Earlier this year, the university made a number of commitments to address issues of systemic racism and ensure we are fostering an inclusive and equitable community for our students, faculty and staff. We’ve made significant progress – much of which is detailed in this recent post announcing the appointment of our new co-executive leads for Anti-Racism as well as launching an external review of our Campus Security operations on both campuses.
This fall we have begun high-level meetings with the RCMP to review and renew our relationship, align best practices between our security teams and ensure we are always fostering inclusivity at UBC’s campuses. I can advise you that we have already initiated meetings in both Vancouver and the Okanagan. We also intend to hold regular meetings in the future to ensure consistent and aligned responses at both campuses. This regular communication and engagement is supported by the recent signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding between UBC Okanagan and the RCMP earlier this year. UBC Okanagan has already begun executing on this Memorandum of Understanding, which is providing us with greater clarity regarding roles and responsibilities.
In the coming months, it is our understanding that there will be additional specialized training for RCMP members, combined with our own work with Campus Security, to further affirm our joint commitment to equity and inclusion best practices. We also have re-committed to working together to provide educational initiatives on campus for students, faculty and staff in order to support greater understanding of theft prevention, fraud detection and personal safety. Finally, we will work together to further enhance communications between UBC and the RCMP which will help us respond more effectively to emergencies and day-to-day incidents.
In the coming months, it is important for our community to know that we are committed to building and maintaining collaborative relationship between UBC and the RCMP. Together we remain committed to addressing systemic racism and ensuring inclusivity at UBC.
Best wishes
Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor