Contract for all in the Faculty
When you enter the Faculty building or interact with the Faculty’s members, you are implicitly entering into a contract requiring you to treat others – including, importantly, non-academic staff – with courtesy and dignity. We expect all members of our community to strive to be welcoming towards and supportive of each other. In particular, we expect each individual to engage positively with those who do not share their social identity and/or role within the Faculty.
Staff engaged in academic teaching are expected to create not only a challenging and stimulating but also an inclusive learning environment. They should avoid making assumptions about the gender, race, sexuality and/or religion of their audience, and should take reasonable precaution to avoid projecting normative or dismissive views in these matters. It is perfectly legitimate for academic staff to explore questions relating to such areas in their teaching, but they should do so with sensitivity, and where appropriate, content warnings.
We expect all participants in academic discussions that take place under the Faculty’s auspices to be tolerant of others at all times. This does not rule out robust and searching, and sometimes even discomfiting topics and lines of argument. It is in the nature of high-level intellectual enquiry that the moral ‘certainties’ of some will be questioned. No one, however, should seek to cause offence for offence’s sake alone.
Harassment and Discrimination
Unfortunately, sometimes things do go wrong, and it is important to acknowledge this and where appropriate seek redress.
‘Harassment’ is any kind of unwelcome or inappropriate physical or verbal interaction, however fleeting it may appear.
‘Discrimination’ occurs when an individual or group is denied an opportunity on the grounds of gender, race, sexuality or religion (or lack of it), or because of particular circumstances (family or caring responsibilities).
Advice and Reporting
If you have experienced harassment or discrimination, you can get advice on how to report it and/or get support here:
https://reportandsupport.cam.ac.uk.
For further resources on harassment and sexual misconduct see:
https://www.breakingthesilence.cam.ac.uk.
The Faculty's Equality Officer is Dr Rebecca Laemmle (rl545) who is available to talk through, in complete confidence, any equalities-related issues you would like to discuss with her; please do not hesitate to contact her if you would like to meet with her. There are several other possible places to seek advice: (a) your Director of Studies (b) a college tutor or (c) the Faculty's Academic Secretary for Undergraduate Affairs. The Faculty Administrative Officer (Nigel.Thompson@admin.cam.ac.uk) is always happy to offer advice about where best issues should be raised.
Further support
The Student Advice Service offer free, confidential, and impartial advice and support to all Cambridge University students
The University Sexual Assault and Harassment Advisor offers emotional and practical support to anyone who has been raped, sexually assaulted, or harassed, recently or in the past
The Loud and Clear guide (formatted / plain-text) for victims of sexual assault and harassment also has a lot of information
This page from Race Equality at Cambridge has advice for victims of racial harassment on supporting and reporting. There is also the BME mental health guide, which has more information on support resources.
For further information on these issues and on what the Faculty is doing to to ensure that all students, staff and visitors feel equally welcome and for further resources see https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/directory/equality-diversity