Abstract

UAL has committed to “encouraging student engagement in the decolonising initiative.” However, entrenched systems often impede swift progress, delaying visible changes that affect students’ real-time experiences. Explore more immediate ways to amplify diverse student voices with recorded insights from students on the BA Fine Arts course at CSM. Learn how quickly formed student-led initiatives are fostering inclusion and empowerment. How can these efforts be enhanced with greater staff support?

Session and activities

This paper session begins with a 5-minute intro touching on the issue of reduced engagement of students from diverse backgrounds. Here I will also address my positionality, as a Black-American international student at CSM, and how it drives my goal of recognizing the work of my peers through a 10-minute film. The film highlights various student-led initiatives fostering equity, like the recently formed Race & Student Experience Forum and student-of-colour-led group crit. The film invites the student leaders and participants of these initiatives to respond to three prompts, 1. What have been some challenges in bridging your diverse background with your learning experiences at university? 2. Speak about the work you’ve done to bridge that gap and enrich your learning/arts practice here on campus. 3. How has the university faculty helped to support your work in the past? How can they better support in the future? This session would provide a unique opportunity to showcase student voices to an audience of their respected university staff and leaders. In this way, it becomes a direct example of the type of inclusion work proposed. The paper format allows for student participation through the video presentation, removing any barriers of having students physically present on the conference day. Some questions that I believe could help guide the final 10-minute discussion are, 1. Reflecting on your own experiences, can you identify any common challenges you may have encountered when responding to a student’s urgent needs? 2. Given the potential added burden on diverse student populations to advocate for their equitable enrichment, how do you see the balance between empowering students to address issues independently and the faculty’s responsibility to lead student enrichment initiatives? 3. How might we transition quick solutions to students’ needs into enduring components of our programme structures? How might these “band-aids” grow to heal deeper wounds?