This annual award aims to recognize the passion, dedication and campus engagement by staff to decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion at York.
The Excellence in Decolonization, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (DEDI) Award recognizes outstanding achievement in practice, events, policy, programs, or other activities that foster equitable, sustainable and measurable change on campus, with an intersectional social justice lens, especially for equity-deserving groups (e.g. women, visible/racialized minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQIA+). The Award recognizes ongoing work or an outstanding accomplishment at a point in time.
Criteria
Nominators should present specific and concrete examples to illustrate how the nominee/team meet(s) each eligibility and award criteria, showing their outstanding effort and accomplishment(s) toward advancing decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion at York University. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- A strategy or action plan that recognizes or focuses on the importance of decolonizing, equity, diversity and inclusion.
- An ongoing action, initiative or program that helps students, prospective students, employees or alumni from an equity-deserving group feel welcome, included and a sense of belonging, or removes systemic barriers to access or success.
- An impactful tool or practice for an equity-deserving group is created or (re)designed, e.g., support service redesign to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.
- An initiative or action aimed at adapting or changing procedures, policies, or practices to decolonize and make them more equitable and inclusive.
- Initiatives to promote pluralism, anti-racism, accessibility, trans-visibility, etc.
- Exemplifying leadership in fostering a decolonized, equitable, diverse, inclusive and accessible campus.
- A training and/or education program that advances the work of anti-racism.
- Promoting inclusive leadership and interpersonal skills development.
- Collaborations that engage different student groups or teams within and outside the individual’s home unit.
- Advocacy and support initiatives for an equity-deserving group.
Eligibility
Both individual and team nominations will be accepted.
If you are nominating an individual the following criteria applies:
- Nominee is a full time and permanent employee at York, who has been employed for two continuous years as of December 31, 2023
- Nominee is a non-academic staff member (YUSA, CPM, CUPE 1356, IOUE)
If you are nominating a team the following criteria applies:
- At least 75% of the team members are full-time, continuing staff member at York that have been continuously employed for at least 2 years as of December 31, 2023
- Team members are members of a non-academic staff group (CUPE 1356, CPM, YUSA or IOUE)
- Team has a minimum of two (2) staff members and a maximum of five (5) staff members
- Team members do not need to belong to one department as teams who are working on a time limited project are also eligible for this award.
Nomination Package
For nominating an individual, the nomination package should include:
- A lead nomination letter (maximum 3 pages)
- A maximum of three (3) letters in total (1 lead nomination letter and 2 letters of support).
- The nominee’s work history at York University
For nominating a team (two to five members), the nomination package should include:
- A lead nomination letter (maximum 3 pages)
- A maximum of three (3) letters in total (1 lead nomination letter and 2 letters of support). Each letter of support must not exceed a total of three (3) pages.
- A list of the team members with a brief description of the role each person plays on the team (separate link provided to download the team list for completion).
Please feel free to download this checklist to help you compile the nomination file and ensure you have met all of the requirements before completing the online nomination form. NOTE: This checklist does not need to be uploaded with the nomination form and is for your reference only.
Nomination File Requirements
For nominating an individual, the nomination package should include:
- Each letter of support must not exceed a total of three (3) pages.
- The total number of pages of ALL three letters combined does not exceed 9 pages.
- Please do not include any confidential documents such as employee performance ratings or evaluations.
- Please provide any additional information that supports the nomination of this individual for the award. The total nomination package should not be more than 15 pages including the three letters mentioned above.
- Please do not use acronyms in the letter
- Self-nominations are not permitted
For nominating a team (two to five members), the nomination package should include:
- The total number of pages of ALL three letters combined does not exceed 9 pages.
- Please do not include any confidential documents such as employee performance ratings or evaluations.
- Please provide any additional information that supports the nomination. The total nomination package should not be more than 15 pages including the three letters mentioned above.
- Please do not use acronyms in the letter
- Self-nominations are not permitted
Excellence is everywhere at York. We encourage you to consider nominating someone from outside your home department.
Applications for the 2023 President's Staff Recognition Awards will open on February 29, 2024 and close on April 17, 2024.