1st quarter

Reporting period (January 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022)

According to § 42 para. 5 NHG i.V.m. § Section 25 para. 2, sentences 1 to 3 of the Basic Regulations, part-time decentralized Equal Opportunities Officers can be elected from among the female members of the faculties, the central operating units, the general university administration and the research centers. Depending on their affiliation, they are elected by the Faculty Council or appointed by the above-mentioned organizational unit. The Senate must be informed of the election or appointment. On 18.01.2022, Ms Angela Binder and Ms Nora Krippendorff were re-elected for the Faculty of Energy and Economics at the Faculty Council meeting (term of office: 01.04.2022 to 31.03.2024). Ms Heidi Oberthür was reappointed for the Computing Center (term of office: 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2023), Ms Silke Frank was reappointed for the University Library (term of office: 01.11.2021 to 31.10.2023) and Dr Ulrike Willer was reappointed for the Energy Storage Technology Research Center (term of office: 16.12.2021 to 15.12.2023).

According to Sections 15 and 16 of the Lower Saxony Equal Opportunities Act (NGG) of 09.12.2010, every department with at least 50 employees must draw up an equality plan. The equality plan is valid for three years, at the end of which a new plan must be drawn up. The Gender Equality Plan for the period 2022 - 2024 was drawn up by the Senate Commission for Gender Equality with the involvement of the Gender Equality Office and the decentralized Gender Equality Officers. The equality plan was adopted by the Senate in agreement with the Executive Board on February 8, 2022. In addition, the plan was discussed by the three faculty councils at the meeting on 18.01.2022. This equality plan also fulfills the new EU requirements for a Gender Equality Plan (GEP). From 2022, the existence of a Gender Equality Plan will be a general requirement for funding from Horizon Europe.

On February 28, 2022, a ceremonial closing event and farewell to our five participants took place at the Niedersachsen Technikum. Mr. Schachtner gave the welcome speech and Ms. Schenk-Mathes presented the certificates. The new round of the program will start in September 2022. The press release can be found under this link.

On February 17 and 18, 2022, the third Diversity Forum took place at the University of Marburg in an online format. The forum focused on the topic of monitoring and data collection in the area of diversity.

The next workshop to reach the second milestone in presence will take place on 13.06.2022. The certification workshop with peer review is planned for November. The final report and the diversity strategy must be drawn up by then. The auditing process should come to an end with the award of the certificate in March 2023.

As part of the Higher Education Forum on Digitalization, the German Rectors' Conference is currently focusing on the topic of digital accessibility, which is becoming increasingly important at universities. As part of this, Clausthal University of Technology took part in a survey on the status of digital accessibility at German universities. In addition, the university management and other strategically responsible persons for the area of digital accessibility have been invited to an information workshop "Digital Accessibility at Universities" and will take part in it on 10.02.2022. Our university is very well positioned in the area of digital accessibility. Since the timely implementation of the accessible website, we have been working on other topics such as accessible or low-barrier forms and documents in the Accessibility Working Group. Our corporate design has also been checked for accessibility.

A uniform regulation on gender-sensitive language was introduced at our university. The statement on this was drawn up by the Accessibility Working Group, approved by the Senate Commission for Gender Equality on 12.11.2021 and adopted by the Executive Board on 12.01.2022 and by the Senate on 08.02.2022. This statement refers to the written and spoken German language and is aimed at all members of Clausthal University of Technology. It does not apply to academic work and examinations. The main points of the statement are
- Avoidance of the generic masculine
- Gender-independent formulations
- Use of at least the feminine and masculine form
- Use of the colon as a gender marker when diverse gender identities are included

Once again this year, TU Clausthal's Family Service has prepared an extensive range of vacation childcare options for school children up to the age of 10. A total of three weeks have been/will be offered:
- the so-called Children's Easter University during the Easter vacations (from 04 to 08.04.2022)
- and the Children's Summer University in the first and last week of the summer holidays (from 18 to 22.07.2022 and from 15 to 19.08.2022).

The TU Clausthal vacation care programs take place in cooperation with the mountain and university town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The contract between the mountain and university town and the university was signed on March 8, 2022 by the mayor, Ms. Emmerich-Kopatsch, and the Vice President for Equal Opportunities and Promotion of Young Scientists, Prof. Schenk-Mathes. The agreement concerns the use of the youth room in the mountain and university town for TU Clausthal's vacation childcare services. Both parties have agreed to run these services together on a permanent basis. The press release can be found under this link.