Climate and Culture Review - Update
Dear Members of the Faculty of Music Community,
In May 2021, an open letter from the Faculty of Music Undergraduate Association [FMUA] called on the Faculty to address historic and ongoing misogyny and systemic inequalities, including allegations of sexual harassment, assault, and misconduct.
Shortly after I became Dean in July 2021, I commissioned a Climate and Culture Review to assist me in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Faculty of Music. On August 12, 2021, Rubin Thomlinson, an independent third party, was retained with a mandate to assess the experiences of faculty, librarians, sessional instructors, staff, students and alums in the Faculty of Music’s working and learning environment, including any issues of harassment, sexual harassment, and racial and code-based discrimination.
I have now received a full confidential report from Rubin Thomlinson, which includes an Executive Summary and Appendices. I have found the report to be a substantial and helpful document for the Faculty. The report presents the mandate of the review, the process and information gathered, seven themes identified in the review, and five sets of recommendations.
In two Town Halls today, I provided a preliminary overview of the Report’s findings with members of the Faculty of Music community and responded to initial questions.
As previously announced, the full report remains confidential in order to prevent any identification of individuals and to preserve the anonymity of those who participated. I am happy to share the following documents:
- the Executive Summary (PDF), which is a substantial document of over twenty pages that addresses the themes of the report in detail and presents its recommendations; and
- the Report’s three Appendices. Appendix A (PDF) contains the survey; Appendix B (PDF) contains the quantitative survey responses from undergraduate students, graduate students, and alums; and Appendix C (PDF) contains the quantitative survey responses from faculty, librarians, sessional instructors, and staff. All prose comments are withheld from the Appendix material.
The delivery of the report marks an important moment for us as a Faculty. I acknowledge that it may be very challenging to read and to discuss the findings. But I believe that doing so is a critical next step towards our healing and restoration.
I invite members of the Faculty of Music community to participate in our online questionnaire: https://forms.office.com/r/Ka7ev4eJns. This questionnaire will allow you to submit further questions, provide feedback on the Executive Summary’s findings and recommendations, and let us know if you would like to be involved in future opportunities to discuss the report and to share your responses and ideas.
My office will be reaching out to our community this summer to schedule listening sessions. The goal of these sessions is to reflect on the report and to process and adopt these proposed recommendations.
We will provide updates through an accountability page, to be posted publicly, as to how the Faculty will implement these recommendations.
I want to thank each of you for participating in this process and for your ongoing commitment to our community. I am sharing my acceptance and acknowledgement (PDF) of the Report from the Climate and Culture Review and my pledge to bring about change at the Faculty of Music. With the findings and recommendations of the review to guide us, I hope we all can continue to contribute fruitfully to the Faculty, engage with each other productively, and create a strong sense of belonging and joy in our shared work.
In community,
Ellie M. Hisama
Dean and Professor of Music
Faculty of Music
University of Toronto
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