Friday 14th March 2014 - Accidental ageism on campus

We pride ourselves, as a university, on trying to create an inclusive environment.  We attempt to integrate students and staff from different national origins and ethnic groups.  We have a multi-faith chaplaincy.  We have recently been identified as providing one of the best workplace environments in Britain for lesbian, gay, and transgender colleagues.

But my suggestion, in this blog, is that we have not tackled ageism on campus - and that the principal perpetrators of ageism are actually many of our students.

We currently have the student officer election campaigning in full swing.  Candidates and their supporters are out canvassing every day.  Yet observe who they are stopping.  Hardly anyone over the apparent age of about 21 is being stopped and talked to.  Watch a group of postgrads heading to Coffee Revolution or the University Arms and you will see them go unmolested.  Watch a group that looks as if they might be first years and the candidates leap towards them.  The other day a colleague who is also registered for a part-time degree had to persuade a canvasser that she was indeed registered for a degree here and was eligible to vote.  The candidates and their supporters (I think all but one of the candidates is an undergraduate student) don't seem to be able to recognise that those over 21 can be students too.

This is something that is also apparent at the start of each academic year, when leaflets are being distributed for cheap food offers in city restaurants, or cheap deals for various bars and clubs.  I've seen older students hold out their hands to receive such promotional materials only to have them withheld by the young individuals charged with getting the word across about the establishments they are promoting.  Such older students must feel in some way excluded from the life that is going on around them.

These actions are not malicious or intended to cause offence.  They result from a lack of awareness of the diversity of our community, and a failure to recognise that not all students are recent school-leavers in the age group 18-22.  So perhaps we need a concerted campaign with those who really are in that group to indicate to them that there are other students who are older than them, and that indeed those older students (mature undergraduates, and postgraduates) constitute a significant proportion of the total student population.  Then we might be able to show that we have conquered ageism and created a truly integrated community.