Equity and Diversity Committee

Equity & Diversity

committee

BY FLORETTA SUSILO

The Equity and Diversity (E&D) Committee exists within the Guild as a space to address adversity faced by students and to promote equity and inclusion.

This year the E&D Committee and the Pride Department had a cross-campus initiative with other Departments across Australia and is working with the Postgraduates Students’ Association (PSA) to develop a program to provide grants to LGBTQIA+ research students. The PSA have also been looking into having Indigenous Australian postgraduate student representation on the collective and incorporating Indigenous education in the Law, Medical and Engineering Faculties. The committee has also been promoting current women’s issues in Afghanistan via a student led campaign.

Following on from last year, early in 2021 we experienced a snap lockdown and with the borders closed, offshore students remained overseas. Therefore, the E&D Committee members and the International Students’ Department had an online social isolation awareness campaign to connect students and to look after their wellbeing.

The 2021 E&D Committee recognised the need to improve the knowledge of student leaders in the community therefore worked on student leadership training to increase education on accessibility. In addition to this awareness training, workshops and guidebooks have also been updated for faculty societies, departments, and clubs. Similarly, the E&D Committee and Departments worked on promotion and discussing lived experience training for student speakers. Additionally, an update to the Calista system at UWA will allow students’ preferred names to be used for class lists with campus cards and Guild’s services due to be updated soon.