This year our Equality Officer, Rosa Sadler, has been working with the UCU Equality Officer and the University Equality and Diversity team to establish a new Equality and Diversity group for staff and students. The purpose of the group will be to share issues, concerns, and ideas relating to equality and diversity with the University Equality and Diversity Board (EDB) which is a sub-group of the University Executive Board. We hope that this will cement a position for the voice of staff and students within the University’s equality and diversity strategic planning and policy making framework.

The E&D Team asked us to draft a proposal for the group at the beginning of this year and since then Rosa has worked closely with her UCU equivalent, Ruth Barley, to write a paper detailing what we would like the purpose and role of the group to be. We then sent it to members of staff and students who have been involved in equality and diversity groups in the past so that they could comment on the proposals and make suggestions.

Once this consultation process had taken place we were able to seek feedback from the University on the proposal. After some redrafting we hope to be in a position to present it to the EDB for approval in June so that the group can be in existence for the start of the new academic year.

The group will have open membership so if you are interested in being involved please watch out for more information in September. If you would like any further details about the group please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Rosa at r.sadler@shu.ac.uk