Aparna Golla, Community Officer 

The celebrations during LGBTQIA+ History Month were fantastic, raising awareness around its significance. Kids Crafternoon was a delightful event with children participating alongside their parents. We are planning to celebrate Holi next month which will have colors, Indian food and music involved. Please share your ideas with us and actively participate to make the event a successful one!

Jack Craig , LGBTQIA+ Student Community Engagement Lead 

I hope you’re all having a good start to March and a calm lead up to deadlines.

Just a quick update for you all on the work being done for LGBTQIA+ students by Your SU and Community Engagement Lead:

• Transgender and Non-binary Awareness Campaign: Name Change Policy – Training of university teams is still underway with Success Coaches and Health and Wellbeing having completed the training. We are looking to continue with Registry, Info Point and Academic Staff so that all student facing staff have a preliminary understanding of gender diverse students and how to direct those seeking a name change.
•  Additionally, the Student’s Union has won Campaign of the Year Award at National Student Pride for 2024 for the above campaign!
• We hosted a number of exciting creative workshops throughout LGBTQIA+ History Month with author and writer Wren James joining us for a brilliant writing diversely workshop, followed by zine making and crafternoon.
• These workshops culminated into our final event the open exhibition which saw performances from SU societies and external local organisations coming in to talk to students about the support available for this community in Coventry.

We have a LGBTQIA+ Coffee Hour starting where refreshments will be provided alongside games, this is a great opportunity for students to socialise and meet fellow LGBTQIA+ students as well as learn about the support available at the university. Look out for our newsletters for more details. 

Wishing you all a successful end to semester 2!

Lottie Cree, Disabled Students’ Community Engagement Lead 

This month, we've been starting work on building a campus that is better suited to neurodiverse students. This includes adding sensory rooms and trying to build more awareness and create friendlier spaces. We've also been busy making events for upcoming awareness days and bringing in guest speakers to help spread more acceptance for each disability that we represent. 

Oduduabasi Umo-Odiong, International Students’ Community Engagement Lead

February was dedicated towards planning the upcoming International Festival. I have been meeting and working with Your SU staff to plan and design activities for the festival which is slated for 18th – 22nd March, 2024. The activities that have been planned out include a cultural display from different International and Cultural Societies (“Celebrating your Culture” event), Cultural Crafting and an International Fair. So far, I have also engaged with the Committee Executives of some of the societies to ensure their societies’ participation, and I genuinely look forward to an engaging International Festival. Lastly, the Community will be having a virtual career development session sometime in March 2024. The date and time will be confirmed as soon as possible. 

Momina Moin, Global Majority Students’ Community Engagement Lead 

This month me as a Global Majority Community Lead and my team members have been working on a project that reflects the significance of globalization. We aim to create an event that replicates the General Assembly Session of United Nations. This will serve as a platform for all the students to represent the country of their choice, discuss the issues associated with it, and try to draft valuable solutions to the prevalent issues. This will bring all diverse groups under one roof to come up with global solutions to the existing global problems.

Sophie Horton, Women’s Student Community Engagement Lead 

February has been a busy month for the Women’s community, as we’ve been preparing for International Women’s Day celebrations that will spread all across March. Weekly we at the SU have been meeting, taking your suggestions and organising celebrations, events to tackle women’s safety and even events to support networking and your professional future. Starting from the 7th of March we will be hosting a safety fair in the hub with multiple outside organisations, to promote and advise on your safety here at Coventry University, and especially during Coventry’s popular night-life.   

Then on the official International Women’s Day 8th of March, we are hosting a Poetry Slam in the Hub to celebrate women’s stories! Open for everyone to perform their poetry, or if we’re lucky maybe some music, we hope for a night of creativity and celebration for all to really showcase the skills of our students.  

And finally on the 11 March in the hub and 28th of March at CU Coventry, we are hosting networking and photo sessions, in which women from across Coventry University can come along and have a professional headshot taken to then use in their professional endeavours. These photos can also then be used in our International Women’s Day photo-campaign on the SU website, in which we will be celebrating the the wide variety and identities of Women here at Coventry University.  

We’ve been working so hard to get everything ready, for you to have the best International Women’s Day, and we can’t wait to see you all there!!