Every Queen鈥檚 grad I鈥檝e met remembers with great precision what move-in day was like for them. For me 鈥 as I鈥檓 sure was the case for many of you 鈥 the day consisted largely of carrying boxes to my small residence room in Leonard Hall, meeting my roommate Matt for the first time, and grabbing dinner at the cafeteria with my new floormates.
There is no way to avoid introductions and small talk. My introduction often went 鈥淗i! I鈥檓 Rico Garcia, I鈥檓 an Artsci鈥13 from Monterrey, Mexico, and I want to major in Economics.鈥
More often than not, the reactions I would get would be 鈥淏ut you barely even have an accent!鈥 or 鈥淥kay, your family is from Mexico but where in the GTA are you from?鈥
My lack of an accent and lighter skin colour often allowed me to blend in at Queen鈥檚, in what a friend would later describe to me as white-passing 鈥 when a person classified as a member of one racial group is accepted (鈥減asses鈥) as a member of a white majority. Depending on the setting, I would play up or down my own culture and background to my advantage, ultimately looking for belonging.
The reality, however, is that not everyone has been as privileged as me in finding that sense of belonging at Queen鈥檚. This has especially been the case for many Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) 鈥 as evidenced by the hundreds of shocking stories of racism and discrimination recently shared by both students and alumni in various social media channels.
While the university has made strides in improving the BIPOC student experience (for instance, through actioning the recommendations of the Principal鈥檚 Implementation Committee on Racism, Diversity, and Inclusion (PICRDI), or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Task Force), there is still a long road ahead to ultimately ensure BIPOC students feel like they belong on campus.
The same is true of us as at the Queen鈥檚 University Alumni Association.
The establishment of the Queen鈥檚 Black Alumni Chapter and the Indigenous Alumni Chapter and this year鈥檚 reform to our Alumni Assembly to ensure it is representative of the diverse Queen鈥檚 alumni community are all great starts. However, there is still a lot more to do to ensure that all 152,000+ Queen鈥檚 alumni ultimately feel a sense of belonging in our community.
To this end, our board recently struck a committee to identify a list of short, medium, and long-term actions that can help make the Queen鈥檚 University Alumni Association a more diverse and inclusive body moving forward.
While the committee is still in its early days, I鈥檓 encouraged by the fact that we have already identified a preliminary list of initiatives that can be owned and actioned by every director on our board in their respective portfolios.
The QUAA's mission is to 鈥渢o reach out and foster a lifelong association with Queen鈥檚, to engage our members in the life and work of the University, and to serve the alumni community in all its diversity鈥.
We still have a lot of work to do to fully live up to our mission, but I鈥檓 hoping that these first actions, along with additional ongoing efforts, will help us get closer to fulfilling it.
