Following the University releasing their key findings and recommendations from the Review of Racial Equality and Anti-Semitism, we wanted to share our thoughts with our members.
Over the years, many Elected Officers and Student Representatives have highlighted more needed to be done for racism and anti-Semitism on campus and in wider society. After the incident in the summer, we are pleased to see the institutional review take place quickly and the Students’ Union has been working closely with the University as part of this ongoing work.
In the Students’ Union statement back in the summer, we urged the University to review several of their processes and make the necessary changes. We need to not only tackle racism and anti-Semitism, but also better support students and staff so they feel able to have open, honest and uncomfortable conversations. Since then, we have played a part in shaping the recommendations in the review and will continue to work in partnership with the University to help make the relevant changes happen.
As your Students’ Union, we will always amplify the voices of our marginalised communities and stand strong against any form of hatred. This doesn’t mean we don’t need to make changes ourselves. As well as encouraging the University and others to do better for our students, we want to do better too. We are currently working on a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion plan for the Students’ Union, and we look forward to sharing more information about this work in the next few months.
We’re also continuing to support some incredible campaigns and projects which highlight the experiences of our Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students. We’ll be re-launching the Decolonise the Curriculum campaign, showing racism the red card in sport, and tackling the black awarding gap - which is one of our Union priorities for the year.
If after reading the review and recommendations, students would like to share feedback or talk to us about what this means - we welcome any students to contact us at yourunion@uclan.ac.uk.