Welcome to the Equity and Inclusion Unit (EIU) Update for April! This Update covers...
- The Equity and Inclusion Officer's Update
- Equity and Inclusion Unit Forum
- UCL East International Women's Day Event
- Priorities for Wellbeing report 2023 Focus Groups
- International Transgender Day of Visibility Recap
- Marketing Brand Review
- Community and Inclusion Observations
Doing something around Equity and Inclusion that isn't mentioned in this Update? Email [email protected] and let us know!
Hello hello!
I hope you all enjoyed the Easter closure and feel nice and rested.
I wanted to talk a little about an event I chaired with the Volunteering Service for Women's History Month, Tuesday 28 March 2023 from 13:00 to 14:00.
As part of the Volunteering Service's series of specialised panel talks, they created the opportunity to listen and learn from key charities across London and explore what it's like to volunteer with charities that support women.
This also gave students the amazing opportunity to ask questions and I got the honour to chair!
Taking place on Zoom, the panel included:
Each community partner works hard to uplift, empower and support women through methods such as mentoring, healthy meals, providing support systems and so much more.
Each spoke on why the power of volunteering was crucial to their mission. For example, all cited UCL Students volunteering with them as having an high impact and influence on the success of their work.
You can learn more about the volunteering opportunities available here:
Middle Eastern Women & Society Organisation (MEWSo), Laamiga, Women@TheWell, Wonder Foundation and Smart Works
Seyi x
The EIU Forum is a fabulous opportunity for staff and student leaders from the Union, as well as nominated staff from UCL, to come together and discuss Equity and Inclusion efforts going on across the board.
The forum is led by Seyi, with support from Danielle and Jayne, and is meant to be a platform for open discussion about equity work of recent past, present or future.
Student Officers are encouraged to share updates or projects, with the hopes that they can connect with staff who are doing similar work, and vice-versa.
With our commitment to being more accessible, these meetings are hybrid, with the idea that staff and student leaders can attend virtually but also be in a physical meeting room if this assists their comprehension.
Staff are welcome to delegate their invite to another member of their team, who will be sent invites to the rest of the forum dates.
Forums are allocated to run until June 2023, and you can see the dates below.
Dates:
- Wednesday 26 April - 16:00 - 17:30
- Wednesday 24 May - 16:00 - 17:30
- Wednesday 28 June - 16:00 - 17:30
Last month, a group of students from GBSH (Global Business School for Health) created a student-led event in celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.
The main theme of the conference was "Experiences of women from around the world, two sides of the same coin".
From this, students were invited to pay tribute to women through a performance of their choice.
We had a variety of shows ranging from poem reading to singing and Chinese calligraphy.
The best part of the celebration was the uplifting and heartening speeches by the Director of the UCL Global Business School for Health, Nora Colton and the program lead of the Global Healthcare Management MSc, Dr. Jennifer Egbunike.
Professor Nora underlined the crucial role that education, passion and purpose play in the accomplishment of women,
Dr. Jennifer highlighted that resilience and hard work can lead a human being to build a better society, citing her own challenges in her pathway.
The Policy and Insight team are running 6 focus groups over April to learn about the wellbeing issues students are facing and how they can be better supported.
The findings from each group, which will be presented anonymously, will feed directly into the upcoming Priorities for Wellbeing report 2023.
The report makes recommendations to UCL and the Students Union about how both can make changes to better support student wellbeing.
When taking part in the focus group, students will help directly shape these priorities. Every participant will also receive a £15 voucher for each 1 hour session.
Two of the focus groups have a specific equity focus:
Black students experiences of accessing wellbeing provision at UCL, 25th April 4.30-5.30pm: Focus group: Black students experiences of accessing wellbeing provision | Students Union UCL
The aim is to help identify how UCL and Students Union UCL can tackle structural racism and other barriers which impact Black students ability to access and benefit from wellbeing provision.
This focus group will be facilitated by the Equity and Inclusion Officer and a member of the Unions policy team.
