Student Self-Identification Form
As a part of Laurier’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), all students are invited to complete the confidential and voluntary Student Self-Identification (ID) Form.
Understanding the demographics of our students is important to continuing to create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive Laurier. Your participation:
- Ensures that Laurier has a representational snapshot of the student population.
- Allows us to better understand the student community and pursue evidence-informed actions.
- Helps us identify and address barriers you experience through our EDI framework.
- Assists Laurier in pursuing activities that improve your student experience, academic success and well-being.
If you have questions or require any assistance, contact the Office of the Associate Vice-President EDI at avpedi@wlu.ca.
Complete the Student Self-Identification (ID) Form
Your participation is not mandatory. As you complete the form, you can skip a question or withdraw at any time.
The form takes approximately five minutes to complete.
To access the form:
- Log in to LORIS.
- Navigate to the "Personal Information" tab.
- Select "Student Self Identification Form."
You can update or change your responses at any time. There is no deadline to complete the form – information is collected and updated on an ongoing basis.
Background Information
The form gathers information on a range of demographic and identity-related information including caregiving status, disability, gender identity, language, race, religion, sex, and sexual identity. Understanding these characteristics is integral to developing a more comprehensive understanding of Laurier’s student community alongside, identifying and addressing inequities.
The information generated from the Student Self-ID Form will assist Laurier in creating an accurate picture of who are Golden Hawk community is.
With the multidimensional nature of the information provided by participating students in the form, we can better understand your experiences in relation to campus experiences, academic success, well-being and other factors.
Student numbers are linked to the data you provide and may be connected with supplementary administrative data in Laurier’s systems for institutional analysis. For instance, using student numbers, data may be linked to a faculty and program type when examining specific institutional conditions.
For example, information garnered through the Student Self-ID Form can be used to:
- Improve learning opportunities, conditions, and environments.
- Examine student support programs and services.
- Strengthen students’ sense of safety, trust, privacy, and belonging.
- Improve student outreach, recruitment, and retention.
- Advance student engagement on EDI initiatives and campus-wide programs.
- Increase availability of appropriate training and resources.
- Inform commitments on representative University leadership and staff.
Actions can and are being pursued at a program, department, faculty, or office-level and/or through EDI-related commitments such as the Action Plan for EDI and Indigeneity, Strategic Plan for EDI, Canada Research Chairs Program EDI Action Plan, and the Accessibility Plan.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Any information you provide to Laurier through the form will be kept strictly confidential. Before public reporting, all data is stripped of identifying information and grouped to protect your privacy. For example, information is summarized into broad categories (e.g. academic programs) to protect the privacy of students.
Data is stored on secure university servers. Data from the form may be transferred and stored in the institutional data warehouse. Access to these data will be limited to those who require access to support institutional reporting. The University’s Privacy Office has been consulted to ensure your personal information is collected, used, and stored following University Policy 10.1 and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of Ontario. This activity has also been approved by the Office of Research Services (File #2020 – 51) per University Policy 8.2.
Access to Information
Data is handled by staff in the Office of the Associate Vice-President: EDI, Laurier’s EDI Self-Assessment Team, and/or additional qualified individuals required for these projects and as approved by these teams. Data from the form may be transferred and stored in our institutional data warehouse. Access to these data will be limited to those who require access to support institutional reporting. Student information and data are protected. Unapproved individuals including Laurier staff (e.g. professors, teaching assistants, academic advisors) will not have access to your data.