I wanted to write to members of the University community to provide some information about two unacceptable incidents that occurred towards the end of last academic year. The University had reported to it two incidents of racist behaviour by students. These were thoroughly investigated under the University’s disciplinary Ordinance XVII and formal disciplinary action was taken against those responsible.

I wanted to take this opportunity to emphasise a few points:

• The University is a diverse community that will not tolerate racist, hateful or other offensive or discriminatory behaviour.

• I hope that these cases are isolated, but if for whatever reason they are not, I would strongly encourage any victim of such behaviour to report it to the University. You can do this using security@lboro.ac.uk or by calling (01509) 222141. I want you to have confidence that the University will treat any issues reported seriously and will investigate.

• I would encourage all members of the University community to reflect upon the language that they use. In these specific cases there was some evidence to suggest the individuals did not intend to cause offence and yet the language they used was deeply offensive to any reasonable observer.

• LSU will be running a number of diversity-related events and campaigns over the course of this year. The University strongly supports these and I would encourage you to get involved in as many of these as possible. Our diversity as a community is one of things that makes for a great experience so we should celebrate this. 

Put simply - racist behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the University.

Richard Taylor
Chief Operating Officer
Loughborough University