www.ubu.org.uk/democracy/events/forums
BME Forum Minutes
30th October 2014
Officers Attending:
Tinate Zebedayo
BME Officer (Chair)
Noorulann Shahid
Campaigns and Activism Intern (Minutes)
Welcome
Tinate welcomed everyone to the forum which was held in the multi-faith chaplaincy at
5:20pm and everyone introduced themselves. Noha Abou El Magd asked about the purpose
of the forum. Tinate said the purpose of today’s forum was to discuss issues in a relaxed
environment, talk about upcoming events and to elect a committee and delegates to send to
Black Students Winter Conference. Tinate said there are going to be more forums this year
rather than just three throughout the academic year.
1. Black International Students
Sooto raised the point that she’d like to do something so that African & Caribbean
international students felt more settled in Bristol. She said there was a general divide
between Home/EU students and international students and would like to bridge the gap.
Tinate suggested liaising with the international students’ officer and collaborating with
different societies for events.
2. Explore ’15 & the BME Students Panel event
Tinate mentioned the Explore ’15 festival as a week-long event hosted by UBU’s cultural
societies that is also open to the wider community. She encouraged students to attend and
get involved.
Noorulann mentioned the BME students’ panel event that Alice Phillips (equality, liberation
and access officer) is organising for March 2015. Noorulann encouraged attendees to send
Tinate their ideas for guest speakers, local or national, and the theme for the panel
discussion. Nafisa suggested inviting an anti-FGM speaker to the panel and that she’d like to
run an FGM campaign. Noorulann told Nafisa to send them an e-mail to discuss the
campaign.
3. Black History Month
Most of the attendees said they were not aware of events organised by Tinate or UBU for
Black History Month. They were in agreement that the events that were held should have
been better publicised and made use of the UBU website. Tinate said the feedback would be
passed on so that BHM is bigger and better next year.
4. Committee Elections
Tinate explained that she would like to create a committee with specific roles so that she has
a team who can work with and support her. There was a discussion regarding the roles that
should be created. The roles that were agreed on are as follows:
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- International rep
- Women’s rep
- Disabled rep
- Events
- Campaigns
- PR/ publicity
Some attendees raised their concerns and felt that they may not be able to commit to a role but
would be willing to help out with specific campaigns for example. Tinate agreed to write a role
description and circulate this before the next forum. The committee would then be elected at the
next forum to give everyone a fair chance.
5. Blog & Facebook group
Tinate mentioned that she’d like to set up a blog to discuss and post BME-specific issues. She
would also use the blog to post submissions written by students, interviews with people, and
to notify of upcoming events. Everyone was keen on the idea.
Zahra mentioned that she was setting up a Facebook group for women of colour only as part
of the UBU women’s campaign. Everyone was interested and wanted to be added to the
group.
6. NUS Black Students Winter Conference
Noorulann described the structure of the conference, read out the agenda from the NUS
website, and encouraged students to stand for election. They also explained the single
transferrable vote (STV) method that would be used for counting the votes. 4 people nominated
themselves for election and each gave 1 minute speeches. Noorulann collected the voting slips
and said they would notify the group of who was successfully elected via e-mail the following day.
Please contact BME Officer Tinate Zebedayo on
suggestions for the next forum.
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tinate.bmeo@outlook.com
with any questions or