Manayka Walia (Class of 2019

Manayka Walia left RMS in 2019 and is now studying Sports Science at St Mary’s University. Since March 2019 she has been the

Student Champion representing BAME students.

In the wake of the death of George Floyd and the

Black Lives Matter movement that exploded in 2020, we caught up with her to find out about how she got involved.

I was born and raised in Dubai and came to RMS for Sixth Form as a boarder on a Sports Scholarship. After two fantastic years at RMS, I decided to go to St Mary’s University to study Sports Science.

I wanted to be at a university where I could make a difference and because St Mary’s was small, it felt like that would be possible. When I visited it felt like a very inclusive place and it turned out to be the first university that accepted me with an unconditional offer too!

As part of my course, I have been studying a module on Sociology for Sports Science. In that module there was a lecture on racism in sport. I have always been interested in this subject; for my EPQ (extended project qualification) at RMS I studied the question ‘To what extent does racism exist in the Champions League?’ The module was taken by a lecturer called Michael Hobson, one of the best lecturers in the university. (You can read more about his work here: https://tinyurl.com/y4y5gukc.)

At the end of the lecture Michael Hobson said ‘if you want to get involved with this, there is a way; send an email to student engagement’.

That was early on in my first year and I was very hesitant. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that student who looks too keen, doing everything, joining everything. I didn’t want to get picked on for doing too much in my first year. I remember writing down the email address and thought I would just wait and see how I felt about it.

A few months later, a couple of things had happened in my own family which got me thinking. Initially I felt powerless but then I started to wonder what I could do; I was inspired to follow up on the email. I wrote in to say, ‘I want to help, I want to get involved, I want to do something, I don’t care what it is, can I do something?’ A woman called Elizabeth who is in charge of student engagement across the whole university replied and invited me to meet her for coffee.

While we were chatting, she offered me the BAME Student Champion role. It was a new role within the university and she told me that I was the first person to have said anything or emailed her about it. She needed more student representation, especially from ethnic minority students. It is a big responsibility, it is a paid role within the university, but I was excited about what we could do.

As part of the role, I had started to plan meetings with lecturers and the Head of HR but just as we were getting things off the ground, lockdown began. I was planning to run debates and awareness days, but of course everything was delayed. Eventually in October, for Black History Month, we did manage to get an Afro-Caribbean catering company to come in to university for the day and give everyone on campus Afro-Caribbean food.

We also spent time during lockdown looking at the inclusion and diversity policies for staff and students across the university and updating them. Over summer, we looked at the university website and updated aspects of it in line with the equality act. It wasn’t just about race and religion, it was about all the protected characteristics. I also updated the school calendar to reflect a wider range of national holidays and festivals. We started off quite well and I am still very optimistic for what we can achieve in spite of the delays caused by COVID-19.

Being the BAME Student Champion means I sit in on Zoom calls with around 30 lecturers and senior staff members. I am the only student and feel I shouldn’t know half of the things they are talking about! I listen and then they say ‘Manayka, what do you think about this stuff?’ It is really good to be able to share my point of view.

After this academic year when hopefully all the COVID-19 restrictions will have lifted, I will only have a year left to keep working in this role but I am hoping for the best. The university is moving in the right direction and Black History Month in October was a great example of that.

I am also trying to do small things too, for example I am now social secretary for the rugby team I am part of. Together with a friend, I am in charge of the rugby team’s socials. My friend is originally from the Cayman Islands, she is black and together we are the only two ethnic minorities on the team of 25 girls.

When we couldn’t have socials because of lockdown and Black Lives Matter was in the news a lot, my friend and I organised a Zoom call with our team to talk about it. We said to the team ‘we know that you all feel uncomfortable talking about race and we don’t want you to feel like that.’ The girls asked a lot of questions, like ‘is this right, is this wrong, can I say this, can I say that?’ It was great to be able to talk about it and question it all; the call went on for about two hours. I talked about my personal experiences too. By the end, you could tell that everyone felt a little bit more comfortable. It wasn’t that elephant in the room. I have tried to do small things like that on a micro scale. If I can start with my rugby team, rather than the whole university, I am happy to do that.

One thing I have learned through this whole experience and the Black Lives Matter movement is actually how uneducated I am myself. I thought that because I am an ethnic minority, I knew enough and my experience was enough. I only realised recently there is lots more to learn and I have since read quite a few books and tried to watch more films. I read a book called Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Renni Eddo-Lodge. I didn’t know any of it; it has really opened my eyes and I would definitely recommend reading it to anyone who wants to find out more.