Provost's update: Racist and Islamophobic riots – support for staff and students

Dear all,

Although we are now in August and many students and staff (including me) are not on campus, it feels really important to write to you all following the horrendous racist and Islamophobic riots and violence we have seen over recent days in different areas of the UK. Many people will be feeling scared and vulnerable now and I want to send my huge sympathy and solidarity to all affected, and also ask everyone in our community to be aware of how our colleagues and students may be feeling.

Our campuses must be safe, welcoming and supporting to everyone who works, studies and visits here, and I want to say again that Islamophobia and all other forms of racism have no place at UCL. I urge anyone who experiences or witnesses incidents to report them through Report + Support so that we can take action.

We also have a range of support that is available as usual over summer, which we have published here.

While this outbreak of hate-fuelled violence is particularly horrifying, unfortunately racism is always with us, and those of us lucky enough not to experience it are likely to have little idea about what our colleagues who do go through on a daily basis. This is often driven by disinformation and deliberate incitement that spreads like wildfire online and can have appalling consequences for people who are simply trying to live their lives in peace. Hate proliferates through rumours and lies that bypass our capacity to think rationally. Perhaps one action we can all take in response to these events is to be thoughtful about how we evaluate and respond to the barrage of information that we daily navigate.

UCL was founded on the understanding that diversity is our great strength, and it can only be so in an environment in which each person can thrive, confident that they are fully part of the community, free to be their whole self and, most fundamentally, physically secure. We are not perfect, but we are, on the whole, a community that is always striving to reach this ideal.

I am really grateful to everyone who has written to me over the past year with ideas and constructive criticism about how UCL can be better. Please do continue to get in touch at president.provost@ucl.ac.uk.

In the meantime, I hope deeply that our society will reject this violent racist minority and that everyone will have a safe and peaceful summer.

Yours,

Dr Michael Spence
UCL President & Provost