Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Solidarity Statement 

In the context of all the issues highlighted since the murder of George Floyd in the USA, we have all been profoundly and very deeply affected.  Communities around the world are coming together under the Black Lives Matter cause. 

This is a clear opportunity to change that serves to highlight the imperative to act upon what we believe in, and to advance and champion two of our strategic values: respect – valuing everyone all the time and implement an infrastructure designed to uphold Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within a supportive environment. 

We have a long history of anti-racism and tackling discrimination.  At this time, we need to champion greater change and contribute through education to create an environment that has no place for racism.  At Ruskin, we take our role as educators extremely seriously and as an institution we do not avoid difficult conversations, yet this is a moment where we need to ask ourselves very difficult questions and we are reaching out to our staff, students and our community to help us achieve this.  We will be reviewing the whole College approach to defeating racism and this process will be led by our Student Services Manager, Abid Hussain ahussain@ruskin.ac.uk, and the Clerk to the Board, Alana Jackman ajackman@ruskin.ac.uk.  They will lead this initiative to promote our values, support Black Lives Matter and tackle racism.  We are here to work with you all.  Education has the power to change people’s lives and in turn the communities that we serve.