendations of the Climate Review were released. 

 

Concordia University welcomes the recommendations put forth in the Climate Review report and is working with our Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence and the Department of English to take the next steps in addressing the recommendations.

Mandate of the Climate Review

The mandate of the Climate Review was to solicit and listen to input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and other members of the Department of English in order to fully hear and understand any issues and concerns related to the overall culture and climate of the department, including issues related to sexual misconduct of any kind. The objective, once the climate had been assessed, was to make appropriate recommendations to promote a safe and respectful learning, teaching, working and research environment for all.

Third-Party Experts

The Climate Review was led by third-party experts. The Honourable Justice Pierrette Rayle, retired Quebec Court of Appeal judge, worked with SPB Organizational Psychology (SPB), a firm specialized in conducting climate reviews.

The Honourable Justice Rayle played a high level role in the gathering and aggregation of information so as to attest to the impartiality, anonymity and independence of the process.

In collaboration with SPB, she:

  • Assisted in identifying any issues and root causes revealed by the Climate Review;
  • Provided guidance regarding the analysis of proposed solutions; and
  • Prepared recommendations and suggested approaches for implementation of recommendations within existing or future university policies and guidelines.

 

SPB played the key role in information gathering. It prepared and administered the survey, received and reviewed all personal narratives and other relevant information and conducted meetings with participants, be they individual, group or focus groups.

Following the collection of information, SPB aggregated and analyzed this information.

In collaboration with the Honourable Justice Rayle, SPB:

  • Sought to identify any issues and root causes revealed by the Climate Review;
  • Provided guidance regarding the analysis of proposed solutions; and
  • Prepared recommendations and suggested approaches for implementation of recommendations within existing or future university policies and guidelines

Process

The process established by the third-party experts includes comprised a three-pronged approach:

  • individual interviews with various members of the University’s community
  • an anonymous, tailored, online survey containing closed and open-ended questions sent to all students, faculty members, staff and alumni of the Department of English; and
  • confidential phone or videoconference conversations with students and alumni who wanted to share additional information

The Climate Review was conducted between April 23 and September 14, 2018, and 109 individuals chose to participate out of a potential of 3,228 individuals. The pool of 109 participants was comprised of 32 students[1] (of 985 students), 17 faculty members (of 72 faculty members), 3 staff members (of 9 staff members) and 57 alumni of the Department of English (of 2,162 emails that were sent).

The survey questions and results are found on Appendix 1. The completed surveys and the specific information contained therein or shared separately by the participants are confidential. Only the denominalized and aggregated data was shared with the University.

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