UNSW Queer Collective Newsletter - October 2023

As we enter Week 8 we hope everyone is feeling pushing through with in their studies and are preparing for exams! We'd like to give an update on our events, our discussions with the School of Social Sciences, and remind you all of academic resources available to you.

Events

2024 Planning Day

We're hosting a planning day for the 2024 Queer Collective strategy to be discussed and developed. We're looking for event ideas, as well as campaigns and initiatives we can take up to improve the experience of queer students at UNSW. While the time hasn't been confirmed yet, keep an eye on our socials 😉

School of Social Sciences

The queer officers and a small group of students had a meeting with Prof. Jan Breckenridge and Assoc. Prof. Melanie White from the School of Social Sciences to dicuss reports of transphobic content in lectures and tutorials controlled by the school.

We requested to access to course content for the flagged subjects bu were informed that we would not be granted access since we are not a UNSW-empowered investigative body. Prof. Beckenridge reveiwed the material and ensured us that transphobic content was not present in the lecture or tutorial slides.

We were asked to act as a proxy for two students for their complaints but the school explained that they would only internally proccess complaints made directly by the students. As Queer officers we are able to act as a support person or advisor for affected student but we are not able to proccess complains on behalf of students. One of the students was in the meeting with us and was able to directly relay their experience to the school. This complaint is now being processed internally by the school.

The School of Social Sciences has decided to hold a staff-only town hall at the end of this year. There will also be another Town Hall in early 2024 which will address student concerns.

We will continue to monitor the status of the complaints made and observe the steps taken by the school of Social Sciences to prevent offensive content in their school.

Queer Collective x EDI - 2024 Mardi Gras

We're hosting a panel discussion with the top brass at UNSW to discuss the university's strategy and approach to dealing with issues faced by queer students, researchers, and staff. We aim to use this as an opportunity for students to discuss their concerns with the people making decisions, as well as for those decision-makers to have a better understanding of what the community wants. Suggestions for questions will be opened in early February, and there will be opportunities to ask more questions on the day.

Academic support

With the upcoming exam season we'd like to remind you about the Academic skill support consultations (https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/skills/contact) which will help you build skills for this exam season.

Additionally the Academic Success program which is an online learning resource to keep you on track with your studies (https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/backontrack).