UCL believes in changing the world for the better. That has to start in our own community. For most people this is a great place to work or study. Yet where unacceptable behaviour does exist, it can have a real impact, and it can be difficult to know how to challenge it. So UCL is asking our community to come together and say Full Stop to Bullying, Harassment and Sexual misconduct.
The Full Stop campaign laid out resources and institutional actions for Bullying and Sexual Misconduct previously as separate sub-campaigns. This year, we discuss Racial Harassment and UCL's commitment to put a Full-Stop to it.
Let's talk about race To say Full Stop to racial harassment and xenophobia, UCL is launching the 'Let's talk about race' campaign for students and staff. You can find the details of the campaign here.
Campaign summary
UCL’s Let’s talk about Race campaign focuses race education, increasing reporting of racial harassment and developing anti-racist approaches to change. Our student and staff toolkits offer know-how such as context, definitions, and issues at play, practical measures and tactics at hand that will help to develop a much needed anti-racist culture at UCL.
In order to understand how racial harassment manifests, we must better understand racialisation and racism, then we can better understand the role we all have to play in shaping a new narrative. So, let’s talk about race.
There are three ways to get involved in the campaign. To get involved we’re asking you to:
Talk about race and racism – advance your race literacy and understanding of racism. This might be through formal education and training or by accessing the vast amount of resources available for self-learning. Talk about what you have learnt using #letstalkaboutrace. Find resources on our campaign page.
Let’s talk about racial harassment – Report racial harassment when you experience or witness it. Report + Support is UCL’s dedicated platform for reporting harassment, where you can also access advice and support information.
Launch materials The Full Stop campaign was the first institution-wide campaign at UCL. To mark this important work and the launch of Report + Support, a series of resources were developed, including a toolkit with key messages for students and staff, and suggested ways that members of the UCL community could become involved as an individual, in their department, and included broader work that UCL was undertaking to improve culture.
The problem with blurred lines Most students and staff can identify the extreme examples of bullying, harassment, xenophobia and sexual misconduct, however lower level or boundary blurring behaviour can be more difficult to identify and address. Some examples include unreasonable requests regarding working hours or workload – including volume of emails and unclear expectations or meeting students for supervision meetings at the pub, or in a private home. Full Stop hopes to help address this by helping our students and staff take action even when there are blurred lines.
