UCL formally cuts ties with LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall
On December 16, UCL announced its withdrawal from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme and the Workplace Equality Index.
Photo by James Cunningham on flickr
The decision was made after debates and voting in both UCL’s equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) Committee and Academic Board. The EDI Committee endorsed participation in both schemes while the Board advised against it.
The Academic Board’s concerns of academic freedom were highlighted by UCL Senior Leadership as the reason for their withdrawal. The Board suggested that an institutional commitment to Stonewall would “imply endorsement” on its positions towards sex, sex-based rights, and gender, thereby inhibiting academic work and debate relating to these topics.
Stonewall is the largest LGBTQ+ rights charity in the UK. Launched in 1989, its current work focuses on working with organisations to achieve LGBTQ+ equality in various home, academic, and professional settings.
UCL Senior Leadership, although prioritising the Academic Board’s concerns, acknowledged the EDI committee’s positive assessment of Stonewall as providing a “clear external framework” for shaping and measuring UCL’s work towards LGBT inclusion, and the “support participation signals” towards trans staff and students.
Senior Leadership stressed its commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community with a particular focus on “trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming members”. The senior management team plan to establish an “LGBTQ+ Equality Implementation Group” with the aim of developing a strong programme of action to tackle all forms of “inequality, marginalisation and discrimination” experienced at UCL and to understand the concerns of the community.
Despite such statements of reassurance, many students and staff have voiced their disagreement with the university’s decision to cut ties with Stonewall.
The UCL Student Union (SU) promptly released a statement in response to the decision, which it found “extremely disappointing”. The SU state that, “it is concerning to see that UCL does not appear to value the views of their own EDI committee on this issue”, while expressing fear that withdrawing from them would create an environment where “gender prejudice and transphobic language is justified under the guise of academic freedom.”
The UCL LGBTQ+ Network, one of the Liberation Networks under the SU, also released a statement expressing how “shocked and appalled” they felt, describing UCL’s claims on diversity as “empty promises.” The Network challenged the Academic Board’s emphasis on academic freedom, which it does not see as a valid justification to leave the scheme when such a decision has practical impacts on the “wellbeing and safety” of LGBTQ+ students.
Student societies have also expressed their opinions on the decision, with The Writers’ Society in particular publishing an open letter expressing the “hurt” the withdrawal had caused. It criticises the decision as one made under the “problematic guise of an ‘academic freedom,’” when this might be at the expense of marginalized groups, and asks university leadership to reconsider.
Since the initial announcement, UCL administration have not made any further comments regarding this issue. At the time of writing, it has also not responded to any statements.
Stonewall introduced its Diversity Champions programme in 2001 as a measure to ensure members of the LGBTQ+ community are comfortable in the workplace. Participating employers who pay to join are given access to Stonewall’s library of supporting and advising resources and listed on its “Proud Employers” career site. In turn, the employers allow Stonewall to conduct reviews of their inclusivity policies.
Its Workplace Equality Index was launched in 2005, an annual ranking of British employers based on their progress in LGBTQ+ inclusion. In recent years there have been around 400 participants, the top 100 of which are made public.
UCL has been a member of the Diversity Champions programme since 2006, and in 2014 became the first university to join Stonewall’s Global Diversity Champions programme, an initiative focused on providing a support network for LGBTQ+ staff around the globe. It also ranked within the top 100 of the Workplace Equality Index multiple times, most recently placing 98th in the 2018 rankings.