Making our voices heard

The University is conducting a review of the experiences of its LGBTQ+ staff. The review will be conducted by a team external to the University, led by Maggie Semple. It will report to the EDI and HR committees and feed into a new EDI strategy in this space and the wider University EDI strategy. The primary goal is to understand and capture the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff members. A secondary goal is to speak others who have a role that is relevant to LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity (e.g. Chairs of other Staff Networks, Heads of School), in order to gauge their understanding and identify training needs.

This is a golden opportunity to let your employer know what it is like to be LGBTQ+ in this organisation. There will be two main ways of doing this. First, later in October there will be a survey that anyone can complete. We will alert you when the time comes. Second, Maggie is running focus groups, and there are even 1-to-1 meetings that can be arranged if that is what you’d prefer. This second pathway is a real opportunity for Network members to share their first-hand experiences with the review team. The focus groups are designed to be a safe space for you to discuss what it is like to be an LGBTQ+ person working here.

Registering for a focus group or a 1-to-1 is pretty easy. If you follow this link then you will be asked a series of questions in order to register. The purpose of those demographic questions is to make sure that the review captures experiences across different grades, schools, departments and so on. They also want to capture issues of intersectionality, so they will ask questions about other protected characteristics and your LGBTQ+ identity.

In the last 2-3 years it has been a wild time for the University’s LGBTQ+ community, and I am sure those experiences will differ across different Colleges, Schools and Departments. This is a moment to let our institution know what it is like to be LGBTQ+ at Cambridge. I would really encourage you to make sure that you have your say.

Image credit: University of Cambridge LGBTQ+ Network