Trans Students' Campaign

Not everyone identifies as male or female, or feels safe in gendered spaces. As a result we have lobbied for gender-neutral facilities across campus.

In Progress:

• Lobbying for the campus map to include all gender-neutral facilities, and for them to be searchable.
• Lobbying for more gender-neutral facilities on parts of campus where the choice is currently limited: Westwood campus, Gibbet Hill campus, and University House.
• Submitting a project proposal for a gender-neutral toilet within the SU.

In Place:

• Successfully lobbied for gender-neutral changing facilities and toilets in the new Sports & Wellness Hub.
• Successfully lobbied for a policy which commits to gender-neutral toilets in all new buildings on campus.
• Successfully lobbied for gender-neutral toilet blocks to be created in renovations of older buildings, including the Library and Social Sciences.
• Successfully lobbied for single-cubicle toilets on campus to be de-gendered.
• Successfully lobbied for sanitary bins in all toilet facilities.
• Created a directory of gender-neutral facilities on campus.

Members of the trans community often experience significant barriers to participation in sport, from inaccessible facilities to a lack of trans awareness, and even hostility and exclusion from competition. 

In Progress:

• Supporting sports clubs to lobby their respective national governing bodies to update their trans athlete policies in line with best practice.
• Lobbying BUCS to review their trans athletes policy and the BUCS Play app's gender options.
• Exploring the option of pronoun patches for sports kit, which are safe to practice and compete wearing (as compared with badges).

In Place:

• Launched a programme of sport sessions specifically for the trans community, including trans-only swimming.
• Successfully lobbied for gender-neutral changing facilities and toilets in the new Sports & Wellness Hub.
• Created a trans-accessible sport webpage with Warwick Sport, to explain the facilities and support available.
• Distributed pronoun badges to sports clubs, to help normalise the sharing of pronouns in sports spaces.
• Annual workshops for sports club execs to support them with running trans-inclusive clubs.
• Profiling trans athletes at Warwick, sharing their experience and successes with others.

We organise programmes of events to observe (inter)national trans awareness events, and raise awareness of issues faced by the trans community.

• Trans Awareness Week
• Trans Day of Remembrance
• Pride Week
• Pride Month
• Trans Day of Visibility
• LGBTQUA+ History Month
• Our Stonewall50 celebration included an event on the life & legacy of Marsha P Johnson.

There is a lack of knowledge about the trans community and the issues they face, so we create opportunities for students and staff to learn. 

In Progress:

• Lobbying for all staff to receive trans education training as part of their induction and continuous professional development.
• Developing an introductory online course on trans identities, experiences, and inclusion.

In Place:

• Workshops for university & union staff on how to build a trans-inclusive university.
• Bespoke staff training for staff teams across the university, including Warwick Accommodation, Warwick Sport, Warwick Wellbeing Services and Warwick Arts Centre.
• Annual workshops for sports club execs to support them with running trans-inclusive clubs.
• Annual workshops for society execs to support them with running trans-inclusive societies.
• Created the trans web portal, with guidance and best practice for supporters.
• Created the /r/askWarwickTrans anonymous question-answering service.

Data relating to gender and trans identity is often collected via incorrect questions and options, collected superflously, or conversely not collected when necessary to be able to identify issues facing the trans community.

In Progress:

• Analysing student data to better understand trans students' experiences, and barriers to inclusion.

In Place:

• Successfully lobbied the university to collect trans/cis identity data at (re)enrolment, to facilitate analysis of non-continuation rates and attainment.
• Successfully lobbied the university to include non-binary gender and title options for student records data.
• Successfully lobbied the university to collect preferred pronouns at (re)enrolment, which is pulled through to Tabula profiles.
• Created a best practice guide for collecting gender and trans identity data.
• Addressing examples of bad practice in collecting gender and trans identity data.

Teaching can fail to be inclusive of trans people in multiple ways, from hostile learning environments that make assumptions about people's gender and fail to call out transphobic behaviours, to content that erases non-binary gender identities and fails to include the contributions & experiences of trans people.

