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STEER/R Program

Driver of Inclusive Excellence

The Strategic Excellence and Equity in Recruitment and Retention (STEER/R) Program launched in November 2020 to advance the pursuit of inclusive excellence by making seed funding available for transformative initiatives that benefit equity-deserving groups at McMaster University.

The first phase was the cohort hiring of up to twelve exceptional Black scholars and the establishment of the Black Student Success Centre.

The second phase makes funding available for eligible initiatives that focus on student access, experience and success, as well as initiatives that support faculty and staff hiring, engagement, career progression and leadership advancement.

From the first two calls, 19 projects are receiving more than $4 million in funding to support a broad range of initiatives including the hiring of a Black Wellness Counsellor within the Black Student Success Centre; providing research opportunities for Black, Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ students; decolonizing the curriculum; supporting the recruitment, retention and success of students with disabilities; and an equity-based co-creation research centre.

The Office of the Provost will continue to support all current initiatives, but will be pausing on holding any new calls for submissions as the new equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy is developed.

Get To Know McMaster's STEER/R Initiatives

June 2022 Initiatives

This new position provides the Athletics and Recreation department a senior management team member exclusively focused on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and anti-racism work within the department. The role will ensure accountability while building a long-term strategy and plan for the department, which helps McMaster’s pursuit of becoming a leader in the field of EDI in sports in higher education in Canada.

  • University Area
    Student Affairs

This immersive, 12-week experiential learning program focuses on research skills development, mentorship, and career growth for equity-deserving undergraduate STEM students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. The mission is to engage, encourage, and assist students from equity-deserving groups to pursue biomedical research and careers in biomedical sciences.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Health Sciences

Funds will support the existing faculty peer-mentorship initiative (THRIVE), development of an interdisciplinary minor in Africa and Black Diaspora Studies (ABLDS), the McMaster African and Caribbean Leadership Exchange (MACLeads) Equitable Global Skills Opportunity project and the Black Student Mentorship Program (BSMP).

  • University Area
    Faculty of Science
    Faculty of Humanities
    Faculty of Engineering
    Faculty of Social Sciences
    Faculty of Business
    Faculty of Health Sciences

Funds will be used to expand the integration of equity, diversity, inclusion and Indigenous strategies (EDIIS) best-practice principles and tenets of Inclusive Excellence by developing EDIIS educational supports, specifically targeted at revising curriculum across departments and programs in Social Sciences.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Social Sciences

Funds will support the design, development, and delivery of an interdisciplinary and community-engaged educational environment with clear social, global, environmental equity, justice, and sustainability learning outcomes. Specific activities will include creating a resource bank, identifying areas for improvement in justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and indigenous reconciliation and supporting Black Excellence initiatives.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Health Sciences

This initiative supports the creation of a nine-module anti-racism training program for the university community. Participants will gain awareness and knowledge that is grounded in an understanding of equity, diversity, inclusion, race, racism, anti-Black racism, colonialism, Indigenization, critical Whiteness, unconscious biases, and the importance of such knowledge with respect to organizational relations. Such topics are of critical importance to the functioning and effective operation of a productive working environment.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Health Sciences

Resources will co-fund a Black student recruitment and career advisor. The position will provide recruitment, mentorship and career supports for Black undergraduate students and create pathways for Black students to pursue graduate studies in engineering.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Engineering

Funds have been used to hire a Black post-doctoral fellow who will serve as a research co-ordinator under professor Ingrid Waldron. The researcher will be tasked with exploring access to mental health services among Black youth in Hamilton over a two-year period. The post-doctorate fellow will also serve as a mentor for student research assistants.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Humanities

Funds will be used to hire a full time Black wellness counsellor within the Black Student Success Centre (BSSC), a newly established student service focused on supporting and championing the holistic (academic, personal and professional) success and overall well-being of Black/African descent students.

