We, as the three committees representing minority groups at Sheffield are aware of the controversy surrounding the proposed ‘Equalities Officer’, and the discontinuation of the post of ‘Women’s Officer.’ We would like to take this opportunity to put our view across, in order to help you make an informed decision come the referendum.

The creation of an equality officer is long overdue. In our eyes it is unfair that women have an officer of their own whilst minority groups are juggled around each year between whichever officer fancies having them under their portfolio. This is inappropriate for a number of reasons; it creates discontinuity from one year to the next. This creates a lack of clarity among students and staff and prevents successful training on past experiences. It can mean that during the busy handover period it is easy to forget a small, less vocal committee such as the DDSF (disabled and dyslexic student forum) who were, in fact, left out of this year’s budget altogether.It also reduces any mass identity and mutual support between the minority committees as they are all the responsibility of different officers.

Supporters of the Equality Officer appreciate that women face inequality throughout society and believe that the work the Women’s Committee does is valuable and should be celebrated. They have done fantastic work to raise awareness of unfair pay, as well as rape and domestic violence.

However, we do not believe that they show a need for exclusive officer support, to what is, effectively, the cost of other minority groups. If women were effectively stopped from entering certain areas of the Union or University, or had to chase members of security around club nights in order to use the toilet (day to day occurrences for disabled students); if they were beaten up on nights out and subjected to frequent, public abuse (as sadly stil happens to the LGBT members of our Union); and if they faced a 15-20% drop-out rate compared with an average 3-4 %, and an 11% unemployment rate on graduating compared with an average 6% (as the black students of our University do) then maybe exclusive officer support would be appropriate. None of the other committees are asking for, nor do they expect, an Officer for each liberation campaign. All that we are asking is to share an officer with the other groups to spread resources in a fairer way.

Every representative committee has a Union Councillor who coordinates the activities of that committee. These representative councillors are currently the sole point of contact for students of that minority, but at present they do not receive the support they need, as they make up a tiny part of the workload of the officer responsible for them. A dedicated Equality Officer would be able to support these councillors and committees, helping them to run their own campaigns and promote awareness. Similarly these councillors would prevent the much prophesised ‘favouritism’, which opponents of the role claim could occur if an Equality Officer cared more for some groups than others.

As representative committees, we can tell you that we simply would not let that happen. Union Council can, and does hold officers to account and we would continue to do so to ensure the professionalism of the Equality Officer.

As is clear to anyone wandering around the union on a day to day basis, currently the women’s groups are able to campaign far more often and in a more high profile way than the other representative committees (for example: Equal Pay Day, Pro Choice Week as well as the Equality Week we all participate in). Is it not time that the other representative committees got the support needed to achieve this level of publicity too?

We believe that precedent is playing a huge part in the campaign to prevent the creation of the equality officer. Creating an Equality Officer is not about a step backwards, or a victory for patriarchal values, nor is it about a reduction in women’s representation. Their committee would simply be under the same pressures as every other representative committee in this Union. If the union was asked today to create a minority representative post from scratch, we highly doubt that the 21st century student body would choose to create a post simply for the women of the University at the cost of other under-represented groups.