Historically, Ivey has collected student data related to gender through a formalized process, but since the launch of our EDI Action Plan, we’ve expanded the data collection process to give us a better sense of representation in our student body. We have redesigned the identity fields that prospective students/applicants can fill in when applying to Ivey to also include sexual orientation, disability status, racial identity, and Indigenous identity. 

As a result of embedding identity variables in the HBA application process, we can now report on the representation of identity in our HBA 2023 cohort. The cohort’s diverse representation can be measured through the following statistics: 54 per cent visible minority, 54 per cent men, 43 per cent women, and 0.9 per cent non-binary.

As Ivey student representation becomes more diverse, it’s important for students to see a similar representation in Ivey’s faculty. In addition, having a diverse group of faculty will allow for a broader range of perspectives and experiences to be shared in the classroom to deepen students’ learning. In 2021, the Dean’s Office analyzed the composition of area groups with respect to equity-deserving representation across race and gender and determined the need to increase such representation through structural changes to Ivey’s hiring process. As a result of these changes to our hiring process, over the last two years of tenure-track faculty hiring, the representation of women faculty increased to 35 per cent from 28 per cent, and representation of racialized faculty increased to 38 per cent from 34 per cent, exceeding our initial targets. The Dean’s Office also created a new position, Assistant Dean of Mentorship, to support mentorship and career progression of new faculty members.

Three years ago, we piloted the University Pathways Program (UPP), which is a collaboration between Ivey, Smith, and Schulich business schools designed to support Black high school students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to access post-secondary education. The inaugural UPP cohort was made up of 55 Black grade 11 students from the Toronto District School Board and GTA, who were selected from more than 275 applications.

Over the past two years, the UPP students have participated in programming designed to help them to navigate their post-secondary journey, which included learning about university prerequisites and requirements as well as self-reflective, experiential, and identity development opportunities. As a result, 96 per cent of students have applied either to Western University or one of our UPP partners (Queen’s University and York University) and more than half ranked Western/Ivey as their first choice. The students have now reached the point where they are awaiting acceptance to university, and programming in turn has shifted to preparing them for campus life.

Since we anticipate many of these students will be in Western University’s programs and eventually arrive at Ivey, next steps are focused on preparing for their arrival and mentoring them when they arrive in the fall.

Building on the 100th anniversary, we have launched a new fundraising initiative called Ivey Women Investing in Leadership (IWIL). Our initial goal is to secure major gifts from 100 donors to provide meaningful scholarships for Ivey women now and into the future. The campaign is being led by Sarah Morgenstern, MBA ’93, and a committee of IWIL members. In addition to raising funds, we hope to create a giving community that invests in the next generation of women leaders and connects women alumni to each other and to the School. IWIL officially launched at Homecoming and already has 13 donor commitments.

Our goal over the next 2-3 years is to provide 100 women with $100,000 scholarships each.

Creating a caring, supportive, and welcoming environment where community members feel included, valued, and connected has been linked to higher performance, innovation, and engagement and is a critical factor for retaining students, staff, and faculty.

In spring 2023, we surveyed Ivey faculty, staff, and students on 11 indicators. These included which groups they identify as belonging to as well as how satisfied they are with their relationships, the value of their work, and the overall culture at Ivey. Results indicated there is a strong sense of belonging across all participants and that the majority are satisfied with the relationships they have at Ivey. We also learned that, within the last three years, there has been an increase in community members who identify as equity-deserving.

Outcome Harvest is a key component of our overall Culture and Inclusion measurement plan to help us understand the distal and proximal impacts on equity, diversity, and inclusion resulting from the School’s actions to date. It has involved doing one-hour interviews with 75+ staff, faculty, and students from a broad range of demographics and rank to help us understand what their experience as an Ivey community member is now compared to three years ago when our work first began.

This work is still ongoing and next steps will include assessing the findings from the Outcome Harvest interviews, providing an update to the community based on 2023 data, and implementing new action items derived from this data.

There has also been substantial work done to embed Culture and Inclusion-focused learning in our student programming over the last several years. These are skills that students will need when they enter the workforce.  As a result, Culture and Inclusion learning modules, which encourage students to reflect on topics such as their own positionality, gender, sexuality, as well as learning related to Asian and Black Experiences in education and society, have been incorporated into the HBA curriculum. Additionally, The Path™, an online educational series on Indigenous Canada, was also introduced in the HBA1 curriculum. Based on student feedback, the learning modules have been redesigned and turned into interactive, team-based learning podcasts. In 2023, we assessed the learning outcomes from these modules and determined that they have met the goal of supporting students with increased skills, confidence and understanding that can be carried into the classroom to foster a sense of belonging within the student culture. Based on these findings, iterations, innovations, and evolutions to Ivey’s Culture and Inclusion curriculum will continue.