“With TrueU, we’re trying to be an asset to the university community. It’s all run on a voluntary basis. It’s not up to us if the university will be more open to diversity and inclusion, it’s really up to the university itself. We can help and we can raise the visibility, which is our main goal.
As a big organisation, an international one, with a very large student community, we felt that much more is needed here. Being such an organisation you have to be more proactive in communicating the values that you stand for. The issue of visibility is very important because it’s not clear from the outside what someone’s sexual orientation is.
‘For students it’s important to have role models’
It’s important to talk about awareness, to understand that everybody has implicit biases, even if you’re very progressive or secure in your own identity. We’re human beings and there’s always an issue of implicit bias, that’s how you go through life. It’s very important that the university as an organisation communicates that everybody should feel secure and safe and supported in their working environment. Only then can you be really effective and creative.
The students have their own organisation called Outsite which is great. In my time it didn’t exist. With TrueU we hope to be there for scientific staff and support staff. The first step is visibility. Then we want to work on continuing conversations about the grey area, and how to counter implicit bias. When there’s discrimination, for example, there’s already a structure in place for complaints and action will be taken. But how do you deal with differences in the workplace or with students without feeling awkward? That’s the grey area. Being a learning organisation, we need to make it part of the conversation.
It’s easier to find an Olympic champion who is out of the closet than a top scientist. Highly educated people think, we’re so educated, we know that, we are open minded, progressive, we don’t discriminate. But that’s not always the case. For students it’s important to have role models, to know that you can be open about your sexuality and have a fantastic academic career.”
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Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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