The University of Glasgow has appointed two new Equality Champions. Professor Sara Carter (also the Vice-Principal and Head of College of Social Science) will be taking on the role of Gender Equality Champion and Professor Moira Fischbacher-Smith (Vice-Principal of Learning and Teaching) will be the LGBT+ Equality Champion.
As Gender Equality Champion, Professor Carter will chair the University’s Gender Equality Steering Group. The role is responsible for issues relating to pregnancy and maternity as well as marriage and civil partnership.
Meanwhile, Professor Fishbacher-Smith is to chair the LGBT+ Equality Group which works to make sure discriminatory behaviour is not tolerated and covers areas relating to equality in terms of sexual orientation, gender identity and marriage and civil partnership.
There are eight Equality Champions at the University, all of whom come from senior management. The other Champions cover the following areas: age, disability, race, religion, refugees and mental health.
The Equality Champions are responsible for raising awareness of equality related issues and feeding back to the Equality and Diversity Strategy and Committee.
Concerns relating to equality were one of the ‘Four Fights’ cited by the University College Union (UCU) as the reasons for strike action which took place at universities across the UK last academic year, including at the University of Glasgow.
