University of Alberta: Scraps DEI Hiring Practices

EDMONTON, AB — The University of Alberta is on track to become the first Canadian institution to scrap DEI hiring practices, setting up a March showdown at the Board of Governors that will decide whether merit alone dictates who gets hired on campus.

The draft recruitment policy — which strips long-standing language recommending preference for historically under-represented groups when two candidates are similarly qualified — lands in front of the board in less than a month. If approved, it will formalize a shift announced last January, when U of A President Bill Flanagan published an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal declaring the university would replace "Equity, Diversity and Inclusion" with "Access, Community and Belonging."

"We believe in merit," Flanagan wrote then, signaling what would become Alberta's first public retreat from EDI language. The February 2025 action plan, "Changing the Story," laid out the ACB framework. Now the rubber meets the road.

The Clash on Campus

Not everyone is on board. On January 26, Lise Gotell, a women's and gender studies professor, tabled a motion opposing the draft policy at a General Faculties Council meeting — and it passed. Union leaders representing academic staff warn the changes gut equity commitments. Ajibola Adigun, a third-year PhD student, told reporters the move feels like "erasure." Professor Amir Attaran at the University of Ottawa has threatened legal action if the U of A follows through.

But the university is not operating in a vacuum. Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party adopted a hard-line policy in November 2024: any post-secondary institution that keeps a DEI office or policy "shall lose government financial support." The provincially appointed Mintz panel doubled down in October 2025, recommending that publicly funded universities hire "for reasons other than merit" at their own risk.

The Money

The stakes are not abstract. Alberta's 2025-2026 budget locked the U of A's base Operating and Program Support grant at $436.6 million — unchanged since 2022. Add in $39.2 million for targeted enrolment expansion, and you have a university operating under flat funding while facing the implicit threat of cuts if it defies the UCP's anti-DEI stance.

Internal emails obtained last year show the U of A shared its EDI-to-ACB pivot with the Ministry of Advanced Education, which called the move "very well received." Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney publicly backed the shift in early 2025.

What Happens Next

The Board of Governors will vote on the draft recruitment policy in March. If it passes, the university will formally delete the recommendation to favor under-represented candidates and remove preamble language about correcting employment disadvantages. Opponents say it's a surrender to political pressure. Supporters call it a return to merit-based hiring. Either way, the U of A is about to set a precedent that every other Canadian university is watching.

The vote is set for March 2026.