Building an anti-racist university – DMU one year after the murder of George Floyd

One year ago today the world witnessed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in the USA. The shocking images were broadcast around the world, generating mass global protests spearheaded by the Black Lives Matter movement, spotlighting racism and generating a new impetus for change.

Sadly, hate, harassment and persecution continue to feature on our news and social media platforms and in the last couple of weeks the world has been witnessing horrors occurring across the globe. All at DMU have been desperately upset by this lack of humanity and the university, of course, continues to condemn all such acts of hate and violence from all quarters.

One year ago DMU stated it ‘absolutely stands against racism…but we are also aware that while we stand for anti-racism…we must also look in the mirror and critique and challenge ourselves’.

The journey to build an anti-racist university is one which will be taken over a number of years with rapid change at times and inevitably slower progress at others, as we aim to prioritise changes in culture, policy and practice. 

In light of this – and DMU’s continued commitment to building an anti-racist university – we have reflected on what we have done as an institution over the last 12 months as well as what we will continue to do in the weeks, months and years to come.

Some of the progress we have made in the last 12 months includes:

  • LaunchingNo Space for Hate, a campaign which provides a dedicated team and a virtual and physical space for students to report harassment and hate which will be investigated, with continued support offered. You can report incidents by emailing nsfh@dmu.ac.uk The initiative also offers channels to allow for anonymous reporting  which you can do here
  • Launching 100 Black Women Professors Now (100 BWPN), which is a 12-month accelerator development programme for Black women academics working in UK higher education institutions. The programme aims to propel equity of opportunity as there are currently only 35 Black women professors in the United Kingdom. Application details can be accessed here  and the closing date is 31 May 2021
  • Engaging our staff in conversations about Decolonising DMU through workshops, encouraging them to make suggestions for areas they think need to change
  • Developing, through The Centre for Academic Innovation, a toolkit, staff development and training to decolonise our teaching and learning and working practices
  • Developing a self-audit tool for research centres/institutes in relation to decolonising,
  • Recording podcasts some of which are already on the DDMU website –  to raise awareness as well as providing resources for both staff and students
  • A series of student conversation events about how to act on issues not always discussed in higher education withUnapologetically BAME – the student arm of DDMU
  • Diversifying/decolonising library stock – both physical and electronic. You can visit here for the Library Decolonising DMU guide including useful resources and decolonising reading list tools.

Our Continued Commitment

Building an anti-racist university is not solely about delivering the agreed project plan but also instigating institutional and cultural change.  In order to achieve this, we want to ensure DMU is a place where our Black, Asian and minority ethnic students and staff feel they belong, and where they can share any experiences of racism and feel they are supported.  We want to provide good progression and promotion routes to enable diversity in all parts of the university for our staff, and work to close the ‘Awarding Gap’ currently experienced by our Black, Asian and minority ethnic students.

So here is a snapshot of some of the work we have planned over the next few months:

  • Institutional debate around the label of ‘BAME’ to gather the views of our staff body as to a potential change and what that may be. The survey to express views on this is open until Friday 28 May and can be accessed here
  • Establishing a DDMU Research Network
  • Running a series of discussion sessions including racial literacy, Race and Racism, Whiteness and Privilege and Allyship

Ways STUDENTS can get involved

With that in mind we are inviting students to take part in the:

The Race Equality Survey

DMU is committed to the Race Equality Charter Mark, a framework from Advance HE, which supports to improve progression, success and representation of BAME staff and students in higher education.

As part of this work, we would like to invite all staff and students to complete a short anonymous online survey developed by Advance HE on race and ethnicity within DMU. We would like to encourage all students and staff to complete the survey regardless of your race or ethnicity as we welcome a diverse range of viewpoints, and this will assist us in our analysis. Responses will be anonymous. Take part in the survey here 

Training workshops for students

Following various discussion with BAME students, it was clear that the lack of interaction with other students leads to increased isolation in classroom and also on campus. We have now successfully planned and developed a training workshop for students.  The workshop is currently in its testing phase and will soon be available to carry out across the university.

The focus of the workshop is to allow students to freely share their views and differences in a safe respectable environment and to know that there are more similarities than they envisage. The aim is that the workshop will help dismantle some of the fears of interaction and encourages more understanding and reduce cases of racial discrimination between students.

Roadshows

A series of roadshows will begin (summer/autumn of 2021) which will be open to all staff and students at DMU. The roadshows will discuss themes, look at race equality data at DMU and set targets for progress and the actions needed to achieve this progress.  Dates for these sessions will be published in the coming weeks.

Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) Student Interest Group

Following on from the above events an open call will be made for students to express interest in joining a student group which will provide an opportunity to influence the actions and projects of the newly combined Race Equality action plan and DDMU project.  This interest group will enable the voices of those impacted by racism to continue to be centred in our work and also provide opportunity for all members of the University to have an impact on the journey to build an anti-racist DMU.

Ways STAFF can get involved

We are on a journey that will need continuous conversations, some of which will be uncomfortable and challenging for ALL people across the university, but ones that are necessary to effect change and progress. With that in mind we are inviting people to take part in:

The Race Equality Survey

DMU is committed to the Race Equality Charter Mark, a framework from Advance HE, which supports to improve progression, success and representation of BAME staff and students in higher education.

As part of this work, we would like to invite all staff and students to complete a short anonymous online survey developed by Advance HE on race and ethnicity within DMU. We would like to encourage all staff and students to complete the survey regardless of your race or ethnicity as we welcome a diverse range of viewpoints, and this will assist us in our analysis. Responses will be anonymous. Take part in the survey here 

Listening Sessions

These events in June will provide a safe space for DMU’s Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff to share their experiences of working at DMU, to identify challenging experiences and how they have been impacted. It will allow free discussion about issues and also the solutions. The sessions will be facilitated by Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and the themes from the sessions will be gathered to provide an overview of the lived experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff at DMU. These themes will also support the building of the next Race Equality Action Plan (REAP). You can sign up to these by emailing equality@dmu.ac.uk

Roadshows

Following the listening sessions, a series of roadshows will be open to all staff and students at DMU. The roadshows will discuss themes from the listening sessions, look at race equality data at DMU and set targets for progress and the actions needed to achieve this progress. Dates for the roadshows are the 14 and 23 September and 14 and 28 October. We will notify you through DMUconnect when booking opens

Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) Staff Interest Group

Following on from the above events an open call will be made for staff to express interest in joining a staff group which will provide an opportunity to influence the actions and projects of the newly combined Race Equality Action Plan and DDMU project.  This interest group will enable the voices of those impacted by racism to continue to be centred in our work and also provide an opportunity for all members of the university to have an impact on the journey to build an anti-racist DMU

If you would like to ask any further questions please email Decolonisingdmu@dmu.ac.uk

NOTE

We have used the term BAME but we acknowledge that it does not represent the full diversity of identities within that label.  We are working with our staff to identify language which better reflects the demographic makeup and identities of our staff/student population.