  • University Area
    Student Affairs

Expandable List

November 2022 Initiatives

The goal of this project to increase enrolment, and inclusion and decrease attrition of students with disabilities in health professions, with applications to all learners. This will be achieved by providing education for faculty, enhancing support, improving fieldwork opportunities for students with disabilities and building research capacity related to accessibility and disability-related accommodations among other initiatives.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Health Sciences
    Student Accessibility Services
    Equity and Inclusion Office
    MacPherson Institute

Funds were used to establish a hands-on STEM enrichment and leadership program for Black high school students. The students are mentored by Black STEM undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff to foster a greater sense of belonging and inclusion in STEM and help minimize negative racial encounters.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Engineering
    Faculty of Science

The development of a five-year Teaching and Learning Accessibility Roadmap will be underpinned by AODA Postsecondary Education Standard (AODA PSE) Standard final recommendations. The initiative will be led centrally in collaboration with McMaster Faculties and administrative units to reduce reliance on the individualized accommodations system and improve access to higher education and academic outcomes for McMaster students with disabilities through a holistic, systemic approach.

  • University Area
    Office of the vice-provost, Teaching and Learning
    Faculty of Science
    Faculty of Social Sciences
    School of Rehabilitation Sciences
    Student Affairs
    McMaster University Library
    Equity and Inclusion Office
    Student Accessibility Services
    Student Success Centre (Career Access Professional Services)

Funds will be used to move into Phase 2 of the project started with EDIIS to develop a “hub and spoke” model with a broad portfolio of Faculty-level support services, complemented by locally controlled resources at the department/program level. This will support the development of more diverse and inclusive syllabi, discipline-specific review examples to draw on, and faculty members with recognized research expertise in this area.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Social Sciences

Funds will support the creation of a three-year, contractually limited appointment (CLA) for a Black philosopher. This position will be housed in the department of Philosophy but have responsibilities to both Philosophy and the interdisciplinary Arts & Science program. It will help address underrepresentation of Black scholars in both areas.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Humanities
    Arts & Science Program

Funding will be used to hire a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategist for a two-year contract to assist in building and implementing a strategic action plan for DEIA in the University Library and the Health Sciences Library.

  • University Area
    McMaster University Library
    Faculty of Health Sciences (Health Sciences Library)

The STEER/R program provides transitional funding support until a new McMaster Research Centre housed in the DeGroote School of Business secures external funding. This transitional funding and the ongoing external funding will create a Centre where undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows will build capacity to support leading-edge scholarship and create the next generation of equity-based co-creation scholars and leaders as a pipeline of talent from equity-deserving groups for faculty positions at McMaster.

The aim of the Centre will be to shift the paradigm in co-design and co-production research away from challenges and structural vulnerability, toward an asset-based approach that fully recognizes the strengths that equity-deserving groups can contribute as experience experts, while exploring innovative approaches to fully engage them in co-design and other co-creation processes.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Business
    Faculty of Health Sciences

The Black, Indigenous and Racialized Staff (BIRS) Employee Resource Group (ERG) will launch a Mentorship Program. A new BIRS Mentorship Program Coordinator will be introduced to manage the promotion, continuity and administration of the program, including coordination of any related mentoring training, events and support.

Housed in the Equity and Inclusion Office, the position will work with the Human Resource team and the BIRS ERG members and will support work that builds on the success of existing mental health and well-being social events and leadership development sessions for equity-deserving staff members.

  • University Area
    Human Resources

This is the first initiative of the newly formed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in the Department of History. Funding will support a Research Assistant who will administer the project and draft the final report with the committee, develop overall recommendation, support faculty members who may wish to rework their courses and/or apply for further grants for curriculum development.

  • University Area
    Faculty of Humanities

The objective of this project is to generate a map of the equity, diversity and inclusion and Indigeneity (EDII) trajectories, knowledge-base and initiatives across the Faculty of Science. A post-doctoral fellow (PDF) with a background in science, and lived-experience, advocacy and activism in EDII will be recruited as well as an undergraduate Research Assistant who will be supervised and mentored by the PDF. The aim is to offer a series of workshops, seminars, focus groups and surveys customized for each of the different Departments and Units including research centres and user facilities in the Faculty of Science

  • University Area
    Faculty of Science