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What are you doing?

Wednesday Afternoon Watchdog
A campaign to keep Wednesday afternoons free from University teaching. This is a policy which the University publicly endorses but in practice has failed to adopt.

Got homophobia? Get stuffed.
LUU activity groups are open to all. Prejudice, intimidation and clique culture do not have a place within LUU, so the LGBT assembly chair is running a campaign fighting homophobia in clubs and societies.

Why are you doing it?

To make sure that as many people are not only able to take part in extra-curricular activities but that, once they have, feel welcomed to their chosen activity and want to get more and more involved in the Union.

How are you doing it?

Wednesday Afternoon Watchdog

Negotiating with the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor
Delivering letters from clubs and societies to Vivien Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching
Working to link the issue to University initiative, Leeds for Life, which emphasises the importance of widening the student experience beyond teaching
Presentations on the issue to University Committee, the Sport and Physical and Activity Group
Working on individual cases to get students free from teaching
A mass petition to register students support for the campaign

Homophobia? Get Stuffed

Working to create a zero tolerance attitude towards Homophobia
Access Activities business cards handed out to all activity group stalls to be distributed to all members of activity groups. These cards provide details of how to report discrimination or intimidation of any kind.
A LBGT history month in February saw many events including speakers, nights in the Union such as ‘Smash the Closet’, fundraising events and a rolling display to travel around campus that challenges people’s notions of homophobia.

What have you achieved so far?

Wednesday Afternoon Watchdog and ‘Got Homophobia? Get Stuffed’ held a joint survey during September asking students in activity groups about their experiences on the two issues. With over 600 participants, we gauged a better idea of how prevalent these two issues were.

Over 50 per cent of students had teaching in Wednesday afternoons during their time at Leeds University and, while cases of homophobia were rare, where they had occurred they were very serious.

Wednesday Afternoon Watchdog.

We’ve discovered that the timetabling team had mislabelled how many hours had been scheduled into Wednesday afternoons in the last 2 years.

The total was actually 9506 hours in 07/08, an increase of 514 hours from 06/07. The University timetabling team had the figures at 5823 for 07/08 and 5824 for 06/07!

The issue is top of the agenda for Vice Chancellor’s Executive Group.

The Issue went to Leeds for Life Sub-Group, where we have been assured that the “academic afternoon” does begin at 12.00 noon (rather than 1.00pm which is the common belief amongst University staff) and that the policy of making every effort to keep Wednesday afternoons free would be reiterated to all University departments.

The Referendum motion passed comprehensively: 2893 YES to 561 NO. The Union now officially opposes teaching on a Wednesday afternoon.

Homophobia? Get Stuffed
Union Societies named in a survey of homophobic attitudes were contacted and steps taken to address problem.

A talk was given to sports coaches about campaign, requesting their cooperation in making teams accessible e.g. discouraging initiations and adopting zero tolerance approach to homophobia, sexism, racism etc.