Broadcast: News items

David Ruebain, PVC for Culture, Equality and Inclusion

This week the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Culture, Equality and Inclusion, David Ruebain, wrote to all staff. You can read the email in full below:

Dear colleague,

Since joining Sussex at the beginning of October, as the first permanent Pro Vice-Chancellor for Culture, Equality and Inclusion, I have spent much time meeting groups and individuals within our community to listen and to understand the values and ambitions at Sussex as well as the challenges and difficulties.

These have been very helpful and I look forward to continuing them, and indeed to finding other ways to engage across the community. In addition to the warm welcome that I have received, I am impressed by the widespread commitment to community and progress, and indeed to the amount of activity going on, often away from the spotlight.

Many of the current issues that Sussex faces are common in large organisations. Indeed, my experience is that the stronger the progressive values of the organisation, the greater the likelihood that systemic and structural issues that are by no means unique to the institution will be raised, and rightly so. What matters is that we engage in discussion and debate but particularly understanding (of course within parameters of non-oppression).

In that regard, I would like to draw your attention to this recent talk at the LSE last month by Prof Loretta Ross in which she highlights the need to shift from a ‘calling out culture' into a ‘calling in culture’. Culture change is not easy and in order to succeed we need to collaborate and engage in productive and constructive dialogue. The conversations may be challenging at times, but they are essential if we are to move towards creating an Inclusive Sussex.

I am seeing a commitment to listening to our whole community and to engender a more inclusive campus, where we address bullying and harassment, discrimination and exclusion, and promote a culture of dignity and respect.

To kick off what will be regular updates from me on how to get involved in our many strands of Culture, Equality and Inclusion programme, I wanted to share with you details of some initiatives currently being planned, or underway.

Allyship / listening Programme
I have already mentioned an aim to introduce an allyship / listening programme. There are a number of models for this but I believe we will need to tailor one that meets the particularities of Sussex. At its best, a programme can help in reaching individuals and communities across identities and experiences of oppression. It can amplify the voice of marginalised individuals and create understanding and allyship, even where there is disagreement. It will take some time to develop but I will share more details with you as soon as I can.

Anti-racist pledge
We will soon be launching our anti-racist pledge which has been led by Professor Kevin Hylton and fully supported by me. Kevin has worked on the Pledge with the help of colleagues from the Race Equality Charter group and others and it will ensure that our commitment to antiracism, not just non-racist, will become more visible.

EDI leads and our equality charter marks
We continue to work towards our charter marks, with the goal to reduce the gap in representation, award, experience, progression and reward between those under-represented or disadvantaged and others.

Meanwhile, we are actively recruiting new Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) leads to take over from the 2020/21 academic leads. The focus of their work is in supporting us to identify and challenge the structural, cultural, and other barriers, practices, and discourses to achieve fairness, justice and diversity within our institution. Links to relevant information for anybody applying are available on our EDI Leads page.

Equal Sussex
To help identify trends and highlight areas for attention in our equalities work, we are now asking staff to update their MyView portal with equalities data, which will be used anonymously. You can read our staff and student equality data which we publish annually on our webpages.

Dignity and Respect 
Following the launch of our Dignity and Respect policy [PDF 678KB] we are now hoping to expand our Dignity and Respect champion network in the coming months. Visit our Dignity and Respect webpages for further information and guidance.

Staff survey
The second of our 2021 staff pulse surveys closed last month, and we will soon be sharing the results. Listening to staff is really important so that action can be taken in response to issues raised.

The response rate was lower than we would hope but was against the backdrop of a lot of other engagement activities, a change in leadership and the fact that we are still working through the pandemic.

While there were many areas which show room for improvement, one area which has improved is that people feel more able to report bullying and harassment, which is likely to be due to the new Report and Support tool launched in August this year and was introduced as a direct result of the previous survey of 2021.

Kindness
Last Saturday we were one of the partners of KindFest on World Kindness Day, the world’s largest online festival of kindness. We are also developing a specialism in the science of kindness, with an interdisciplinary research group - headed by Professor Banerjee - dedicated to examining how a kindness culture impacts well-being and different aspects of society.

Sussex academics also partnered with BBC Radio 4 on The Kindness Test, a huge public science project aimed at increasing our understanding of the role that kindness plays in our lives.

Mental health
The Mental Health Forum launched in December 2020 and has 67 representatives from around the University, whose aim is to focus on priorities to improve the provision of mental health support across the University.

We have now launched our Mental Health policy, have mental health training for managers and have trained a group of mental health first aiders, and are working with our first aiders to set up a network that staff and managers can contact for information and support.

Find out more
You can find out more about what other CEI initiatives are planned and underway on our Inclusive Sussex webpages.

Key dates
Finally, there are three upcoming dates for your diary, that the University will be marking:

Trans Memorial Day - Saturday 20 November
The Trans Memorial Day Flag is raised this week ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on 20 November, to commemorate all those who have been killed as a result of transphobic violence.

Celebrating LGBTQ+ People in STEM - Monday 22 November (12 - 1pm)
On Monday I’m looking forward to meeting Professor Tom Welton, the current President of the Royal College of Chemistry - and a Sussex alumni – who will be holding a talk and panel Q&A to explore building careers and underrepresentation of LGBTQ+ people in STEM. Tom is also a Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College and will be joined by Dr Duncan Shrewsbury, Senior Lecturer in General Practice and Jamie Chan, Doctoral Researcher, Psychology. The event will be held at the Arts C133 lecture theatre and will be streamed virtually on Zoom.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women - Thursday 25 November
On 25 November, we will we mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Women's rights activists have observed 25 November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This date was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

In 2000, the UN General Assembly officially designated 25 November as the International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Our Report and Support tool makes it easier for staff and students to report an incident of sexual misconduct, domestic violence or hate crime and receive the support that they need. The tool enables us to promote and advise students of the proactive support and education around this area that we will continue to grow in partnership with students. The University has recruited a Sexual & Domestic Violence Response Advisor who will manage our response to students who make reports.

You can find information about this support on our website, including how to access help in an emergency, sources of on-campus and off-campus support, your options for deciding what to do following an assault, and links to ongoing support services.

Meanwhile, our teams have an open door to providing support. You can seek confidential advice and guidance from our professional advisors at the Student Life Centre on any issue. Student Life Centre offer telephone, email, zoom and in-person support advice and guidance.

Disability History Month - 18 November to 18 December
To mark Disability History Month - 18 November to 18 December, the Disability flag will be going up on Sussex House from Monday 22 November.

Throughout the month - which this year is focussing specifically on hidden disabilities - we will be highlighting what managers can do to support people with hidden disabilities and making workplace adjustments. We will be rolling out a new policy which will be supported a toolkit for managers.

Interestingly, some of these arrangements may be necessary for some but good for all for all - and it’s how we can highlight some of the positive experiences and how this can actually be continuous improvement to ways of working rather than huge changes.

With good wishes,

David Ruebain
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Culture, Equality and Inclusion