To all Daniels students,

I hope you had a restful break, and a good first week of our winter 2021 term.

New provincial lockdown measures went into effect last week, and I want to reiterate to all of you in Toronto that it is critical that you stay home and stay safe. Please refer to the UTogether hub for more information and we will continue to update our COVID-19 Daniels Faculty FAQs. As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to registrar@daniels.utoronto.ca.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce David Lewis-Peart and Nailah Tyrell, they are anti-Black racism consultants that Daniels hired in December 2020 and will be working with us for a period of six months. David and Nailah have been tasked with conducting an audit of diversity, equity, and inclusion-related experiences within the Daniels community with a specific focus on anti-Black racism.

Through surveys and focus groups, David and Nailah hope to capture the daily impact of anti-Black racism on Black students, faculty and staff, as well as the related perspectives of non-Black faculty, staff, and students. At the conclusion of their audit, they will provide customized anti-Black racism training for Daniels faculty and staff, and issue a progress report. The progress report will be made public to all Daniels community members.

As a first step, David and Nailah have constructed an Impact survey which they would like all current Daniels students to complete by Monday, February 1. In total, the survey should take no more than 6 minutes to complete. As independent contractors, all survey results will be kept confidential and will not be shared with Daniels Administration. Information will be anonymized and communicated as key themes and significant quotes.

Complete the Impact survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/impactdf

As we prepare for 2021, I want to acknowledge that issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion are never easy to navigate. There is no established road map for us to follow, and our decision to hire David and Nailah was based partly on their value in providing an outside perspective as we continue to Do Better. If you have any questions regarding David and Nailah’s role, please contact Harold Tan at harold.tan@daniels.utoronto.ca.

With gratitude,

Robert Wright
Interim Dean

Office of the Dean
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
University of Toronto
1 Spadina Crescent
Toronto, ON M5S 2J5