Colleagues from Bath Spa University joined staff and students on our campus for an informative and thought-provoking day of talks and workshops on equality and diversity issues.
The Chair of the Forum was Professor Gareth Price. He provided the initial remarks about the forum and welcomed guests, staff, students from the University of Bath, Bath Spa University and visitors to the University.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kevin Edge gave a short introduction and remarked on the name of the new arts building - which he was not involved in naming - The Edge, new arts and management building on the East side of the campus.
Mark Humphriss, University Secretary, University of Bath and Dr Kate Reynolds, Head of Education, Bath Spa University both provided equality perspectives from both our universities. This was followed by questions from the floor.
The Keynote speaker was Dr Linda Papadopoulos. Her very informative talk centred on "Body Image: How Self Perception impacts Leadership and Success". Using illustrations, numerical and anecdotal evidence she took us all on an interesting and intriguing journey of self-discovery and raised our awareness of how we can project our inner feelings into our outward behaviour. She talked about how this can lead to success or failure depending on how we react. She provided us with many examples of ways to improve our success at work and in life.
The feedback from participants about her talk was excellent with 99% of attendees reporting 5/5 for her presentation and content of her talk. One participant said 'Loved Dr Papadopoulos!!! Loved the whole day'. Another participant said 'Top Notch keynote speaker-Modern relevant content-challenging'. Participants found her session inspirational, informative and educational.
Delegates then had the opportunity to purchase a personally signed book by the author - Dr Papadopoulos or Dr Phipps.
The afternoon consisted of 4 workshops on hot topics:
- Age - facilitated by Chris Haines from ACAS
- Unconscious Bias - facilitated by **Vanessa Boon from Energise
- 'Lad culture' (University of Bath and Bath Spa SUs Top 10 topic) - facilitated by Dr Alison Philpps, Co-author of 'That's What She Said' (NUS report)
- Student Participation - facilitated by Elorm Haligah and Naivasha Mwanji from Elevation Networks
Delegates said that their next actions after attending the Forum would be to :-
"Feedback issues to my team". "Be more mindful of 'my' unconscious bias". "Be more empathetic about discrimination". "I will begin to speak up when I feel that someone's behaviour is inappropriate or offensive". "Develop an action plan around 'lad' culture". "Plan unconscious bias talk focussing on LGBTQ issues". "Share my experience with my colleagues, friends and family".
And finally ....
"Really enjoyed the workshops and talks". "Great to have a combined event with Bath Spa". "Well organised, good keynote speaker and good to meet colleagues from outside my institution". "Thought provoking and engaging - Thank you"