International and Minority Ethnic Staff Forum
Draft Minutes of Meeting held on
Thursday 23 October 2008
Room 4SA.6.17
Attendees:
Kaiyin Low – Chair
Karen Stephenson
Syd Kent
Bronwen Stacey
Pik Liew
Nelson Fernandez
Michelle Paul
Melissa D’Mello
Marilyn Shanks
Qingjie Zhao
Natasha Ruiz-Gomez
Apologies :
Rev Thomas Yap
Nilufer Demirkan Jones
Linda Pearsall
Gladis Garcia
Minutes
Kaiyin asked all attendees to introduce themselves and say
what they think they would like to get out of the Forum. There
were a number of issues raised, including supporting
international and minority ethnic staff; initiatives and events
that bring people together; to effect change and environment
of respect within the workplace. In relation to this one
member raised concerns about the racist remarks that she
heard from colleagues.
Syd Kent pointed out that the Forum was created from the
Action Plan which was prepared as part of the University’s
public duty to promote racial equality on campus. Ideas from
the Forum, if approved, can be fed into the University’s
decision-making process through the Equality and Diversity
Committee (EADC), which in turn reports to Council. Details
of EADC members to be circulated to I&MESF members.
Karen Bush (Clerk to EADC) ext 3506 will be asked to do this.
It was felt that clarification was needed on the aims and
objectives of the Forum as it is not very clear what its function
is. Is it a consultative forum, policy related or a forum to
support staff? With regard to policy, Syd pointed out that
some current E and D policies are under review at the moment
as part of a 3-year cycle. When the Race policy is reviewed
the I&MESF could be consulted before it goes to EADC for final
approval.
When issues are raised, how are they addressed?
There is no formal or permanent representative from the
Forum in the EADC. If the Forum has a particular issue, a
Paper should be prepared. A representative from the Forum
can then speak to an item. To do this, please contact Karen
Bush and she will agenda it.
It was felt that the various religious festivals which are
celebrated by staff and students on campus should be given a
higher profile. i.e. perhaps send out an email to mark the
occasion. Syd pointed out that this has been done in the past
Action
KB, KS
but due to pressure of work and lack of staff resources, it is
difficult to do this. He suggested that a member of the Forum
might like to perform this role.
On that point, Syd also pointed out that the Equality and
Diversity unit is a support body, but it cannot perform any
functions for the Forum, ideally the Forum should be selfcontained like the Access Forum. He asked if anyone would
like to take the Minutes of the Forum or become involved in
helping in any way. No one came forward.
I&MESF list of members to be updated and sent to Kai Yin Low
who will set up a group email address for Forum members.
They can then communicate ideas to each other more easily.
Terms of Reference – a web link to be done from the E and D
website.
Questions and ideas from the floor regarding Terms of
Reference and the aims and objective of the Forum:
Why is religion not mentioned in the Terms of
Reference?
Answer: Preference is to refer to race and culture, but there
is overlap.
Does the Forum need to be a Support network?
Answer: There are many other Support agencies for staff on
campus.
How can the Forum increase wider participation? 11
staff present but this is not representative of the
University staff community.
Suggestion: Could invite one person from each Faculty to
attend meetings.
The Forum needs to raise awareness of its existence.
Suggestion : Could hold a celebration event. Could invite
speakers to the meetings. Could start with inviting the VC.
Need to raise cultural awareness throughout
departments.
Suggestions: Could run a cultural awareness seminar
through the Learning and Teaching Unit.
Could a diversity awareness seminar be part of the induction
process for new staff. (New staff are sent an information pack
from the E and D unit when they join the University and asked
to complete the E and D online programme. This is not
compulsory however).
(The E and D unit also runs a Working with International
Students course for staff which is extremely popular. It
includes a Student Panel where new international students can
give their views on how they have been treated at the
University). Some of the members present commented on how
surprised they were about the comments, attitudes and
All Forum
members
KS, KL
KS
culture of some participants at the Working with International
Students course they had attended.
Dignity and Respect : Melissa D’Mello, from central
government is acting as an Executive assistant to the VC for
one year. She is working on an initiative to help embed a
culture of Dignity and Respect on campus as part of the VC’s
Social Responsibility agenda. Several meetings have taken
place and work streams have been set up to carry out such
activities such as Mapping and Gap Analysis. Kai Yin Low is
currently involved in this and asked the meeting to think about
the following question and email her with any ideas and
answers:
“Which aspects of Equality and Diversity Policy and
processing are not well understood and how is this
manifested?”
Please email Kai Yin mailto:kylow@essex.ac.uk with your
answers.
Kai Yin also reminded the meeting that October is Black
History month and various events are taking place on campus
and in Colchester.
Date of next meeting
TBA