Sandwiched between Gay Pride weekend and Canada Day, last week’s announcement by the nation’s universities got less attention than it deserved.

All 97 of them have adopted a set of common principles designed to narrow the education gap between aboriginal students and their non-native peers. Their umbrella group, Universities Canada, announced the national reconciliation plan on June 29.

Each university will rewrite its curriculum to fully reflect aboriginal history, culture and values. They will all hire professors, administrators and senior managers from First Nations as well as Métis and Inuit communities. They will create spaces and provide resources for dialogue and engagement between indigenous and non-indigenous students. Their presidents and directors will strive to change the national conversation and raise the bar for other institutions.

“We are pleased to launch these principles on the eve of Canada Day which is not only a time for celebration but a time for reflecting on who we are as a country and who we want to become through meaningful reconciliation, said Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada.

This is the first substantive response to last month’s call for action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “We have described for you a mountain,” Justice Murray Sinclair, head of the commission, told Canadians. “We have shown you a path to the top. We call upon you to do the climbing.”

Until last week, most of the responses — from provincial premiers, church leaders and statesmen — had been open-hearted but vague. Public officials (with the regrettable exception of the prime minister) acknowledged the damage done by Canada’s racist Indian residential schools; promised to take to heart the lessons of the past; and pledged to build a new national partnership based on trust, mutual respect and a fair sharing of the benefits of the land. But they stopped short of specifics.

The universities were commendably explicit. They set clear targets and spelled out how they planned to reach them:

Bring the rate of university graduation among indigenous peoples up to the national average. Currently, 9.8 per cent of aboriginal Canadians have university degrees compared to 28 per cent in the general population.

Narrowing the gap requires two initiatives: getting more aboriginal young people in the door and providing them with the support they need to stay and graduate. To achieve those objectives, Canada’s universities intend to work with elementary and secondary schools to create a supportive learning environment for aboriginal students (approximately 25 per cent drop out without finishing high school). They plan to build bridge programs to help prospective indigenous students make the transition to university. And they promise that those who register will be welcomed, respected and included in every aspect of campus life.

Make an institution-wide commitment to develop opportunities for indigenous students.

This requires not just financial support, but an array of academic programs and on-campus services custom-made to help aboriginal students succeed.

“Decolonize” Canada’s universities in the words of David Barnard, chair of Universities Canada and vice-chancellor of the University of Manitoba.

That means blending western science with indigenous knowledge, recognizing that there are different ways of knowing and learning and integrating aboriginal perspectives into Canadian scholarship and learning.

Urge other institutions — corporations, public agencies, non-profit organizations — to reset their relationship with indigenous Canadians.

Universities aim to be the nation’s catalyst in a variety of ways. They will showcase what equality looks like. They will develop partnerships with the private sector that open doors for aboriginal graduates. They will raise awareness about the importance of investing higher education for indigenous youth. Their presidents can make public speeches. Their graduates will bring different attitudes and expectations into the nation’s schools, workplaces and community organizations.

It took the heads of Canada’s universities about a year to develop this agenda. They had a head-start because many of them already had programs, services or partnerships in place. The University of Toronto, for example, has both an indigenous centre and First Nations House, which hosts academic seminars, award ceremonies, and cultural events for indigenous students. Ryerson University has a 12-year partnership with First Nations Technical Institute to deliver courses to indigenous students seeking to become social workers. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology has an indigenous student centre and aboriginal counsellors on and off campus.

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These scattered initiatives are not enough to close the education gap. But unlike other institutions, Canada’s universities have a blueprint to do better. This is a promising way to begin the nation’s 149th year.