From May 2023 to March 2024, LA&PS awarded 129 emergency bursaries to 77 domestic students and 52 international students to support their access to quality education despite insufficient funds due to limited employment, unforeseen extenuating circumstances, and health and wellness concerns.

This year we launched the Degree Resumption Program, which supports and encourages students that had to take a break from their studies due to personal or academic reasons to return to LA&PS to complete their degree.

We launched Explore YU, a five-day summer camp and one-day March break camp for Grade 10 and 11 high school domestic and international students in marginalized communities to expose them to post-secondary and York University.

In an effort to increase access for students from equity-seeking groups, we secured a $160,000 commitment for the Tom Janes Award for Black Scholars, providing eight new Black undergrad students a $5,000 scholarship per year over four years.

We also secured two new endowed scholarships for students living with disabilities, The Noor Award with the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons and The Marin Elizabeth Wallace Independent Living Award funded by Elsa Johanna Wallace and Richard Wallace.

This year we received a $150,000 commitment over two years from Canada Life to support Advancing YU, a scholarship program that supports academic success and matches third- and fourth-year Black and/or women students with select alumni for mentorship and skills development.

During the 2023-24 academic year, a total of $26,000 was distributed through the Global & Community Engagement Collaborative Projects and Events & Outreach Funds, to support 12 diverse York University initiatives, both locally and globally.

The Faculty’s Women’s Studies Bridging Program offers academic bridging courses for women who want to upgrade their writing and speaking skills and explore the possibility of university study. In Fall 2023, 16 women enrolled in the Women’s Studies Bridging course and six women successfully completed it.

The Sanctuary Scholars’ Bridging Program is a unique program that offers life-changing university access for students who hold precarious immigration status. This year, 20 students enrolled in the Sactuary Scholars Bridging Program and 14 of those students successfully completed it. Twenty-nine per cent of those students are now also enrolled and working toward their undergraduate degrees.

The LA&PS Bridging Program for Internationally Educated Professionals is designed to assist newcomers to the country in navigating the complexities of the Canadian job market. This year, 64 students completed the IEP Foundation Program, focused on professional communication, leadership, IT, law and management skills with nearly 50% continuing at the University as Certificate students in 2024, while 50 students graduated with the Professional Certificate program in Canadian business and IT.

The Research Office created a Black Scholars Research Fund, providing $50,000 per year to support emerging and mid-career Black scholars with funding to help them build their careers and share their work.

This year’s LA&PS Research to Impact Workshop Series delivered training on Confronting Online Hate and Harassment of Academic Researchers, where researchers, including graduate students, discussed their insights and efforts to respond to the phenomenon of the abuse directed at researchers, disproportionately targeting female, racialized, transgendered and other marginalized researchers across academic disciplines.