Union of UEA : Transforming Equality
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Introduction from Holly
“
I feel so proud to be able to introduce the Transforming Equality project- the first one of its kind not just for our union but for student unions across the country. I was elected as Welfare Officer with a mandate to transform the profile of equality and diversity throughout the union’s work (a daunting task as a new officer just finding my feet!)
Since then, with the help of some amazing union staff, this project has really come to life and it’s been exciting to be a part of. The strength of this project really comes from the way it has united all areas of the union. From the very start I soon discovered that many departments are already doing some great work towards achieving equality, but were missing a union wide commitment to make this work a priority. Achieving equality shouldn’t just be the work of the Welfare Officer or of a few committed individuals, but something that we all need to understand and consider in everything we do.
What we are trying to achieve is simple. It’s not about giving some people special privileges, setting quotas or ‘positive discrimination’. Equality is about understanding that, although you might not feel like you experience discrimination, there are many of us that do and we can all prevent this from happening. It’s not about making everybody the same, but making sure that nobody is denied an opportunity based on their gender, race, sexuality or whether or not they have a disability.
That’s why it’s so important that the Transforming Equality project is at the heart of what we do. It’s so important that every student can access education and everything else that comes with university life and that we are doing everything we can to make that happen. In the pages that follow you can read more about how we intend to achieve this over the next few years.
However it’s a long road ahead and this project is just the start. Some things are easy to fix- we can put more disabled access buttons on doors or fit gender neutral toilets in our buildings. The hard part is creating the cultural shift where every individual considers the needs of those who often go unrepresented. We need to work together to create a university experience that works for us all.
For now, if you’re reading this wondering what you can do to tackle inequality on our campus, I would urge you to check your own privilege. Have you been put off joining a sports team because you don’t feel comfortable defining into either the male or the female teams? Have you been shut out from joining a society because their meetings aren’t in an accessible venue? Working together we can make small changes that will have a huge benefit for those students that go ignored so often.
”
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Our vision

Our vision for equality is clear; we believe that the diversity of our students strengthens our community. This is why we have put equality at the heart of everything that we do.
We understand that getting equality right has the power to transform the lives of students both whilst at UEA and beyond. By doing so, we enable students to play an active role in shaping their course, their community, and their world.
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What does equality mean to us?
Equality means treating everyone with fairness, respect and recognising the needs of students as individuals. We want to bring every student onto a level playing field, by addressing existing disadvantages that affect how students participate in society. We want to transform equality.
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Departmental breakdown
- Goals / what success looks like (activities / impact)
Each department of the organisation takes personal ownership for transforming equality.
Each of our objectives put students at the heart of this transformation. We want to break the mould of idealistic ambitions, and thrived to maintain a commitment to targets and results.
Advice:
Activity: We will de-clutter our written materials; providing our leaflets, web, and downloadable materials in a multiple accessible formats.
Impact: This will allow our services to be more accessible, increasing engagement
Activity: We will ensure that students can access advice and request appointments outside of traditional office hours
Impact: This will allow for greater advice provision for students; particularly student parents, long distance learners and placement students.
Activity: We will recruit student volunteers with multiple languages based on the diversity of
UEA students
Impact: This will allow us to make our service more accessible to international students seeking support and advice
Education and Engagement:
Activity: We will create a full review of the make-up of Union Council and the participation in democratic structures
Impact: This will allow us to ensure that the diversity of students who participate in Union
Council reflect the wider UEA student population
Activity: We will deliver equality training to all Faculty Conveners, student representatives
Impact: This will allow Faculty Conveners and student representatives to promote equality throughout student representative structures, effecting change in reflection of this

