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Exeter University - Equal Oppotunities Amendment proposed
Wanted to know what you guys made of this... Someone [The president of the Evangelical Christian Union, who have fuelled debate with controversial proposals since I've been there] has proposed: Amend the Guild Equal Opportunities Policy
Context:
This Meeting Notes;
Guild has an equal opportunities policy and is required by law to do so.
This Equal Opportunities Policy was improved two years ago so that it actively prevented discrimination against individuals, rather than merely reacting against it.
This Meeting Believes;
All Guild affiliated societies should be able to conform to Guild Policy.
The Guild’s current Equal Opportunities Policy is incomplete because while it does a good job at protecting the rights of individuals, it does nothing to protect the collective rights of groups.
The proposed amendments are as follows:
I. It shall be permissible for particular clubs or societies to impose restrictions on eligibility to join or participate on such grounds as:
a) Belief
b) Gender
c) Ethnicity
d) National Origins
e) Sexual Orientation
II. A club or society shall only be allowed to impose such restrictions if the aim of the society is to unite around one of the above, and said society shall only be allowed to place such restrictions on the grounds upon which their sole purpose lies.
III. Societies which are permitted to restrict membership or participation in this way shall not be allowed to restrict the attendance of anyone, member or not at any of their events on the basis that the society is required to show a commitment to the principles of free enquiry and free speech within the law. The only event at which such societies shall be allowed to limit attendance will be the society’s committee meeting.
I personally think it's disgusting, and calling it an amendment to the Equal Ops policy is laughable, unless they mean by an amendment abolishing Equal Ops altogether!
I'm intrigued to know what those of you with a more 'political' [for lack of a better word] mind make of it all, though maybe without context of the ECU's past actions it might not seem as outrageous as it is to those of us who are at Exeter. I am pleased to say that thus far I haven't to anyone who is in favour, and most Exeter students would be disgusted to be at a University that promotes such blatant segregration.