through their education and to professional success. UEL has a degree awarding gap of about 25 per cent between black and white students (UEL 2019). The university has a bronze Race Equality Charter (REC) and is working through an ambitious action plan to close the gap and to improve outcomes for all students. To this end, the university has created an Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), (the first of its kind in the country) to lead on the REC and other equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. The Dean of the OIE is Dr Marcia Wilson, who is a keen supporter of UEL library initiatives around ‘decoloni- sation’ of collections and inclusive resources and educational practices. She provided keynote addresses last year at the M25 Consortium of Libraries conference and the Talent Untapped knowledge exchange for BAME LIS professionals.
By the end of the session, there were still a number of hands raised as there was simply not enough time to say all that had to be said. So, we hosted a second event a week later, this time focusing on hope and resilience. Although emotions were still raw, we wanted to focus on the hope and resilience that will help students to reach their full potential against all odds.
June-July 2020
This second event was entitled ‘And Still I Rise’, referencing Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise (Angelou 1978). The event opened with a video of Maya Angelou performing the poem with her notoriously infectious smile. The 180 attendees at this event were also candid in their discussions around calling out racism in the university and the workplace. The presenters and I reinforced the need for optimism, hope and resilience, for the students are the agents for change (e.g., Rhodes Must Fall campaign). We also encouraged students in the forum to develop support networks with one another and to use the services available to them at the university such as careers coaching and wellbeing services. Finally, I linked a resource list in the chat for those students and staff who wanted to educate themselves about critical race theory. The list was also made available on the library Teams site chat; conversations sparked within minutes of the posting. Clearly, students are keen to gain a deeper understanding about the roots of racism. Conversations in the chat continued long after the events ended. We have received numerous emails from students and staff asking what they can do to con- tinue conversations and make a change.
George Floyd Protest in Uptown Charlotte. Photo ©
unslpash.com/@claybanks The New Normal
I have no doubt that the level of attendance at both virtual events was due to restrictions on movement due to Covid-19. With three campuses and a student population with caring and other responsibilities, it was challenging to get students to attend extra-curricular events pre-Covid-19. Even engagement with Students Union events at the university was low. Of course, the strength of feeling around the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests will have changed the level of engagement.
Library, Archives and Learning Ser- vices will continue to build the Teams communities as a blend of online and physical delivery has been and will con- tinue to be the norm. The ‘new normal’ for us will be around enhanced use of Teams for remote or cross-site working, delivery of events, and intra-/inter-insti- tution collaboration. The key challenge, however, is to ensure that we don’t lose students or staff in the digital divide. IP
References
www.cilip.org.uk/References_IP_June_July_2020_pp17_19
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