A campaign that is very close to my heart as you may know. I have attended and spoken at both the Bristol and Swindon protests, ensuring that my voice and that of our students is heard.
A campaign that is very close to my heart as you may know. I have attended and spoken at both the Bristol and Swindon protests, ensuring that my voice and that of our students is heard.
We shared our initial statement with some personal comments from the Presidents Team and followed this up with our ‘What you can do’ content, which details information on education resources, petitions, organisations to donate to, how to write to your MP and four key points that we as a Students’ Union will continue with. This included listening forums, which began this month.
Earlier this month, I shared a video addressing some of my personal concerns. We also shared a very powerful poem written by UWE Bristol student, Donnell Asare. I am excited to say that as a union, we have decided to run a yearlong BLM campaign, which means celebrating our black students is not only restricted to Black History Month (BHM), something I hoped to achieve by initially launching the Black Hall of Fame.
Recent happenings have led to various discussions and planning is already underway for the upcoming BHM, which will all be handed over to the incoming Presidents.
It is also important to note that we are currently working with the university, to ensure that best practice is put in place to ensure the safety of our black students during these challenging times. This work with the university includes working together on reviewing the zero-tolerance policy, and also shaping the teaching block zero induction program to include topics around race.
We have also partnered with SARI (Stand against Racism and Inequality) a black-led independent charity organisation, to arrange a three-way meeting to continue these discussions between The Students’ Union and UWE Bristol.
To find out what you can do to support, check out our resources here.