Activity: We will promote union elections throughout liberation caucuses using past examples of leaders
Impact: This will allow students to see leadership with Union of UEA as an achievable and interesting option
Opportunities:
Activity: We will produce a graduate and international student strategy
Impact: This will allow us to deliver events and campaigns tailored to the needs of postgraduate and international students, resulting in a greater sense of identity and community (measured through the national student survey)
Activity: We will promote sports for students with disabilities and encourage clubs to offer accessible activities
Impact: This will increase engagement and participation of students with disabilities
Activity: We will increase the level of women in leadership through training and development events and body empowerment campaigns.
Impact: This will allow for greater diversity in women standing for club and society elections.
Operations:
Activity: We will install hearing loops at our student reception points through a fully accessible gateway area
Impact: This will allow students and visitors with physical and visual impairments to use the full range of our facilities.
Activity: We will create a handbook in different languages, offer key information online, and allow the website to be translated.
Impact: This will allow international students to feel more included in the union and engage in a broader range of union activities.
Activity: We will invest in developing our website and communication plan through using
Ability.net and iComply.
Impact: This will allow us to gain accreditation for best practice and increase engagement
Home Run:
Activity: We will assess our portfolio of houses and promote access through filter selections on our website
Impact: This will allow us increase retention and satisfaction of students with disabilities.
Activity: We will encourage landlords with studios or 1-2 bedroom properties to offer to register with Home Run
Impacts: This will increase the accessibility of our service to students with access needs and mental health issues
Activity: We will utilise students with different languages
Impact: This will allow us to make our service more accessible to international students

Bars and venues:
Activity: We will incorporate ‘Never OK’ training into staff inductions including Good Night
Out
Impact: This will allow us to ensure our bars and venues are safe spaces in relation to sexual harassment, minimising ‘lad culture’ and increasing customer satisfaction of the service
Activity: We will improve our recruitment drives for new staff targeting diverse students
Impact: This will allow us to have a staff force that reflects the diversity of our student population
Activity: We will ensure a more frontline and transparent outlet led support for celebrations such as LGBT History Month, Black History Month, and transgender awareness
Impact: This will allow for greater public understanding that the venues actively value the diversity of our customers, students, and staff.
Union Shop:
Activity: We will expand our international food range
Impact: This will allow us to be a place of choice for international student and increase customer satisfaction
Activity: We will improve mobility access for customers by ensuring aisle are spaced adequately, and offer shopping assistance where needed.
Impact: This will allow us to make our services accessible for wheelchair users and other customers with mobility access.
Activity: We will display clear signage of displays in the shop
Impact: This will allow customers to easier identify their choices.
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More than just buzz words (Page 15)
Buzzwords are often full of jargon; preventing many from actively engaging. We want our communication on equality to be consistent, clear, and accessible to students on all levels of our organisation. We want to outline the impact transforming equality has on our students through honest yearly reviews of our progression and continued ambition to deliver change.
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Foundations for success (Page 16-17)
We want the impact of transforming equality to last past the duration of students’ degrees. To achieve this, we have invested in the support structure to make change happen, allowing us to increase participation and activities in equality. We believe that these form the pillar of the foundations of our success to transform equality.
Sustainability – We believe that equality isn’t a one shot win. Therefore we have established
structures that are sustainable further afield than the end of the strategy.
People – We believe that the diversity of our students is what makes UEA so wonderful. We want to create an environment where every student is able to make the most of their time at university
Resources – We want to invest in equality. This means ensuring that the structures in place have adequate funding and staff resource to make it happen.

Communication – We want to be leaders in equality; proudly communicating our successes on a local and national level.
Democracy & Governance – We want to empower every student to shape the direction of their
Students’ Union.
Partnership – We believe that progress is most effective through team work. We will join forces with
UEA, local charities and international charities, to campaign and champion on issues that matter to students
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Unity is strength (Page 18)
We believe that working with other organisations will increase the innovation of the services that we deliver. We understand that unity is strength. We want to create partnerships with organisations who have common goals with our ambition to transform equality.
We will work closely with UEA in the lead up to 2030, helping them grown their reputation and standing in the field of equality.
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Thank you’s and key contacts (Page 19)
Officer Trustees: Connor Rand, Holly Staynor, Liam McCafferty, Yinbo Yu, Chris Jarvis,
Dolly Ogunrinde, Tom Etheridge
External trustees: Brenda Handley Howorth, Stephen Donaldson, Roscoe Hastings
Student trustees: Simon Pook, Jess Brown, Jake Anderson
Union staff: Jim Dickinson, Toby Cunningham, Lucy Scott, Louise Goux-Wirth
If you have any questions regarding our Transforming Equality document, please contact: union.welfare@uea.ac.uk