Equality and Diversity x 4

As the Vice President Welfare it won't surprise you to learn that part of my role is about promoting equality and diversity within the Guild and the University and working hard to look at how what we do impacts people. However I don't just sit on one committee but rather four.

Within the Guild itself I chair both the staff and the student equality and diversity committees. The Staff committee covers both core staff and the 300+ student staff that the Guild employs, and I chaired this committee for the first time this week. It was actually really refreshing to see the Guild taking a step back and looking at what we do, how we do it and the reasons for doing so.

Through the committee we began the task of using the Equality and Diversity monitoring forms that people fill in when applying for jobs to work out demographics within Guild staff. Once this has been done we will be able to identify areas where people are underrepresented and review how we promote our jobs to see if there is anything we can change to ensure that our applicants come from a diverse range of backgrounds. In addition to this we also started to look at possible quality marks that we can work towards attaining, not just so they look pretty on the proverbial mantlepiece but because it is another way of objectively reviewing our practice and how we can improve as an organisation.

With regards to the Student committee, this is a new project that was started last year and I am going to be working really hard to get it off the ground this year. I am currently working on the terms of reference for the committee, which well then allow us to elect guild councillors to sit on it. Once the committee is up an running, of course the first job will be to review those terms of reference to ensure we are happy with what we are aiming to acheive.

With regards to the University E & D committee and it's working group, for which I sit on both, I have no idea what is happening there yet so will let you know when I do!