MTU PRIDE
Here in MTU, we are home to a vibrant and diverse community that reflects Ireland’s evolution as a nation. As is often the case, our students teach us as much as we teach them, one such lesson being the thriving LGBT+ Student Society. Following their lead, we are in the early stages of forming an MTU LGBT+ Staff Network and have been encouraged by the engagement of some who would otherwise remain in the shadows. Creating a safe space for our staff and engaging with MTU’s many allies has demonstrated the goodwill that already exists, a truly positive step towards inclusion. As part of our recent EDI series of events, we collaborated with Sporting Pride Ireland to create awareness of the network of LGBT+ clubs that are operating locally, inviting them on campus to promote their activities. We are proud to say that they were very warmly received by our students, with many registering their interest in membership. Our goal is to remove any barriers to inclusion by engaging with MTU’s own teams and clubs, creating allyship and allowing members to be their authentic selves.
MTU holds a legacy Athena Swan Bronze Award following CIT’s successful application in 2018. The original charter to qualify for this award was focused primarily on women in academia, specifically in STEMM related disciplines. This has since been extended from traditional binary gender equality to be more inclusive of our trans and non-binary community. For our LGBT+ students, colleagues, and friends, this can include something as simple as flying the Progress Pride flag during the month of June, or as personal as ensuring that sanitary products are accessible to all so that our trans and intersex community are not marginalised by a basic need. We are actively working towards achieving this, not just because it is a requirement of the Charter but because it is the right thing to do for everyone. MTU has the tremendous honour of being the first University in Ireland to be awarded White Ribbon status, an accreditation that has been expanded beyond its original remit to tackle violence against women and girls, to now address all gender- based violence, including that against the LGBT+ community. Ireland has made great strides towards progress as a nation, and such change is welcomed by most but its acceptance can be more gradual for some than others, and we actively support and educate to ensure that ours is a safe space for all, without exception.
Work is ongoing to formally embed this ethos in our policies and procedures. Thanks to the actions of our LGBT+ student society to highlight the pressing need, a “Change of Personal Details” procedure has now been put in place to allow students to update their names and gender on their official records. Enabling them to be recognised as their authentic selves removes an arbitrary barrier to fully participating in their education. Further to this, a draft Gender Identity & Gender Expression Policy has been developed with support from TENI, and the principles of this are already being communicated to our staff through our interactive Gender Identity & Gender Expression training. EDI Awareness and eLearning training is also being provided to all staff and engagement thus far has been very encouraging, Extending this training beyond our MTU community, our Organisation and Professional Development Department launched a Certificate in Diversity & Inclusion Special Purpose Award in this past academic year. This has been very well received and is expected to be fully booked in September 2022.
www.corkpride.com
#CorkPride2022
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