Giving perspective to Black History Month

February is Black History Month. I would also be remiss if I didn’t also shout out the Chinese Lunar New Year as an important celebration to some of our staff. But, because Black History Month is near and dear to our family, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on why it’s important.  At least from the Fuko family perspective. 

In my quest for content for this article, I decided to ask my family about Black History Month. What did it mean to them? 

From my daughter, Nailah, who is a 16-year-old social justice warrior: 

“Black History Month is about realizing humanity’s faults and facing the injustice that has caused us to collectively ignore Black history. It is important because we have an opportunity to discuss Black history — and non-white history — in a way that has been silenced and continues to be silenced.” 

Rehema, my 12-year-old, loves the celebratory aspect of Black History Month:  

“Black History Month is a celebration. It is about telling stories about the ways in which Black people helped build this country and how important Black culture is in Canada today. It’s all about parties, happiness, and celebration.” 

And my daughter, Imara (age seven), who — unconsciously — is already aware of identity and representation:

“Black History Month is important because I’m Black.”  

My husband, Alladin, who always has an interesting perspective on Blackness growing up in Africa then immigrating to Canada as an adult:

“I don’t want people to feel that I, as a Black man, own Black history. Black history is not mine — it is our collective history, and we should all feel pride over the accomplishments of Black people.”  

And my son, Maalik (age 19), echoes that sentiment:

“Being Black is a positive thing even though sometimes it doesn’t play that way in society. But I use Black History Month as an opportunity to remind myself how thankful I am to have grown up in a family that takes pride our Blackness and in a society that participates in celebrating it.”

For me (Michelle), in a nutshell, Black History Month is an opportunity to participate in an ongoing reflection about how Blackness is represented, celebrated, and marginalized in Canadian society. As a white person, this is not a history that excludes me. This is a history that includes all of us — including how our white privilege has framed and excluded Blackness — and what we can all do to change these narratives.   
I recognize not everyone may agree but this is what Black History Month means to us. 

Return to work update

University staff recently received the Principal’s message confirming our return to in-person instruction on Feb. 28, as well as the update that followed last week. This has undoubtedly raised questions about what this means for Advancement staff. 

You may recall that in ALT mid-year review, the leadership team confirmed Advancement staff who worked in Summerhill or the Old Medical Building will continue to work remotely — except for previously identified Advancement staff already working on campus — until at least March 1. We also committed to give you at least four weeks’ notice before those spaces re-open. 

Given the commitment to four weeks’ notice, it is likely no surprise that, other than previously identified Advancement staff already working on campus, Advancement staff working in Summerhill or the Old Medical Building will not return to campus March 1.

Unfortunately, working with our partners in campus planning to develop a space plan informed by the recommendations of Building a Better Workplace and the Remote Work Procedures has taken much longer than we anticipated. Since that plan has been developed, we have also faced challenges securing a vendor to accept the work required to reconfigure our workspaces.

Appreciating that this may be disappointing, we can all be proud of the fact that the Office of Advancement is not just returning to campus to work the same way we did before the pandemic. We are trying something new because our staff team asked for it — and we are doing so in what is completely uncharted territory for Queen’s. It is uncharted territory for most higher education Advancement operations across Canada. And doing something like this is messy and doesn’t always go as planned.

We can all be proud of what we have already accomplished amidst a global pandemic while keeping our daily business moving forward. For example, together we engaged in a leading-edge process to design our post-pandemic working environment. We also worked closely with university Human Resources to create, test, and launch the Remote Work Arrangement (RWA) process that makes our pilot possible. And other tools have been under development and will be rolled out in the next few weeks. 

The leadership team remains committed to providing at least four weeks’ notice before spaces in Summerhill and the Old Medical Building re-open. 

We can also guarantee that, when we do reopen, it will not be perfect. We will no doubt discover things we didn’t anticipate, and we will figure out what we need to change. That is what this pilot is for. And the ALT is counting on all Advancement staff to embrace this trial, laugh when we get it gloriously wrong, and then help get us on the best path forward together.  

For some Advancement staff who work in faculty offices, your return-to-campus spaces will be managed by faculty processes and plans. But all of you have the same role to play in this trial in Summerhill and the Old Medical Building as all other Advancement staff. In fact, maybe one other role as well. Advancement staff that work out of Summerhill and the Old Medical Building may ask to share faculty Advancement office space for their on-campus days if things get really bad (just kidding!).

Kidding aside, we will re-open our campus spaces. And we will provide more information on when that will happen as soon as we possibly can.

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Employee Spotlight

The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new and existing staff by profiling them through a fun and informal survey that will help us get to know them better. Be sure to review these profiles and use these fun facts and tidbits to find commonalities, embrace differences, and spark a conversation.

This week’s features includes:

Laura Brooks is in the position of Assistant, Development and Alumni Engagement at Smith. Learn more  about Laura and their favourite hobbies.

Holly Lefebvre is in the position of Data Steward, Data Governance and Data Quality in Advancement Services. Get to know Holly and what they love most about their role. 

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote these vacancies within your networks to find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and résumé) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on this posting, please reach out to either Carla Ferreira Rodrigues or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.