皇家华人

In my first Gender and Digital Media class last semester as a postgraduate student, the lecturers requested us to each grab a name card and write down our name and preferred pronouns on it. Through school, three years of my undergraduate degree and multiple workplaces, that was the first time I had been actively asked about my pronouns, and it felt validating.听听

Institutions can only enact such initiatives when they have taken some effort to understand the smaller and bigger aspects of inclusion and why they make a difference in creating a safe space for everyone. I learned about one initiative (albeit on a more overarching level) late last year when I read about 皇家华人鈥檚 LGBTQ+ Action Plan.听

The plan is a comprehensive document outlining various areas of the LGBTQ+ student and staff experience that require shedding light on, including communications, awareness, visibility, leadership, and empowerment. It is a culmination of efforts to understand the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff and students, policies and legislature within higher education, internal data and surveys, among other aspects.听听

Despite the plan being quite detailed, I was curious about how it began and what went into putting it together. What were the big, unanswered questions, and how were they to be tackled in a university as large and diverse as ours? So, I was thrilled when Ahmad Ismail, UCL鈥檚 agreed to speak to me about the plan and the process.听

First and foremost, he shares that the development of the action plan can be traced back to two and a half years ago, when UCL cut ties with Stonewall 鈥� an LGBTQ+ charity that assesses workplace diversity, equality, policies, and schemes. The plan itself came out of the LEIG 鈥� The LGBTQ+ Equality Implementation Group.听

They inform me, 鈥淭he LEIG had membership from across the university 鈥� students, representation from EDI (Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion) within UCL, and from departments and faculties, all on a voluntary basis. It was established to try to pull together what is missing after UCL鈥檚 exit from Stonewall, and they put forth points that ended up being the action plan.鈥澨�

While that was the broad, overarching aim of the plan, Ahmad shares that it can also deal with quite specific areas. They were also starting to think about things like the Disagreeing Well events, for instance, because that can be quite contentious and we鈥檙e working to create an environment at 皇家华人 that is free from hate speech or discrimination. So we are now translating that into community guidelines that we can use for external speaker events.鈥澨�听

For instance, Ahmad recounts their trip to Northern Ireland with fourteen students as part of the Students鈥� Union鈥檚 program.

鈥�鈥淲e talked to communities in Belfast and Derry about the Troubles, learning how different divided communities live with and talk to each other. With events like these, we do ensure that academic freedom is encouraged, but everyone feels safe at the same time. We want constructive dialogue, not arguing for the sake of it.鈥澨�

When any policy or plan has such a large scope and aims to encompass a variety of issues, it involves insights from UCL鈥檚 LGBTQ+ students and staff about some of the more difficult experiences and how they can be tackled. Of course, the biggest concern that came to Ahmad鈥檚 attention was the disappointment over UCL cutting ties with Stonewall. 鈥淚t felt like the university was throwing us LGBTQ+ students and staff under the bus.鈥澨�听

But the other significant challenge that is unique to an institute as huge as UCL, is that a lot of important work takes place in silos and does not reach the wider student and staff body. Ahmad shares, 鈥淧art of the action plan鈥檚 campaign work is raising awareness of all these great things that are happening because someone in the Bartlett School, for example, may not hear about what鈥檚 happening in the history department, even though it might interest them.鈥澨�

Ahmad further divulges that one of his main focuses is making it easier for people to change their pronouns in UCL systems, which is a challenge that many have reported. They share, 鈥淵ou change it on one system, and then there鈥檚 six other systems. So it鈥檚 hard, partly again due to how big UCL is. I believe they鈥檙e doing an audit of all the systems for this. Additionally, we have also been conducting a survey on transgender students鈥� experiences moving into accommodation at the beginning of the year, based on which we鈥檙e trying to make accommodation more inclusive.鈥澨�

Moving forward, Ahmad also shares that they want to view things intersectionally. 鈥淧eople aren鈥檛 just LGBTQ. Someone who鈥檚 LGBTQ and black may still not feel like they belong in the Black & Minority Ethnic Students鈥� Network or the People of Colour Network or the LGBTQ+ Network.鈥澨�

To me as a student, the action plan already seems to encompass so much and visualise the creation of a truly inclusive space at 皇家华人. But as is evident from the history and context that Ahmad retraced during our conversation, there is always room to expand the scope even further and understand concerns as they keep changing. No identity is static, and the needs of every community on campus will evolve with the times. Which is why Ahmad says that re-evaluation of policies is at the heart of such initiatives.听听

鈥淯CL has been around since 1826 鈥� the Victorians weren't very LGBTQ-friendly,鈥� Ahmad says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 still a lot of things that carry on, in terms of structural issues. That鈥檚 the starting point. But it's really important to look at everything because you can鈥檛 just have one person within the department working on inclusion 鈥� it has to be considered every step of the way.鈥澨�

听

听