Equality and Diversity Committee
Minutes of the Second Meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee in the 2013-14Academic Session, held on 23January 2014, at 2.00 pm, in Room S311, Mary SeacoleBuilding, Avery Hill Campus
Present:
Dalia DasguptaInterim Director of Human Resources (Chair)
Alex BrooksStudents’ Union President
Ami SolomonEducation Liaison Manager
Clifton KandlerWeb Services Manager
Lucie PollardFaculty Operating Officer – Education and Health
Will CalverAccess and Partnerships Manager
In attendance:
Liz LaurenceSecretary
Apologies:
Chris PownerDirector of Facilities Management
Christopher HallasDirector of Student Affairs
Mark KerriganEducational Development Unit
Stuart AshendenFaculty Operating Officer – Engineering and Science
EDC/13.8Minutes of the Previous Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 24 October 2013 were agreed as an accurate record.
EDC/13.9Matters Arising from the Minutes
13.3Student Retention & Attainment: Report on Protected Categories
Action:Will Calver to ask PAS if it is possible to disaggregate the E&D data to just include the campuses of Greenwich, Avery Hill and Medway and not include partners.
Will Calver confirmed that he had contacted PAS and was still
trying to get the required figures. The Committee thought that if the figures were broken down into Faculties it might highlight equality and diversity more. It was thought that statistical report finding were not often new and that the data was not enough on its own. The reasons why people underachieve are often not captured because the reasons are not used in the report.
13.5.1Faculty of Engineering and Science
Action:The Secretary to contact the FOO-ES for his update and circulate to committee members
The Secretary reported that she had contacted Stuart Ashenden for his update twice and he had responded saying that now all the Director posts and committee structures had been set up within the Faculty he was now in a position to provide the update which he will circulate in the next couple of weeks.
13.5.5Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities
Action:The Equality and Diversity Update for the Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities to be deferred to the next meeting.
Tony Mann was due to attend this meeting to give the report but unfortunately he did not attend. The Secretary was asked to check with Tony why this was.
Action:The Secretary to contact Tony Mann to find out why he did not attend the meeting.
EDC/13.10Annual Equality Monitoring Report
The Chair explained that due to the restructure of Human Resources and the maternity leave of the current Equality and Diversity Champion, the Annual Equality Monitoring Report had not been completed. She proposed to defer compilation of the report to April when the new Equality and Diversity Champion would be inplace. This was agreed by the Committee.
EDC/13.11Celebrate Difference and Diversity Week 2014
The Secretary was asked to explain to the Committee about Celebrate Difference and Diversity Week as she was the acting organiser of the event. She said that it was happening over three days, 17, 19, 21 March, one day on each campus between 11.30 am and 2.00 pm. The idea of the event was to celebrate to differences, diversity and talents of our staff and students. She explained that the events were being held in each of the Campus cafes and at Medway it would coincide with the Diversity Day arranged by GK Unions. Although the list of participants was not complete, she confirmed that Hearing Dogs, Guide Dogs and Canine Assistance Dogs would be in attendance. The Committee was asked to encourage their staff to attend.
EDC/13.12Faculty/Office Updates
13.12.1Educational Development Unit
This update will be deferred to the next meeting as Mark Kerrigan was unable to attend the meeting and no substitute was provided.
Action:The update from EDU to be presented at the next meeting.
13.12.2Finance
The update from the Finance Office was moved to the next meeting as they had nothing report.
Action:The update from Finance to be presented at the next meeting.
13.12.3Facilities Management (EDC\13.P02)
The update from Facilities Management was circulated prior to the meeting as Chris Powner was unable to attend.
13.12.4Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities
The representative from the Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities did not attend the meeting and therefore the update could not be given. This update was deferred from the meeting in October and will now be moved to the next meeting.
Action:The update from the Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Humanities to be moved to the next meeting.