Trans students experiences of community and belonging at UCL, 27th April 4-5pm: Focus group: trans students experiences of community and belonging at UCL | Students Union UCL
The aim is to help identify what changes both UCL and Students Union UCL can implement to tackle transphobia and better support trans students.
This focus group will be facilitated by the Equity and Inclusion Unit Coordinator and a member of the Unions policy team.
The other focus groups which everyone is also very welcome to sign up to are below:
- Students experiences of private renting, 17th April 4-5pm: Focus Group: student experiences of private renting April 2023 | Students Union UCL
- Students experiences of renting in UCL owned accommodation, 19th April 4-5pm: Focus Group: student experiences of renting in UCL owned accommodation
- Student views on community and belonging, 21st April 3-4pm: Student views on community and belonging
- Student staff experience of employment at Students Union UCL. 24th April 4-5pm: Focus group: student staff at Students Union UCL | Students Union UCL
On the 31st of March the transgender and non-binary communities observe International Transgender Day if Visibility (TDoV).
First celebrated in 2009, TDoV was started by Rachel Crandall in Michigan. The purpose was to create a day of recognition of transgender individuals, a space for trans joy and a new trans-centered day beyond Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Transgender Day if Remembrance mourned the murders of transgender people, but did not acknowledge and celebrate living members of the transgender community, hence TDoV.
At the Union and UCL, we celebrated trans visibility in different ways. See the articles to see some examples.
TDoV at the SU:
The following includes:
- a wonderful blog post by our newly elected LGBQ+ Officer, Micah (he/they)
- A run-down of the Trans Network Seminar Series, run by Harper (they/them), the current Trans Officer
- An overview of Advice and Support available, including details of the Gender Expression Fund
TDoV at UCL:
This includes:
- A foreword from Dr Sebastian Groh, Chair of Trans Network, Co-chair of LGBTQ+ Equality Steering Group
- Trans Perspectives from UCL
- Events, recordings and articles for Trans Day of Visibility
- Networks and resources
A spotlight on a Union Staff Member
We’re currently conducting a review of the effectiveness of our brand, making sure the big changes we made in 2017 when we launched Students’ Union UCL are having the desired effect.
As part of the brand review, an external research agency surveyed 4,800 students in February 2023 (the largest study of our students to date) to gauge how effectively we represent our organisational/brand values.
The research also aimed to understand barriers to participation across the Union, how students receive our communication, and lots more.
On brand values - 88% of students believed the Union to be inclusive, and ‘inclusive’ was the brand value students most felt the Union embodied.
Unprompted in free text comments when students were asked to describe the Union in 3 words, inclusive was the most popular word.
Across other questions in the survey, students who defined themselves as part of an ethnic minority were more likely to have a favourable view of the Union than students who defined themselves as white. Specifically:
- 43% of students from an ethnic minority agreed that “the Union is important to my life at university” vs. 33% of those who define as white.
- 76% of students from an ethnic minority described the Union as “empowering” vs. 66% of those who define as white.
- 86% of students from an ethnic minority described the Union as “Community Building” vs. 78% of those who define as white.
- 87% of students from an ethnic minority described the Union as “Trustworthy” vs. 83% of those who define as white.
The brand review is ongoing and the final Brand Guidelines version 2 will be published in the summer.
| Celebration | Dates |
|---|---|
| World Autism Awareness Week | 28 March to 3 April |
| Deaf Awareness Week | 4 to - 9 May |
| International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia & Transphobia | Wednesday, 17 May |
| Black History Month | October |
| Disability History Month | 18 November to 18 December |
| Transgender Day of Remembrance | Monday ,20 November |
| Holocaust Memorial Day | Friday, 27th January |
| Lunar New Year | Sunday, 22 January |
| LGBT+ History Month | February |
| International Women's Day | Wednesday, 8 March |
| Disabled Access Day | Thursday, 16 March |
| International Transgender Day of Visibility | Friday, 31 March |
