Thursday 03-12-2020 - 14:00

Student voice strikes again!! This morning I sent the below letter on behalf of Student Council to the VC, to urge her to sign the Race Equality Charter. This 'Big Idea' was voted on and passed at Student Council and now we are taking action. Please read the letter below:

 

Dear Professor Simmons, 

 

I am writing to you openly on behalf of Chester Students’ Union’s (CSU) Student Council and the student body to urge the University to sign Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter.  

On CSU’s website, students can submit a ‘Big Idea’ that is voted on by students to be taken to Student Council. Once an idea has 25 votes, we discuss it at Student Council, both in terms of whether to take action and what form that action might take. On the 14th September a ‘Big Idea’ was submitted to ‘Write an open letter to the Vice Chancellor to sign the Race Equality Charter’ – this was voted on and discussed at Student Council on 12th November. The motion was unanimously passed.  

The purpose of the Charter is to provide a framework for institutions to identify and reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of BAME staff and students (Advance HE, 2020). As a student body we urge the University to join the Charter, which would demonstrate an institutional commitment to tackling racial inequality across the University. We would like to recognise that, over the last 12 months, positive steps have already been made towards making the University of Chester a more inclusive institution, with the most recent being the recruitment of Student Race Advocates and the creation of the University Equality Challenge Group.  

We would like the University to commit to signing the Charter and a timeline of when this may happen, based on where the institution is at now with its commitments to equality. Staff and students at the University see the Equality and Diversity agenda as a priority and a clear institutional commitment would be widely welcomed.  

 

We look forward to hearing your response.  

 

Best wishes 

Eleanor Lewis, on behalf of CSU Student Council.  

 

Advance HE, 2020. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter 

 

This is a great example of the student body standing up for our students. If you want to submit a 'Big Idea' to see something change at the Union or University, however big or small, head to https://www.chestersu.com/thestudentvoice now!

 

Eleanor :D 

 

***UPDATED 7/12/2020***

Shortly after I sent this letter to the VC, she replied with the following response.

Thank you El,

 

You are right that the Race Equality Charter is a laudable ambition for Chester. However, the University is still not in a position to embark on this accreditation.  We need the work of the staff and student race equality groups to start making an impact and then it will be timely to sign up. 

 

I will ask Kathryn to include on the next RECG agenda. 

 

best wishes

Eunice

 

The RECG is the Race Equality Challenge Group at the University, so our letter will be discussed at the next meeting. Whilst we don't yet have a clear outcome about when we will sign it, the VC has been clearly open about where the University is at the moment - making positive steps but we still aren't there yet. I will ensure we follow up on next meeting of the RECG through Arfana.