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About Us

The Equity and Inclusion Office (EIO) is a central campus resource that advances McMaster’s institutional commitments to equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and inclusive excellence. Through collaboration, education, support, and institutional initiatives, the EIO works across the University to contribute to more equitable, accessible, and inclusive campus environments.

Our Portfolios

The EIO’s work is organized across four core portfolios:

Accessibility Program (AccessMac)

Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Oppression Program

Human Rights & Dispute Resolution Program (HRDR)

Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office (SVRPO)

Explore Programs & Services

Who We Are

The EIO collaborates with students, faculty, clinical faculty, staff, administrators, and external community partners to support respectful and inclusive living, learning, working, and community spaces grounded in human rights, dignity, belonging, and mutual care.

Recognizing that broader social, institutional, and systemic contexts shape how individuals and communities experience belonging, participation, accessibility, and safety, the EIO works to address barriers to participation and contribute to campus environments that uphold equity and accessibility and are free from harassment, discrimination, ableism, and gender-based sexual violence.

How We Approach Our Work

The EIO takes a collaborative, educational, and systemically informed approach to advancing inclusive and equitable campus environments. Meaningful and sustainable change requires ongoing partnership, reflection, responsiveness to evolving social contexts, and institutional accountability.

Working alongside campus and community partners, the EIO supports awareness-building, education and training, advising, community engagement, and the proactive identification and removal of systemic barriers. The EIO also contributes to the development and implementation of policies, procedures, and practices that support informed, timely, and procedurally fair approaches to prevention, response, and resolution related to harassment, discrimination, and gender-based sexual violence.

Our Guiding Principles

The following principles guide how the EIO approaches its programs, services, partnerships, and institutional work.

We are committed to delivering programs, services, and supports that are confidential, equitable, transparent, responsive, and grounded in integrity. We strive to foster trust through informed decision-making, consistency, accountability, and a balance of a trauma-informed and people-centred approach.

We recognize that experiences of inequity and marginalization are shaped by intersecting identities, systems, social conditions, and broader societal contexts that affect how people access, navigate, and feel supported within campus spaces and communities. Our work is grounded in an intersectional approach that responds to diverse living and lived experiences, removes barriers, and fosters meaningful inclusion and belonging across communities.

We believe meaningful change is built through relationships, shared learning, and collective responsibility. We strive to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging where all members of the McMaster community, including visitors, are responsible for respecting the rights of others and conducting themselves in a manner that contributes positively to the University and the University community. We advance respectful dialogue and collaborative approaches that encourage reflection, growth, and thoughtful engagement across diverse experiences, perspectives, and evolving social contexts.

We are committed to advancing sustainable change by addressing both individual and systemic barriers to equity and inclusion. Through critical reflection, education, advocacy, and action, we work to challenge inequities and contribute to more inclusive structures, policies, cultures, and practices.