In Place:

• The Queering University programme, which supports staff and students to develop, implement and share queer and LGBTQUA+ teaching & learning practices. (WIHEA)
• Trans-inclusive teaching & learning guidance developed in partnership with WIHEA.
• Liberate my Module tool for reporting issues on a module-by-module basis.
• Workshops for staff on how to build a trans-inclusive university, and trans-inclusive teaching.
• A trans & queer pedagogies learning circle within WIHEA, to develop gender-diverse & trans-inclusive teaching practices.

The assumption of people's gender, and therefore pronouns and other gendered language used for them, can be incredibly distressing. We work to educate people and provide tools that encourage the sharing of pronouns and the non-assumption of gender.

In Progress:

• Creation of additional resources relating to pronouns and gendered language.

In Place:

• Distribution of pronoun badges to students and staff, including sports clubs.
• Encouragement to include pronouns in email signatures, including the creation of a how-to guide.
• Created a best practice guide on asking for & using pronouns.
• Created a best practice guide on challenging the incorrect use of pronouns and misgendering.
• Created a best practice guide on gender-neutral language.
• Worked with the university to launch the Pronouns: Let's Get It Right campaign.
• Spoke at events such as the SPI Administrators Forum regarding the usage of gender-neutral language and the non-assumption of gender.
• Creation of an optional pronouns field on student records, presented to students at (re)enrolment.
• Updated the university's Trans & Gender Reassignment Policy to include a requirement to use a trans person's preferred name and pronouns.

People's legal name may not be the name they use, and may be outing for a trans person if included in a register, or placed on a pigeonhole, for example.

In Progress:

• Lobby the university to use preferred name data, rather than legal name data, on university ID cards as standard.

In Place:

• Raised awareness of the 'preferred name' field in students' records, which can be updated without any evidential requirements.
• Lobbied the university to use preferred name rather than legal name data wherever possible.
• Worked with the university to restrict access to students' legal name data to those services which absolutely require it e.g. Student Finance.
• Updated the university's Trans & Gender Reassignment Policy to include a requirement to use a trans person's preferred name and pronouns.
• Successfully lobbied the university to allow preferred name data, rather than legal name data, on university ID cards.

Hate crime reported against trans people has risen over 425% in the last 6 years, and reporting rates are low due to a lack of confidence in, or fear of, the police force.

In Place:

• Set up the Advice Centre as a third party hate crime reporting centre, for those not wishing to report hate crime directly to the police.
• Trained LGBTQUA+ students (alongside those from other communities) to support members of their community who experience and choose to report hate crime.
• Successfully lobbied the university to (re)instate the Canley shuttle bus service, for students vulnerable to hate crime in the local area.
• Bystander intervention workshops open to all students in Welcome Week 2019/20.
• Supporting students who experience hate crime, via services such as the SU Advice Centre.
• Worked with IATL to establish a project with the aim of delivering bystander intervention education to all incoming students within four years. 

There are barriers to trans students accessing higher education, as well as reaching their potential within higher education institutions, and Warwick is no exception.

In Progress:

• Seeking to identify any LGBTQUA+ attainment gap which might exist at Warwick.
• Lobbying the university to include trans & LGBTQUA+ identities in their annual access and participation statement.
• Lobbying the university to set goals and targets for LGBTQUA+ students' access, participation, engagement, and experience.

In Place:

• Evidenced disproportionate rates of temporary and permanent withdrawal within the LGBTQUA+ student community.
• Successfully lobbied the university to collect trans/cis identity data at (re)enrolment, to facilitate analysis of retention and withdrawal rates, attainment etc.
• Successfully lobbied the university to collect sexual orientation data at (re)enrolment, to facilitate analysis of retention and withdrawal rates, attainment etc.

In order to effectively support the trans community we need robust representation and consultation/research.

In Progress:

• Researching trans students' experiences from application to graduation.
• Researching trans students' experiences of online teaching & learning.

In Place:

• Created a Trans Students' Officer role within the Student Officer team, elected annually by the trans student community to represent them.
• Launched the Trans Community Support Group, to provide a space for the trans community to meet, discuss experiences and offer peer support.
• Created the trans web portal, with resources to support the trans community at Warwick including the Guide to Being Trans @ Warwick.
• Researched trans students' experiences via the Being LGBTQUA+ at Warwick research project in 2017/18.