Anyone else work at a Uni?

[Phunkychicken]

Just having a uni wide 'meeting' - much pressure from the LGBTQ+ group about what they are going to do re the SC ruling to ensure trans staff/students are safe - management saying they're seeking guidance on what to do practically going forward. Tentatively posted that some of us welcome the ruling and have had 6 thumbs up - so they're at least 6 of us.

It's so hard not giving myself away but the push back has been insane

UCU have told us that turfs need to stand up and show who they are.

Do you think I need a swimming costume for the ducking stool, or some tin foil for the fire?

Where was that @Unluckyjim I have a colleague who is a secret TERF, he talks a lot about how insane this all is but he will not speak publicly. Even though his voice would carry a lot of weight. He is in UCU and is always trying to persuade me to rejoin (no thanks, I give the money I'd spend on subs to charities now) i would like to be able to show him how mad they are

I don’t feel able to tell you that pithy

There's such a thing as being too clever in a university, I've come to conclude. A lot of thinking is not about discovering the truth (if we can call it that) but aligning ourselves with the right people, getting into the right clique or getting the next publication, the next grant or the next promotion. Sounds a bit Foucaldian - regimes of truth asserted through power and all that. However, I'm drawn these days not so much to Foucault, but to Catherine Liu's commentary on the professional and managerial classes. I've always felt uncomfortable being patronised and told off by people with letters after their names and she puts it into words very nicely for me!

This week I have been told to support staff and students affected by the Supreme Court ruling (the trans and NB ones presumably?)

On making the loos and changing rooms single sex again? 🦗🦗🦗

I feel very, very near the edge. I’ve taken a few days AL to get out of the environment and get into nature. I e tried and tried to get other jobs but I’m unemployable. My family listen to me but fundamentally don’t agree.

I’m going to try and read Catherine Liu as I don’t understand Foucault. Because I’m not the professional or managerial class. People who clean the toilets in unis know what sex people are.

If anyone's interested in Catherine Liu, there's lots of stuff on Youtube where she talks about her ideas and that is a valuable lens through which to interrogate her longer written pieces. For someone like me, it's good to hear this sort of thing being said by someone with a lefty sort of background too.

Without wishing to sound like Trump and his acolytes, I can't help feeling that the DEI edifice has served the professional and managerial classes very well. They've had tons of meetings, produced millions of words of reports, policies and guidance, given each other awards and slapped one another on the back, all whilst enjoying middle class salaries. Yet have the underlying patterns of inequality genuinely shifted as a resulf of all this verbiage? Hmm. That's a little more debatable.

Oh I'm sorry @Unluckyjim of course that's fine, and I'm sorry you are having a tough time. I think we all are to be fair, enjoy your days in nature and relax

One of the issues is that many of our students and staff come from very comfortable lives (not all!), and they just don't care about others.

We had some occupy a building to protest about climate change, and they cared not at all for the cleaners who had to go in when they'd left and clean up the dog shit (because yes they took dogs in with this); and the take away boxes; and other rubbish they left behind. What really upset me was hearing two of them walking out chatting about their skiing trip to the French Alps - I was tempted to ask how they got there? presumably it was a long bus journey

Yes @ThatPithySheep , I was involved in some of the clear up after Extinction Rebellion protests and the amount of refuse had to be seen to be believed, including a lot of single use plastics and even things like tents and sleeping bags which seem to be treated as disposable items too. Join an environmental campaign and the world is your ashtray. Now I'm not disputing the overall sentiment. I'm all in favour of good environmental practices. I've toiled away on desolate hilsides in the horizontal sleet planting trees for example. But I'd have a lot more respect for some of these people if they a) did something useful with all that energy b) cleaned up after themselves.

God, I sound like a grumpy old crone, and I'm only 40!

Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude @ThatPithySheep

My institution has convened a working group of senior leaders to discuss- I’ve participated in a forum- which wholly focussed on the impact of the ruling on Trans Women- the question was asked-“would we be so slow to address a ruling that impacted upon any other protected group?’
errmmm . Women??’https://wonkhe.com/blogs/the-implications-for-uk-universities-of-trumps-attacks-on-edi/

thought this comment on the article was a very well articulated

You were not rude @Unluckyjim I genuinely know how awful the environment is in universities right now

Yes @WineNoMore20 that comment is excellent (more than can be said for the article)

Oh dear, that article … “To put it bluntly: the absence of LGBTQ+ representation in official communications sends a damaging message about the validity of these communities’ experiences.”

My employer sends plenty of communications about this community, on all the holy days, during Pride month, and on many other occasions. And what does “validity” even mean in this context? People aren’t train tickets …

My sense is that compared to other sectors, academia is very welcoming to LGBTQ people. (Not if they are gender critical.) LGBTQ people are not marginalised in academia but, if anything, over-represented. That does not mean that they don’t face other challenges or discrimination outside our sector. Personally, I think class is a bigger barrier to career success in academe, though.

Of course it is. Class and disability are the biggest barriers out there.

Have namechanged for this!

This is on the homepage

" Under the Equality Act 2010, all individuals are protected from discrimination based on characteristics such as sex, gender reassignment (affirmation), and disability. We recognise that as a result of the recent Supreme Court ruling much has been discussed about toilet and changing facilities, which can be a source of concern for some.
We want to reassure all students and staff that access to toilets and changing spaces at XXX University continues as normal. Our facilities remain inclusive and compliant with the Equality Act 2010 and recent legal guidance. We offer a mix of single-sex, accessible, and gender-neutral options to meet the needs of our diverse community.
There are no immediate changes to our policies or facilities. We remain committed to maintaining a respectful and supportive environment for everyone on campus.
Some of you have already been in contact and we want to assure that we are listening and working in the background. We will be engaging with more of you in time to understand people's thoughts and concerns further.
If you have questions or need support regarding access to facilities, we encourage you to reach out to our People Services Team or Student Support Services. "

I wonder what is "gender reassignment (affirmation)" pretty sure that's not the wording in the Equality Act.

What does "Access to toilets and changing spaces ...continues as normal" mean, I also wonder.

Why don’t you ask your employer what this means and what policies and regulations they are referring to?

Then what does make a woman different from a man? Why do those categories exist at all?

I'd be willing to bet we will never see an answer to that from a TRA in my lifetime.

We offer a mix of single-sex, accessible, and gender-neutral options

When someone writes this it's clear they haven't understood. All single-sex spaces are gender-neutral. Sex and gender are not the same thing.

At my uni I think being straight in higher management is practically a protected characteristic, the reach/clout of the LGBTQ+ group is really something. I am central admin and have had a lot of 'training' on this, I managed to avoid the Gendered Intelligence one luckily

Oh dammit @wacademia - I've supported the 1752 group in the past. Why oh why do the handmaidens undermine their own sex?

If I had an answer to that question, I’d be very grateful …

Advance HE have issued this AHE-Supreme-Court-update-May-2025.pdf
Sensible/helpful in parts..infuriating in others but might be a useful reference to have at hand as it does focus on the need to uphold the law including in Equality Data monitoring etc

We have had an update…

We have an equality duty and to protect people we will carry on allowing staff, students and visitors to use the toilets they identify with. If anyone is so gauche as to want single sex toilets they aren’t one of us and can use the mixed -gender toilets.

I have read it a few times and it still doesn’t make sense but staff and students commenting seem happy.

😯😯