The HEEU Resource Centre is a unique facility offering a wide range of material, books, reports, journals, audio-visual material, relating to education and equality. The Resource Centre is based at the HEEU offices at 5 Bloomfield Terrace, Western Road, Cork. It is open to the public from 2-5pm from Monday to Friday. The resource centre includes Newspaper Cutting’s files from Irish daily papers and video facility. Visitors include third-level students, contract researchers and those interested in the issues. Areas researched include mature students access routes, disability and employment, working-class access, women and employment etc. Resource lists of material that we have hold in the Resource Centre are available on request (tel: Olive/Jenny at (021) 4902167; Fax: (021) 4903567. E-mail: heeu@ucc.ie).
The HEEU Equality Initiatives Database is now in its second year of existence. The database currently has 438 entries. The initiatives consist of projects/programmes, policies and personnel that have as their objective to work toward equality for staff and students. Areas covered include, for example:
adult/mature students; class/socio-economic status; community links ; disability; employment equality; underrepresented groups; family/care responsibilities; financial hardship; gender; harassment/sexual harassment; Language; national/religious belief; race/ethnicity; sexual orientation; geographical location.
Initiatives designed to improve participation in the areas of adult/mature students, class/socio-economic status, under-represented groups and disability are particularly well represented in the database. There are very few initiatives in the areas of, for example, ethnicity and sexual orientation. One noticeable area of expansion is in the number of dedicated personnel in the colleges. In the summary of initiatives contained in HEEU newsletter No. 9 (June 2000) there were 52 listings of dedicated staff doing equality work in the colleges. Please note that these do not include the work done by those on a voluntary basis (for example voluntary equality/access committees etc). The current position is:
| Area | No. | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| General equality/access | 13 | This includes equality officers and in one case a Unit staff teamwhich is listed as one initiative |
| Class/socio-economic disadvantage | 14 | Access officers and project co-ordinators whose brief is specifically socio-economic disadvantage |
| Disability | 19 | Disability Liaison Officers. Co-ordinators of Disability Support Services and General Support Posts. Again, not all staff of disability support services are listed, soactual dedicated staff are higher than figures given |
| Adult/Mature Students | 8 | Mainly mature student officers |
| Excluded/under-represented groups | 16 | Access officers whose brief is to widen participation generally or working with two or more under-represented groups |
| Total | 70 |
The table above is based on the information we have on the database. We would like to thank the HEEU National Network for assisting us with gathering information about equality work being done in the colleges. We also welcome any information which you may have about initiatives to improve participation in third-level education for staff or students so that the database remains as comprehensive as possible. Please contact Olive at (021) 4902167 or heeu@ucc.ie for further information about the Equality Initiatives Database.
Table of Contents of Newsletter 10