The enthusiastic response to this month’s Queer Allyship survey has surprised even the team behind it, with 600 UNE staff and students already lodging their responses. But a further 1,300 people have started the ground-breaking survey and not yet finished it.
“There is obviously a lot of energy for what we are trying to do, including among people who don’t identify under the LGBTQAI+ rainbow, which is fantastic,” says Dr Christina Kenny, chair of the Queer Allyship Steering Committee and member of UNE’s Diversity Committee. “I encourage all those who have started the survey to finish and submit it, and anyone who has been intending to do the survey to contribute to this important project before the October 29 deadline.”
Christina says the survey – the first of its kind at UNE – will form a cornerstone of the Queer Allyship Network’s efforts to acknowledge and support LGBTQAI+ people online and on campus.
“LGBTQAI+ folks are an incredibly diverse bunch, and the survey is designed to capture this diversity and breadth of opinion so that the services, training and support UNE provides reflects the needs of its communities,” Christina says. “It’s also a chance for us to build a better profile of the identities of staff and students, and for individuals to share their experiences and needs.
“For those who don’t identify as LGBTQAI+, it’s an opportunity to join the conversation and learn how they can do better as allies – to help build a UNE community that supports and acknowledges its diversity and improves safety and inclusion for all.”
And the benefits of the Queer Allyship project are potentially far-reaching. “UNE is in a position to be a leader regionally; to enable members of the LGBTQAI+ community to be heard and to feel seen, respected and safe,” Christina says. “For the UNE community to be so engaged with this important work is very encouraging.”
Survey results will inform bespoke training of academic and professional staff in 2022 about LGBTQAI+ communities, as well as build understanding of how all our identities and attributes – including faith, ethnicity and age – affect our work and study experiences. Findings will also support the growth of UNE’s Queer Allyship Network, which aims is to represent and support communities of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression and sex characteristics.
Follow this link to complete the survey, which can be done in multiple sittings.
If you have any questions about the anonymous survey, or if you would like to talk more about your experiences at UNE in a focus group, please contact independent consultant Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, from Deakin University (maria.pallotta-chiarolli@deakin.edu.au), or Dr Christina Kenny (ckenny3@une.edu.au).