13.12.5Human Resources
The Chair gave the report for the Human Resources Office. She explained that the current Equality and Diversity Champion was on maternity leave and when she returned to work would be seconded to GRE until July 2015. She reported that we were currently recruiting to the post and that interviews would take place on
11 February 2104 with a view to the new person starting as close to March as possible.
She reported that the University had risen 71 places on the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index and were now in 228th position up from 299 last year. This was out of 369 participating organisations. The university submission achieved 101 points up from 72 last year. The Chair explained that only the top 100 organisations on the list were published and university’s aim was to achieve a position in the top 100.
The Chair confirmed that we have successfully passed our disability Two Ticks symbol accreditation annual review. Feedback from the review meeting was that our evidence and general embracing of the ethos of the symbol continues to meet the criteria of the five commitments of the scheme.
13.12.6Recruitment and Admissions
Ami Solomon gave the update for Recruitment and Admissions. She explained that the department had decided to streamline their equality and diversity panel and were now responsible for protected characteristics, in particular disability, gender and inclusion. She reported that the Department had a problem with the age range of staff with most being between 19-25 years which made those staff younger or older than this feel left out. To try to counter act this, the Department had arranged a number of different activities including a book club, knit club and a bowling night.
She reported that they had held a cultural week last year. They found out that they had staff from 16 different countries with the Department and the week had helped people get to know each other.
They had also put up a Suggestion Board and had an Issue Box in the Department. The Panel was now responsible for all the Recruitment and Admissions policy documents making sure they comply with their standards and they hope to have all materials reviewed by the end of September. She also reported that the Department had made Equality and Diversity training mandatory for all their staff.
13.12.7Students Union
Alex Brooks presented the update for Students’ Union. He tabled documents at the meeting showing statistical data referring to the demographics of student sports clubs and societies. He reported that the Students’ Union does not know a lot about the students participating in their activities because the data is either not collected or not passed to the Students’ Union. The following parameters are ones they feel would be important to help understand more about their students:
- Distance Learner Indicator
- Ethnicity
- Residency
- Placement
- Carer Indicator
- Dependents Flag
- Employment status
- Erasmus Indicator
- Mature Indicator
The first four are used but they don’t have any data and the last five are not collected.
He reported that the lack of data affected how well the Advice Service would provide help to students. They particularly have no knowledge of students who are carers or have responsibilities for children and as Greenwich has a high proportion of mature students they are only assuming that therefore there is a higher level of student parents. Since 1 August 2013 8% of students had reported a disability or long term health problem. The service does a lot of work by telephone and email with a rough split between male and female clients.
He reported that the Equality and Diversity Statement had been agreed by the Students’ Union Council and Trustee Board and will be included in the staff handbook.
Alex reported that the union is continuing to work closely with the newly formed LGBT society, also has linked to the staff LGBT network. LGBT student society is strong and vibrant and has held a number of events and helped spearhead the work of the officers in anti-homophobia awareness
They are working towards signing the Time to Change pledge, which has so far meant close work with the mental health “team” and the formation of a student led working group around mental health issues
They have passed a motion in Union Council on the eradication of ‘rape culture’ within Union premises and on campus. This has allowed the Union to effectively catch up with the norms of other student led organisations and offer the same protections to students that others offer. It gives the executive stronger powers to control the media displayed/heard in our outlets, and further scrutiny of events being held.
The Executive have discussed and are working towards a safe space policy.
The union has continued to run initiatives around student safety. They have worked closely with Facilities Management and Accommodation and have seen visible improvements.
There were many successful events around Black History Month with great attendance at all. These included changing to the normal menus in food outlets, guest speakers, and performances.
EDC/13.13Any Other Business
13.13.1Equality Strategy
Will Calver asked whether it would be a good idea to review the university Equality Strategy, particularly as this was now some years old and written by the former Director of Student Affairs.
The Chair agreed to discuss this with VCG.
13.13.2World Events
Discussion was held over how to become more involved and celebrate world events within the university . It was agreed to put this on the agenda for the next meeting.
EDC/13.14Date of Next Meeting
The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 22May 2014, held in room S311, Mary Seacole Building.
Secretary: Liz Laurence
Tel: 8982
Email:
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