As part of its Equality Week, which takes place from March 4 to 9, University College Cork will launch their LGBT+ Allies Scheme, an initiative set to make the college a more welcoming and inclusive place for LGBT+ students and staff.

Launched by hurling legend Dónal Óg Cusack, the University College Cork LGBT+ Staff Network-led initiative will invite staff to support gender and sexual diversity. UCC Rainbow Alliance lanyards and pin badges will be distributed amongst staff as a visible sign of support while awareness training will be made available to staff.

During the same week, Sara R Phillips, Chair of TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland) will launch the University’s Gender Identity And Expression Policy. The policy will support transgender and non binary staff and students to change their gender identity on UCC records without the need for changed legal documentation.

Our #TENIschoolsupport conference is off to a great start, with 14-year-old Kayden opening the day! pic.twitter.com/EuMIZYc5Wb

— TENI (@TENI_Tweets) February 27, 2019

John O’Halloran, Deputy President and Registrar Professor, said, “Equality Week is about saying to the world, and reminding ourselves, that we are a place that unapologetically engages diversity, challenges inequality and builds inclusion.”

Professor Nuala Finnegan, the University’s Equality Committee Chair, said that the Equality Week will be “a snapshot of the exciting work UCC staff and students have been doing for some time in collaboration with the communities UCC serves. Equality and diversity work needs to be meaningful and authentic for it to have a real impact. Equality impact is what we are focused on generating, both inside and beyond the campus in a range of different ways.”

During Equality Week there will also be talks on Women in STEM: Experiences in Industry and Research, a Women in Law Forum with Ailbhe Smyth and Senator Alice Mary Higgins and the President’s Athena SWAN Symposium which will explore issues of gender equality and other forms of equality in an intersecting way. Labour Senator Ivana Bacik, Traveller activist Dr Brigid Quilligan, and Professor Pat O’Connor from the University of Limerick will be on hand.