Dean Brunnée outlines equity initiatives
On October 6, the Faculty Council met for the first time in the 2021-2022 academic year. Dean Jutta Brunnée welcomed the new students to the Faculty, emphasizing the diversity of the 1L class and the accomplishments of the graduate students. She thanked the administrative team for making the Faculty’s return to in-person classes possible.
Dean Brunnée congratulated the Moot Court Committee, Assistant Dean Sara Faherty, and the four grand mooters for an excellent Grand Moot. It featured an engaged bench and was a fantastic launch into the new semester. She also highlighted two new additions to the Faculty: Justice Rosalie Abella’s library collection and the four new cedar planters on the south side of the Jackman Law Building. The cedars are the groundwork for an Indigenous medicine garden in the spring.
She also provided an overview of how the Faculty is working to cultivate a climate of “welcoming and belonging” for all. In addition to student workshops on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the Faculty is recruiting a new Assistant Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The Curriculum Committee is tasked with developing recommendations concerning a mandatory course on Indigenous people and the law. The Faculty is also looking to fill up to four faculty positions this fall, including one in Indigenous law.
Students’ Law Society (SLS) President Willem Crispin-Frei (3L) also welcomed the new students to the Faculty. He thanked the organizers for putting together an excellent orientation and upper-year welcome back, as well as the Faculty for the support (and free pizza). Crispin-Frei emphasized that over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health was a priority for students. He hopes to work with the Faculty to ensure easy access to accommodations.
Associate Dean Christopher Essert motioned to establish a Governing Documents Revision Committee to explore the process of creating a formal written constitution and associated set of by-laws for Faculty Council. He anticipated that this year, the new committee would research what the Faculty Council’s unwritten constitution contains and what unwritten practices it follows. Next year, the committee would put its findings, with some revisions, into a written form.
Branden Cave (3L) highlighted that the SLS’ motivation to establish a written constitution for Faculty Council is clarity. Faculty Council is the sole venue where students and faculty members can deliberate and discuss matters pertaining to the Faculty. SLS wishes to enhance the venue as a democratic process and to remove instances of procedural confusion.
The Faculty Council is the governing body of the law school and makes policy decisions, usually on recommendations from special and standing committees.
Editor’s Note: Annecy Pang is an ex-officio member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee and is a member of the Admissions Committee, both of which present their reports to Faculty Council.
