Tuesday 09-06-2020 - 10:45

If the University of Manchester is truly committed to anti-racism and decolonisation, as it claims, we call on the institution to demonstrate a commitment to Black Lives Matter not just through words, but through action. These are the demands of staff and students of the University, agreed upon through extensive consultation and collective discussion, through groups such as UCU, Race Roots Resistance, Decolonise UoM, and Diversity & Inclusion Ambassadors. We demand:

1. That Black Studies degree programmes and modules are developed and fully funded by the University of Manchester, taking inspiration from Birmingham City University.

2. That the University invest in hiring more Black academics, and invest in new hires in the area of Black Studies and critical race approaches to traditional disciplines.

3. That the University create more disciplinary and school specific bursaries and grants (following the example of Black Lawyers Matter) targeted at Black students in areas in which they are historically underrepresented, for example, Social Sciences.

4. That the University radically reform its hate crime reporting procedure, which provides minimal support and is often re-traumatising for students, in collaboration with student and staff groups such as Diversity & Inclusion Ambassadors, Decolonise UoM and Race Roots Resistance. This procedure should take a restorative justice framework and be built by students and staff of colour, by themselves, for themselves.

5. That the University funds research into the history of alumni and other donors with commercial, financial and familial links to slavery and other colonial exploits.

6. That the history of British colonialism and its relevance to the development of modern British economic, political, social and cultural institutions -- including our Universities and all disciplines studied within them -- should be incorporated into our curricula throughout the University of Manchester.

7. That the University develop a tangible and time-specific plan to eliminate the ethnicity pay gap once and for all.

8. For the University of Manchester to donate £50,000 to the Free Black University Fund, an initiative to create a free, accessible, anti-colonial education which aims to re-distribute knowledge, and to create transformative knowledge in the Black community. https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-free-black-university