Listening Session Community Report

What we heard: 

Participants shared that because the EDIO is relatively new, having been established in September 2024, many students and community members may not yet know who we are, what we do and how to engage with us. There is a strong desire for greater visibility in both the EDIO’s presence across the law school and clarity around the services and support we offer. 

Participants also emphasized the importance of having consistent, ongoing ways to provide feedback to continue to support our office’s desire to be community-informed and driven. 

What we’re doing and our response: 

• Since being established in September 2024, our office has been laying the groundwork both behind the scenes and out in the community. This included getting our physical office space up and running, building internal systems and protocols, as well as launching our website to make our work and resources more accessible. While some of this foundational work takes time, we wanted to ensure that our office has been set up to serve the community effectively.
  • Since September 2024, we have been meeting with community groups such as Black Law Students’ Association, the Indigenous Law Students’ Association, the South Asian Law Students’ Association, the Allard Law Women’s Caucus, the Jewish Law Students Association, the Asia Pacific Law Club and the LSS. 

From September 2024-2025, the EDIO: 

• Hosted ten EDIO-led events, including sessions to introduction our office to the community, training workshops, and community conversations, with a total of over 270 participants across student, faculty, and staff audiences.
• Supported the IDEA Leaders Program, including seven events across the academic year that engaged incoming students in leadership, mentorship, and identity development.
• Collaborated on 11 community and student-led events, including Indigenous Alliance Week and the Universal Design for Learning Fellows program, supporting over 180 attendees through funding or co-facilitation.
• Held eight meetings with student affinity groups to strengthen student voice and build sustained partnerships.
• Participated in 11 external and interdepartmental meetings with the Law Society of BC and UBC's Equity & Inclusion Office to build further collaborative relationships and plan new initiatives such as the yearlong EDI training program and the LSBC-Allard EDI Conference.
• The EDIO has collaborated with the Orientation Leaders to participate actively in Orientation, hold more formal and informal community orientated events as well. For Orientation 2025, the Associate Dean (AD) EDI held a presentation for the new 1L students. Additionally, the EDIO had a booth at Orientations to build visibility and answer any student questions.
• The EDIO and AD-EDI have participated in the March Welcome for incoming students hosted by the Admissions team and will continue participating in future events to increase visibility.
• The EDIO ran the IDEA Leaders Program for 2025 with ongoing programming beyond the initial three days of pre-orientation.
• The EDIO launched its website in January 2025. To make it easier for students to get in touch, we’ve included several options for students, including an anonymous feedback form and a collaboration request form. Students are also encouraged to reach out to our office via edi@allard.ubc.ca at any time. We will continue to promote, revise and update our website with additional resources for our community.
• The AD-EDI has been meeting bi-weekly with the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Director for the Law Students’ Society and will be continuing to work with the LSS. We have also held a community update and feedback session for students, staff, and faculty, where participants are informed of the EDIO activities as well as provided opportunities to ask questions and provide input.
• The EDIO is committed to continuing to host community update and input sessions, whereby the Allard community can learn about the EDIO and its activities and provide feedback. 

Moving forward, the EDIO is committed to bringing more visibility to our work and building relationships and trust with our partners. 

What we heard: 

Numerous groups within the Allard community, including clubs and affinity organizations such as the Black Law Students’ Association, Indigenous Law Students’ Association, South Asian Law Students’ Association, Allard Law Women’s Caucus, Jewish Law Students’ Association, Asia Pacific Law Club and more contribute meaningfully to campus life by creating opportunities for students to connect with others who share similar interests, values, and identities. Participants expressed a strong interest in creating more opportunities for collaboration across affinity groups, including joint events and shared initiatives that bring different clubs together. 

In addition, several participants emphasized the need for increased support around mentorship and career development – particularly for BIPOC law students seeking guidance, resources, and access to opportunities in the legal field. 

