Today (14 March 2022), Interim Vice-Chancellor David Maguire wrote to all staff. You can read the message below:
Dear colleague,
This week is our annual One World Week on campus, when staff and students share cultures and raise awareness of global issues through a range of activities. It couldn’t be more timely.
While we continue to witness atrocities in Ukraine and the plight of its people, and see how the repercussions of the Russian government’s actions touch lives and livelihoods across continents, it is more important than ever to remember what it means to be a global community.
Sussex has a proud history of internationalism. We have students and staff from more than 100 countries and we celebrate each other’s cultures in many ways, including the colourful Hindu festival of Holi. I hope you’re able to take time to join in with some of our One World Week activities.
War and aggression may have replaced our worries about the pandemic for now, but it certainly seems that wanting to help others during dark times is fundamental to our humanity.
Last week UEG spent time with Heads of Schools and Divisions reviewing progress on implementing action plans related to the staff surveys. Several leaders shared their approaches about what is working well in their areas. High up the lists were communication about what we are doing, tackling microaggression, staff development and workload reduction. Personally, I have spent a lot of time communicating with staff and visiting various parts of the university to learn about and then act on issues. I’ve ensured that the UEG staff survey action plan is being implemented and I am part way through a six-hour online course on anti-racism.
I was fascinated to hear last week about the results of the Kindness Test, the largest psychological study of its kind done, which has been a collaboration between our School of Psychology and BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind series.
The many interesting findings are still being analysed, but the significant one to emerge at this stage is that two thirds of the 60,000 who took the test thought the Covid-19 pandemic had made people kinder.
With kindness being one of our University’s core values, I’m interested to see how our new Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness, led by Prof Robin Banerjee, and our new Senior Lecturer in the Psychology of Kindness Dr Gillian Sandstrom (the first psychology academic position dedicated to the study of kindness in the UK) take this research forward.
The study is also a reminder about the value academic expertise, research and analysis bring to new and often complex developments in the world. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic our epidemiologists, psychologists, biologists and mathematicians – among others – were helping to build knowledge about the virus and its effects that was vital to decision makers.
Now, with the invasion of Ukraine and its reverberations, our experts are providing background information and comment across the news media. Our Centre for the Study of Corruption experts have been providing informed comment on the history of Russian oligarchs, our UKTPO trade experts have discussed the impact of economic sanctions on Russia, and our SPRU colleagues have highlighted the long-term consequences of dependence on Russian energy supplies. Many others are stepping up too.
Naturally, I hope the current conflict reaches a swift and peaceful conclusion – for everyone’s sake. In the meantime, we can empower ourselves by continuing to help and be kind to others. And we can embrace our One World Week and what it stands for.
I hope you have a good week.
Warm regards,
David Maguire
Interim Vice-Chancellor