Staff and students support One Day Without Us, Monday 20 February
Thursday, 16 February 2017
On Monday 20 February, staff in the School of Languages and Literature will be leading a March for Migrants at Whiteknights to support the national campaign One Day Without Us.
This national grassroots campaign emerged in the wake of the Leave vote in the 2016 referendum over membership of the European Union, and is coordinating a national celebration of all that EU citizens and other migrants do for the daily life and national infrastructure of the UK.
Dr Kate Macdonald, from the Department of English Literature, has rallied colleagues in SLL, supporters from RUSU and service and academic staff, to hold a symbolic march on Monday 20 February, culminating with a gathering of all staff and students at the flagpole beside the Library.
The march will be led by banners created by RUSU, and will begin at 12.45pm outside Palmer building. It will wind around the square and past the Library to the flagpole, where Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning, Professor Robert Van De Noort and Dr Julia Waters, Head of Modern Languages and European Studies, will deliver speeches.
Professor Alison Donnell, Head of SLL, has given this initiative her full support, and hopes all staff able to take part will be able to show their solidarity for our colleagues and students from outside the EU, whose role in the university is so important.
Details of activates taking place at Reading are provided on the national campaign page.
The national campaign is focused on events happening or and around 1.00pm on 20 February, and Reading is one of many universities taking part. The University’s London Road staff are also supporting the campaign with a coffee morning at MERL for guests from Reading’s Newcomers’ Group and the refugee Network, linked to enhancing understanding of the crucial role that migrant works and EU citizens have had in the development of British agriculture.
Posters are going up all over Whiteknights: please contact Kate Macdonald if you would like some for your building. Future initiatives to celebrate the University’s multicultural strengths and its integration of European culture in its work are in planning.