What we’re doing and our response: 

• In response to requests for more opportunities for cross-collaboration between Allard Clubs and Societies, the EDIO have established a formal fund for the fiscal year 2025/26, which will encourage student groups to propose, organize and facilitate community driven initiatives and/or events. Formal guidelines, timelines, and further information will be posted on our website in late 2025.
• The EDIO has supported collaborative events between the Women’s Caucus, the Asia Pacific Law Club, the Indigenous Law Students Association, and the Environmental Law Club. We continue to encourage groups to reach out to our office through edi@allard.ubc.ca to discuss ways our office could assist in facilitating community driven initiatives and events.
• In response to the call for more mentorship and career guidance opportunities for BIPOC community members, we began by mapping out what resources already exist. After further investigation through conversations with the Careers Services Office, Student Affairs Office, and additional research, we understand that there is a range of mentorship programs available. We are now working on ways to better promote these opportunities through our channels. At the same time, we’re exploring additional strategies to strengthen mentorship access.
• We hosted a conference with the Law Society of British Columbia in October 2025 and are actively looking into facilitating a panel on careers from diverse legal practitioners and the future of legal practice, with an emphasis on building inclusive spaces within the legal community. 

What we heard: 

Participants emphasized the importance of ensuring that all students feel respected, valued, and safe in the classroom. While many students reported positive experiences overall, some students indicated that they occasionally felt unable to fully express their own opinions within classroom discussions or activities. This suggests there may be barriers such as classroom dynamics, instructional approaches, or time constraints that limit opportunities for open dialogue. Ensuring that all students feel heard and respected is essential for fostering an inclusive and engaging learning environment.   

There was a strong interest in seeing the office take a more active role in supporting both students and educators by helping to prevent harm through education, awareness, and being a clear point of support when issues arise.

Relatedly, participants emphasized the importance of ongoing education and training for all members of the community on a range of topics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. These include, but are not limited to, anti-racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, Indigenous histories and perspectives, accessibility and disability justice, gender diversity and inclusion, and unconscious bias. 

Finally, participants have expressed a desire to see the legal curriculum evolve to reflect contemporary societal contexts. We acknowledge that the field of law has been shaped by historically and systemically colonial and racist foundations. This presents an important opportunity to modernize the curriculum by broadening its scope to include diverse perspectives and experiences, while continuing to equip students with the foundational skills essential for legal practice. 

What we’re doing and our response: 

• We know that fostering belonging takes consistent, intentional work. In response to what we heard, we are reviewing how our office can serve as a resource when concerns come up, including clear pathways for support.
• Working with partners to develop proactive tools and learning opportunities that promote inclusivity, cultural awareness, and positive classroom environments. This includes working with student leaders on Orientation to ensure students are set for success and know appropriate resources from day one of their law school journey.
• We are currently developing additional resources for staff and faculty members to support students in distress. We will also be reviewing current campus wide tools like Early Alert and the Green Folder to ensure all staff and faculty are aware of the resources and steps to help support students.
• An EDIO Staff member has participated in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellows Program, working with Professor Karin Mickelson to incorporate UDL principles to redesign their courses to be more inclusive and accessible. Courses impacted by these projects will benefit students from all backgrounds, not just those with accessibility needs, by providing more options and flexibility to students through the design of resources, tools, and course delivery.
• The EDIO has also secured funding from the UBC Wellbeing Strategic Initiative Fund to develop additional resources to foster Resilient Learning within Legal Education. This project aims to create two resource manuals – a student resiliency toolkit and a manual for instructors and is a collaboration between the EDIO and the Student Wellbeing Counsellor. The instructor manual will provide guidance on inclusive and trauma-informed pedagogy, fostering positive classroom environments, as well as resources to identify and support students and their mental wellbeing. The student manual will act as a toolkit to help students develop strategies towards mental resiliency in a rigorous academic environment.
• The EDIO is currently in conversations with the UBC Equity and Inclusion Office to develop a long-term EDI training program and curriculum which are reflective of community needs. At present, training initiatives are primarily directed toward faculty and staff. Expansion of these opportunities to include students as part of a broader community rollout is being considered for future implementation. We currently have an outline of the training but are waiting for the University’s approval.
• The EDIO has invited speakers on various EDI topics throughout 2024-2025. This includes Dr. Arig al Shaibah with her talk: Advancing EDI at UBC, on October 9, 2024, and Prasanna Ranganathan with his talk: I Am Not the Problem: Understanding Disability and Re-Imagining Accessibility and Accommodations in Law School, the Workplace and the World, on March 5, 2025.  The EDIO will continue to host events and workshops and invite a diverse range of speakers.
• The law school is currently undergoing an extensive curriculum reform process where extensive discussions and consultations between Faculty, staff and students are being made to help shape the future of the law school curriculum. The AD-EDI has been a part of these discussions to bring in EDI considerations on how we can create an inclusive and pedagogically diverse curriculum.