UCL have left Stonewall

[Fenlandia]

via the excellent Alice Sullivan on Twitter: twitter.com/ProfAliceS/status/1471535974777864195

The full statement:
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/dec/ucl-and-stonewall-diversity-champions-programme-and-workplace-equality-index

This line in the statement made me cheer:
"UCL’s senior leadership team has accepted Academic Board’s advice about the fundamental need to uphold academic freedom and freedom of speech in an academic context, recognising that a formal institutional commitment to Stonewall may have the effect of inhibiting academic work and discussion within UCL about sex and gender identity."

Yes yes YES!

Wouldn't expect anything less from UCL!

Women's place UK and the 'Women's Liberation Special Interest Group' at UCL Institute of Education, held the spectacular "Women's Liberation 2020 Conference". It was amazing! Hope they can do another one.

Marvellous news

That is really significant - hurrah!!

Hurrah!

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 yet another university to add to the list of possibles for my children. Hurrah!

Absolutely fantastic news and a bit of ammunition for me for our Christmas Day debate!

My Alma Mater too, and I'm so happy to hear this, and happy to think that there might be some hope for my young teens future education.

Hoist by their own bloody petard! It really does feel like the tide is turning.

I might do a little happy dance.

Someone posted this on another thread. Looks like an excellent series:

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/feminism/seminar-series/

Worth remembering that the Institute of Education, arguably Britain's foremost teacher training college, is a part of UCL.

Another UCL alumni here, so relieved to hear this especially because I have a DC there currently (and they do not need any more Stonewall type of encouragement).

Well done UCL 👏

Fantastic.

Brilliant news

Fanastic - they've told the tuth with no tippy toe wittering on about value for money. Hopefully that will give other organisations heart, and be something concerned staff can show their leaders as the way forward.

That's fantastic. I'd love to hear more about how that was achieved and what staff in other universities could do to push this happening elsewhere.

As an alumna, I'm absolutely delighted to hear this.

This is brilliant news. Well done UCL

UCL alumni here and I'm really pleased to hear this. We had stonewall in to give a lecture/ workshop about 6 years ago as part of my doctoral training and knew that it didn't sit right with me then.

Such a good clear statement.

Not that I wish to dampen down the joy here at all, but I work there in the admin side and just yesterday we were given a speech which I couldn't attend but could see the chat from in Teams. There were a lot of views from people wanting to contest the institutional decision and asking where they could write to make their support for Stonewall clear.

So if the request does go out where views of staff are sought in regards to this I will reach my point where I need to put my head above the parapet and be clear and reasoned. And that sounds scary. But it shouldn't.

Dappled, is there anywhere that people could write appreciating the UCL decision. Thus leaving UCL in no doubt that Stonewall, whether good or bad, is controversial and divisive, so worth keeping at arms length.

(LSE alum here, and wondering if I should write to them, asking them to take a similar step.)

There were a lot of views from people wanting to contest the institutional decision and asking where they could write to make their support for Stonewall clear.
Too late. The EDI supported Stonewall, the Academics didn't. The 'casting vote' - the senior leadership - agreed, after "careful consideration", with the Academics.
The concluding sentence of the statement says that UCL wishes to be a "genuinely diverse community in which [all] people are able to express their beliefs" i.e. they wish to abide by the Forstater ruling.

I think it is worth alumni writing to UCL to express their support for the decision. Just to reassure any doubters.

That statement is so clear. Take note BBC, that's how you communicate a decision.