A campaign is underway to urge McGill students to complete this year’s Student Census.
The idea behind the census is to help the University better understand the makeup of its student body, and to assist it in better serving its diverse student population. The campaign, with the slogan You Are What Counts, is aimed at improving upon the 26.4 per cent participation rate for last year’s census.
“Our main goal is increasing the response rate for the census, so we can get more accurate and robust data to move forward,” says Madeleine Nadler with the Enrolment Services office. “Ideally, it would be to have as many people at McGill to see it as possible, and to be encouraged to take the census.”
Nadler’s position at McGill Enrolment Services as Business Analyst Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion deals with research as well as policy, and has a focus on data collection, analysis, tracking, benchmarking and reporting to effect data driven change. This role works closely alongside other new positions such as the Outreach and Recruitment EDI Specialist; the Black Community Outreach Associate; and the Indigenous Community Outreach Associates in support of McGill’s vision and mission as outlined in the University’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2020-2025; the Final Report of the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education; and McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti Black Racism.
Among other things, the Student Census will serve to assist the University in fine-tuning its efforts to address underrepresentation at McGill, and to assess the success of its outreach and communications efforts.
Students are being asked to respond to a variety of questions on gender, sexual orientation, disability, Indigenous identity and status, race and ethnicity, and educational level of parents and guardians, among other things.
The Student Census is not mandatory, and each question includes a “prefer not to answer” option. All data collected will be kept strictly confidential, and no individual-level information will be shared internally or externally.
The Student Census can be found on Minerva, and takes about 10 minutes to complete. Results are reported biannually at Senate.
To fill out the census or request data, visit the Student Census page.