Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil
The Vice-Chancellor emailed all staff earlier today, Thursday 9 November. You can read the full text of her email below.
Dear Colleague,
As I write, the conflict in Gaza and Israel continues to cause enormous suffering for those in the region who are directly affected, whilst also impacting many members of the Sussex community who have personal connections to the region. I have set out some guiding principles to help us navigate these difficult and divided times, as we seek to create an inclusive university community in which members of minoritised groups feel safe and supported, at the same time as protecting academic freedom and supporting freedom of speech within the law.
In recent days I have been deeply concerned to learn of several antisemitic incidents at Sussex, as well as receiving reports that some of our Palestinian and Jewish students do not feel safe on campus. I want to underline that antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism, harassment, and discrimination, have no place at Sussex. At the same time, I am heartened by the commitment that I see in our community to exploring complex issues with care, and by attempts to establish spaces of mutually respectful dialogue and discussion.
I would like to remind everyone about the Report and Support tool, which students and staff can use to report hate incidents, harassment, or discrimination, either directly experienced or witnessed. In addition, our social media and Dignity and Respect policies provide vital frameworks for our work and community life.
Sussex 2035 – creating our new strategy
Last week saw the first two open forum conversations about our new strategy, Sussex 2035. Over 600 colleagues from across the University came together to share thoughts about the Sussex 2035 Strategy Paper 2 (login required), in which I set out some initial ideas about how we might articulate our institutional values, mission and purpose, and vision for the coming decade.
At each session there were energetic and robust discussions about many issues, ranging from the meanings of particular words in our current statement of values, to suggestions of new ways of expressing our mission and purpose, and consideration of how we might take forward our historically ground-breaking commitment to interdisciplinarity. Running through this was passionate engagement with the question of what makes Sussex distinctive, unique, or even, as one colleague put it, ‘weird’. We began a process of collective exploration of how we can ensure that Sussex in 2035 is in a stronger position than today, and of how Sussex might make a transformative contribution to the most pressing problems that face our planet. In addition to many live questions and proposals, several hundred comments were posted online by participants during these events, all of which will be read and carefully considered (by me and others), as we move forward with the process of developing Sussex 2035.
Next steps
Whether or not you were able to join one of these sessions, I would now like to ask you to take a few minutes to fill out this brief survey about how Sussex 2035 should conceptualise our values, mission and purpose, and vision, and about what each of these mean to you. We would like to encourage as many staff, students, and alumni as possible to take part in this survey over the next few weeks – so please do pass the link on to colleagues and friends. If you have other thoughts about the strategy that you would like to share, and that are not addressed by the survey, please do send them by email – sussex2035@sussex.ac.uk.
Work is now underway on the first of the strategy’s core themes – research and enterprise – and work will be starting soon on education and student life, and global and civic engagement. Conversations are also being planned about what we are calling the ‘enabling themes’ – people and culture, infrastructure, and financial sustainability – as well as early thinking about the three proposed interdisciplinary, cross-institutional ‘drivers of change’ – environmental sustainability, human flourishing, and digital and data futures.
Your input and participation are essential in developing our new strategy, and so I close by reiterating my request to please fill in the survey. And, if you wish, you can read more about the strategy development process in my Sussex 2035 Strategy Paper 1 (login required). I know that your time is precious, and I thank you in advance for any contributions you choose to make to the collective project of creating Sussex 2035.
With my warmest wishes,
Sasha
Professor Sasha Roseneil
Vice-Chancellor and President
If you would like to watch a recording of one of the strategy open forums, you can view it online (login required).