What does ‘Equalities’ mean at SOAS?
Is our Students Union fit for purpose?
By Alia Osman
SOAS students assume that we have an effective complaints system in place for students to use if we ever need it, as the Students’ Union (SU) has a reputation for being radical and at the forefront of political activism. So if a student experiences any kind of discrimination most of us expect that the Students Union will be committed to the spirit of the Equalities Act (2010).
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The spirit of the Equalities Act following on nearly twenty years later, as a consequence of Stephen Lawrence’s death, established the right to complain about discrimination in institutions, and to have those concerns addressed with the responsibility of the institution to break down barriers and address discrimination. But has anyone really tested the SU on this?
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It’s possible that we’re all walking around in a fantasy bubble about the Students’ Union having kept pace with us into the 21st century when in fact it is still stuck somewhere in the last. At election time when the prospective sabbaticals are campaigning and asking us for our votes they’ll say they’re fully committed to equalities issues. Ask them to accompany you to a meeting about gender discrimination and they’re likely to be busy and suggest you see someone else. The Equalities Act 2010 is a law fought for by minorities and the Students’ Union are required to implement policies and practices defined by it and all the inquiries and reports since Stephen Lawrence’s death.
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If the SU don’t base their complaints procedures on the act and preceding inquiries they are allowing discrimination to go on unchecked. They’re not keeping up with the trajectory of development in British society. Students can’t report discrimination if they experience it in the School or SU, if the complaints procedures are based on practices pre-Stephen Lawrence, which have been identified as institutionally discriminatory by the Equalities Act. So the SU are allowing institutionalised discrimination to go unchecked, although they are required by law to implement appropriate procedures.
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The point about Equalities issues is not being ‘NICE’ and claiming to love ‘ethnic cultures’. It’s not about loving world music and dreaming of curry and Rajasthan. It’s about the right to get your complaint heard and fully addressed, particularly if you experience or perceive discrimination. Whether or not you’ve actually experienced discrimination can’t be decided at random by what the Students’ Union feels about a complaint.
They are much more concerned with striking for Lecturers’ pay rather than ensuring that students have robust complaints procedures which are user-friendly for STUDENTS. Last year, I put forward a motion at an SU UGM for the SU to commit to the memory of Stephen Lawrence and the Equalities Act 2010. It was thrown out by the SU sabbaticals on the grounds that the SU could be accused of discrimination. The Act allows anyone who perceives discrimination in an institutional context to raise their concerns and to have them resolved.
Discrimination does not need to be proven, it needs in the first instance to be discussed and addressed by the institution. By appointing ‘special’ officers for each type of minority concern such as disability/gender/race discrimination we may never arrive at a real understanding of how all discrimination works and why it’s wrong, and particularly in education how it affects the learning process. SOAS Students’ Union is busy striking on behalf of lecturers, but students need to ask themselves: Is our Students Union fit for its purpose?
