Diversity and Inclusion Award

PPS: Poytning Physical Society

diversity

PPS made it their goal to become a more inclusive society and foster a culture of inclusivity in the School of Physics and Astronomy. They recognised they represent many different types of people and set out to lay a new foundation for the Society. This began with introducing a zero-tolerance hate speech policy to their constitution, an ethos they will carry forevermore. They acknowledged university can be a daunting prospect and launched a new Family Scheme to welcome students joining in September. They wrote letters to everyone, personally welcoming them to the University and included personality surveys to aid the Family Scheme and ensure everyone was assigned an appropriate student buddy, or ‘parent’ and diverse families. Their parent not only acted as a mentor but a guaranteed person who would attend events with them. PPS then went on to organise 22 different events in 20 weeks, answering as many interests as they possibly could to make sure no one was left out. Their first LGBTQ+ Allies and Friends event inspired and empowered people who identify as LGBTQ+, educated on how to be a good ally, stamped out casual homophobia and encouraged everyone to feel confident in themselves. PPS also built inclusivity as a core theme into the National Student Space Conference, providing gender pronoun badges and stickers indicating how comfortable each attendee was with being approached. The entire committee made it their mission to make PPS more inclusive, but special mention must go to Lex Millins for ensuring these important

Alex Crossman, PPS President 2019/20, says

“PPS are delighted to receive the Diversity and Inclusion Award! This past year we put real emphasis on driving up engagement by becoming more inclusive with our events and fresher recruitment strategy. We are constantly looking to become a more diverse organisation and I can’t wait to see how the next committee push the Society to become even more inclusive. It is important to constantly work on the inclusive values of the society and I am delighted to see our hard work be recognised. I’d like to thank our members for helping to make PPS a welcoming and inclusive society for all who join.”