Non - Sensical, Non - Sabbatical

With the exec review on the horizon and non-sabb love at it's lowest, I will be dedicating this blog to my amazing non-sabb buddies.

It is an indisputable fact that non-sabbs aren't working.

For a couple of years now I have heard non - sabbs claiming little to no support from the guild and of being ignored in terms of HR support.

It's true. We get very little staff support, and frequently have our emails and requests ignored. Not in the sense of we're told we can't have something, but that we are left hanging and often have to email several times and get a sabb to ask on our behalf to receive any kind of reply.

My question is, if the power of unions is in the membership, if we are to use this through the proper facilitation of our volunteers; then why aren't we even making an attempt to integrate our volunteers with core staff and resources at the top of the organisation?

When the new budget was being discussed for the next academic year, I put forward the suggestion of a part time member of staff charged with facilitating the non - sabbs work and bridging the gap between them and HR. Several non-sabbs, or the ones who are still around supported this idea; however when it came to budget cuts this was the first to go.

This is not simply me having a go as a non-sabb, though I do like to do so :), this is a recurrent issue in this building. We do not and don't even try to utilise or involve the skills and potential of all our willing and able volunteers in any of our advocacy and campaigning work.

All is not lost though. I used to be a 'societies sceptic' in that I couldn't really understand their importance to a union, however student development is a great place to look to for ideas on facilitating, encouraging and developing our volunteers. It should not go unnoticed that yes this does take staff support and heavy resource commitment, if we want to see this elsewhere we will need to make similar commitments.

We need to put our money where our mouth is. An amusing turn of phrase, but also pretty damn apt in more ways than one! If we want more wins in our campaigning and advocacy work, then we need to increase our capacity. If we want to increase our capacity, we have to use our volunteers.



p.s. comments please...love you...

Equality! Woop woop!!

The experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff and students in higher education

In the first national survey of its kind, Equality Challenge Unit has commissioned research into the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGB&T) staff and students in higher education.

Led by Professor Gill Valentine, Professor Paul Plummer and Dr. Nichola Wood from the University of Leeds, the research will identify any barriers or other issues specifically affecting LGB&T staff and students. The research findings, due to be published in March 2009, will establish whether the higher education sector needs to take further action to engage with and support these groups.

Academics, managers, representatives of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, the trade unions, NUS, HEFCE, Universities Personnel Association, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Stonewall and Press for Change have all been involved in the production of the survey which will be distributed widely across higher education institutions.

The survey will be completed online and will be live from 14 October 2008 until 14 November 2008. It can be found at www.equalsurvey.co.uk

About the Equality Challenge Unit

Equality Challenge Unit supports the higher education sector in its mission to realise the potential of all staff and students whatever their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, or age, to the benefit of those individuals, higher education institutions and society
T: +44 (0) 20 7438 1010 E: info@ecu.ac.uk W: www.ecu.ac.uk

The Liberation Survey

I have started work on my main campaign this year the Liberation Survey in which I intend to get all liberation groups together to assess the shortcomings and successes of university services in respect to their members. This will be a survey of how students feel their needs are catered for by the university, specifically with LGBTQ students whether they have faced homophobia/biphobia/transphobia when using services or have they declined to use a service for fear of it. It is hoped the information gathered in this research will get the university to put strategy in place to improve and provide the Guild with the platform it needs to campaign for better provision for these students.

I have begun putting together a budget for this and have requested Guild help for the strategic side of ensuring turnout and access to the survey.

The LGBTQ and I have begun putting together our questionnaire.

My Manifesto

I thought it was appropriate to provide blog readers with my original manifesto pledges for future reference:

* Our University
1) I will fight for Liberation Officer presence on the University’s Equality and Diversity Committee
2) I will lobby Stonewall to extend the provisions of the Diversity Champions Award to cover students as well as staff.

* Our Union
3) I will mandate our sabbatical officers to commit resources such as staff time.
4) I will ensure the Union provides access to activist training for Liberation Association campaigns.

* Our Campaign
5) I will source activist training for 50 new activists in term one 2008.
6) I will use this team of campaigners to survey 300 LGBTQ students on their education and welfare issues, prioritising their own campaigns.

From these 6 promises I will achieve:
1) Improved strength of existent LGBTQ representation
2) Legitimised and improved accuracy of this representation
3) Informed campaigning
4) Make LGBTQ equality in education a Union objective, and from a strong Union, a University objective.

The Funnies Chapter I: Rev. Peter Mullen

"Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS."

These are the amusing spoutings of the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, Rector of St Michael Cornhill and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.

He went on to say:

"I certainly have nothing against homosexuals. Many of my dear friends have been and are of that persuasion. What I have got against them is the militant preaching of homosexuality."

However, in an article for The Telegraph in March he showed his true colours.

"(The Church) has connived with the destructive sexual and social revolution begun in the 1960s," he wrote...
"Back then, I voted for homosexuality to be decriminalised. But this meant "between consenting adults in private" - where "between" meant two, "adults" meant men over 21 and "private" meant behind locked doors...
"I did not foresee the obscene and coercive "Gay Pride" pantomimes that now disfigure our high streets...
"How long before I am carted from the pulpit to the nick for preaching that sodomy is not morally equivalent to Christian marriage?"

Right whatever... anyone else as amused as I am at there being a chaplain to the stock exchange??

Knock Knock, Who's there?

During welcome week this year the LGBTQ Association embarked on an ambitious marketing scheme to cover campus and halls with our new branding. During welcome week the LGBTQ and I postered every department and study space. We postered, flyered and door knocked every single flat across the Vale, Pritchatts, Tennis Courts, Hunter Court, Douper, Jarrett, the Beeches and Queens Hospital Close.

This campaign has been extremely rewarding not only because it has doubled our turn out at socials and brought our website over a thousand hits during the month since, but also brought us face to face with some isolated new LGBTQ students still struggling to find their comfort zone at university.

I feel that we as the Guild have a lot to learn from the success of this marketing, we were a small team of eight who spent a few hours a day from the monday till the thursday of welcome week and managed to cover so much ground. It was a small one off effort which was more than worth the return.

Special thanks goes out to Eve, Aaron, Holly, Lucy, Alex and Kai