Our student communities are a place for likeminded students to meet, run activities and learn more about campaigns to improve inclusion across campus. These networks are to support groups who are often unrepresented or feel isolated from the wider student community.
Last year, feedback from our student community meetups told us that the previously named BAME network no longer best represented them as a group. In semester 2, we gave the power to our students by taking the matter to Guild Summit, our democratic body. At Guild Summit, students lead the decision-making process to come to a consensus where all involved are happy with the outcome.
In total, 403 students were invited to Guild Summit, and across 11 rounds they outlined the values they wanted the name of their student community to encompass and shortlisted a selection of names. REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) and DIVERSE (Diversity, Inclusion and Valuing Everyone, Respecting and Supporting Equity) were the preferred options and, as students agreed that one name would be taken forward in the interest of consistency, REACH was chosen.
As a relatively new acronym, we invite students to learn what REACH means to the students who chose it to represent their community:
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Students believed REACH was the best at including the variety of backgrounds and cultures represented
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Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage are all points to be protected against discrimination
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The word ‘reach’ has positive associations with action and breaking through existing boundaries
The network is open to all students of African, Middle Eastern, Asian, Caribbean, Indigenous American, and Indigenous South Pacific Islander heritage.
Find out more about all our student communities here