'It’s a fundamental shift': University of Windsor launching Black Studies Institute

Professors are now being hired to “double” the number of Black faculty on campus.

“The Black Studies Institute (BSI) is an extensive investment by the university in organizational change,” says founding director Natalie Delia Deckard. “We thought about how can we really lead to change instead of platitudes? Instead of thoughts and prayers? Instead of statements?”

Starting in September 2023, university students will be able to start working towards a degree in Black Studies.

“We'll be able to give classes in Black feminism, in blackness in education, in black micro-economies in the business school. All sorts of possibilities about closing health disparities and really making real the Canadian dream for black people in Canada,” notes Deckard.

Student Alaa Eissa, who has been an active advocate on campus for supporting Black students, is thrilled the BSI is finally reality.

“I find as black students we tread carefully with regards to the people that we speak to, in the concerns that we raise,” says Eissa. “I think that it's important to hold the correct people accountable and to never ever stop advocating.”

Eissa tells CTV News in her six years learning at the university she’s only been taught by two black professors.

Changing that is priority number one for Deckard “we're doubling the number of black faculty members,” she says.

According to a news release the 12 job postings close Jan. 10, 2023.

Deckard says the first courses will be available in September 2023 and she predicts within two years students can start working towards a full degree in Black Studies.

“The Black Studies Institute gives black people in Windsor Essex, an opportunity to be the writers of our own story,” says Deckard.

The BSI will focus on student experience, innovation in teaching, research excellence, community engagement and creating healthy and safe communities, according to the news release.

“It’s a fundamental shift,” says Deckard “(It’s) moving past lip service to equity, diversity and inclusion.”

“I think a Black Studies Institute is important,” says Windsor law school graduate Josh Lamers. “(But) the university can't just put this institution in the corner of a campus.”

Lamers has been a vocal critic for how the university has dealt with racial issues on campus in the past.

“I do wonder what the Black Studies Institute will also do in terms of revealing and being honest about the ongoing experiences of black students,” says Lamers. “I hope the Black Studies Institute reflects that history, that ongoing history of you know, black radical student organizing or black student organizing in general.”

Lamers is also hopeful the new black faculty members are chosen with that history in mind.

“I hope folks like myself are the people who are gonna get hired in these positions. I hope it's not going to be you know, the typical hireable black person who you know, can kind of follow the institutional narrative,” says Lamers.

According to the news release the BSI is part of the university’s Anti-Black Racism Task Force Plan.

“I hope that the Black Studies Institute signals (a) need to rethink student relations, professor to student relations and institutional relations,” says Lamers.