Unity, Uniformity, and University

Friendly reminder to the Universe that a University is not at its core meant to be corporation but a community... a confederation of communities... a community of communities, of thinkers, of researchers, of explorers and creators and dreamers.

Of people. And the people and communities they serve.

It should be neither a widget maker nor a monolith.

BC Tourism and PEI Tourism have — need — different messaging and marketing, even if they do all have a red maple leaf in the corner. Tourisme Québec peut-être encore plus.

You can market the NHL at the same time as the Oilers Nation. The professional hockey brand is not the same as its visual identity/identities. Thirty-two fanbases, thirty-three logos and colour schemes, one brand, one game.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion works hand in hand with unity, not uniformity. And even within uniformity, you can have RCMP turbans and third jerseys and variant covers.

You grow and nurture unity and community, you enforce uniformity.

So when I say I am one with my fellow humans, do not confuse what I mean.

Do not confuse my striving for unity for a desire for uniformity. And do not confuse my resistance to uniformity as a rejection of unity.

Or my resistance to an administration as a rejection of the actual institution and principles they are meant to serve.

Because those aren’t the same either.