Diverse staff and student community

Sponsors:
Professor Kiran Trehan, PVC for Partnerships and Engagement
Professor Wayne Campbell, Academic Registrar

Key contacts:
Michelle Hughes, Project Lead
Anna Reader, Head of Equality and Diversity
Student representatives - YUSU, GSA and the Student Expert Panel

What are we transforming?

We want a university where everyone can thrive, no matter their background, race, disability, gender or family status. 

It will take collective, institutional action, and we know we need to work hard to keep building an environment where our students and staff can study, work and live in a community which fosters a sense of belonging and is reflective of our values.

Three key interventions will help us lay better foundations:

We want to establish a dedicated EDI Hub (Exchange) for this specific initiative, to bring together all equality, diversity and inclusion activity across the University. Under one umbrella, we would be able to accelerate our efforts, avoid duplication and work towards a common shared sense of purpose. 

We’ll create Listening, Engaging and Transforming (LET) initiatives to encourage creativity, collaboration and community building. 

• Listen and Explore - designed on the ethos of the BBC’s Listening Project, this will provide a collective space for our community to explore ‘difference’ and develop new ways of understanding. It will inform the design, testing and implementation of our approach.
• Engage and Represent - to celebrate the incredible achievements of our inspirational diverse staff and students, past and present. 
• Transform and Inspire - fund and support ideas and projects, co-developed and co-produced by staff and students, which will promote our thinking on EDI and advance our agenda.

Finally, we want measurable impact to ensure we are held to account, with clear milestones. We want to reflect openly and honestly at each step.

As part of this transformation, we will work closely with the city of York, and explore how other initiatives - particularly the emerging talent initiative - will align and feed into building a diverse student and staff community.