The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) will lobby for the use of the iReport tool – an online system that allows users to confidentially report racism – “across society”, as well as pushing for stronger anti-racism protocols on campuses.
USI’s national congress voted today for a motion that will mandate the body to lobby for the use of the tool, and require it to provide anti-racism training for its officers.
The motion was proposed by USI’s equality and citizenship working group, at a congress taking place over Zoom as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in favour of the motion, USI Vice-President for Equality and Citizenship Megan Reilly said fighting racism has been “an area of undeveloped policy” for the union.
Reilly said that this motion arose as a result of the USI’s membership of the Irish Network Against Racism, and said that it is “really important that our HEIs have solid policies that specifically and explicitly mention racism and the remedies that people can use whether its through policy or a complaint procedure”.
The iReport tool was launched by the Irish Network Against Racism, and Reilly said that it would provide a more tangible way of dealing with racism on campus: “Oftentimes these policies can be quite fluffy and students have no avenues to take it through and it just gets lost in the mix.”
Steoyen O Riordan, a member of University College Cork Students’ Union’s delegation, proposed amending the motion in order to remove the proposal to mandate the USI to promote the use of iReport.
“I would hesitate that USI would be promoting a private tool. I think it would be better that USI would focus more specifically on government-led surveys and studies rather than the iReport tool”, O Riordan said.
Cian Murphy of NUI Galway Students’ Union spoke against the proposed amendment, saying that the iReport tool was “very very effective”.
“We have to keep the iReport tool in and lobby for its use because it is very useful”, Murphy said. “A lot of racism occurs online … that’s very hard for colleges, traditionally, to address.”
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union President Laura Beston also spoke in favour of the motion, saying that her experience of attempting to tackle racism on campus this year showed her the importance of a reporting tool.
“The reality is that while we can support people who are experiencing racism, there’s not a lot we can do to tackle that unless we have data and figures – and a reporting tool is the way that we can do this.”
The motion passed in full, with delegates choosing to support the use of the iReport tool.
