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TU-Clausthal Equal Opportunity

3rd quarter

Reporting period July 01 - September 30, 2022

Gender equality work

  • A joint meeting of mentors and mentees from both rounds of the mentoring program and the first annual celebration of the women's network "Women&Science at Clausthal University of Technology" took place on the weekend of 1 to 3 July 2022 and was a great success. The program was very diverse and offered both opportunities for networking and a framework for working on topics relevant to promoting the careers of female scientists at Clausthal University of Technology. After a ceremonial opening on Friday afternoon and the presentation of the creation of the women's network at Clausthal University of Technology, the mentees completed a workshop on the topic of sovereignty the next day and the mentors worked on a networking strategy and future participation in the women's network under the guidance of a professional coach. The press release can be found under this link.
  • The WiMINToring mentoring program for female Master's students is slowly coming to an end. The ceremonial closing event took place on October 14, 2022 in presence. In July, our mentees took part in a group coaching session focusing on career planning and in September in another digital workshop on the topic of "Confident Communication".
  • A particular highlight of the mentoring program was the networking evening on 23 September 2022 on the topic of "The relevance of networks for careers". First, the invited speaker and graduate of Clausthal University of Technology, Ms Özlem Terzi (Bosch GmbH), presented her career, which is characterized by internationalization, and was available to the participants for an exchange. Afterwards, our women's network "Women&Science TU Clausthal" presented itself.
  • In Germany, there are still far fewer women than men starting a company. To give our female students the opportunity to gather some information on this topic, we organized the workshop on starting a business. On September 30, 2022, a three-hour workshop "My path to self-employment: basic knowledge for starting a business" was held for female Master's students. The speakers were Anja Blümel (start-up consultant for the Goslar economic region) and Simon Wolters (start-up consultant at Clausthal University of Technology).
  • The third round of the WiMINToring mentoring program for young female scientists is currently being advertised and the start is planned for January 2023.
  • After the first Women's Sports Day in 2021 was a great success, the Goslar District Sports Association, in cooperation with the equal opportunities offices of Clausthal University of Technology, the district of Goslar and the mountain and university town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, once again organized a Women's Sports Day this year. The event took place on Friday, September 9, 2022 at the outdoor sports facility at Clausthal University of Technology.
  • The state program Niedersachsen-Technikum has successfully started in the new round 2022/23 at Clausthal University of Technology. On September 5, 2022, four new participants were welcomed to our university. A short report can be found under this link. In the winter semester 2022/23, the participants will attend selected events at Clausthal University of Technology one day a week. On the other days, they will be employed by the partner companies Sympatec GmbH, Albemarle Germany GmbH, Piller Group GmbH and KWS SAAT SE & Co KGaA.
  • Furthermore, various advertising measures (including careers fairs and information events in regional schools) are carried out for the programs of the Equal Opportunities Office for female students. Also at the Ideas Expo in Hanover on July 8, 2022, the coordinator of the Niedersachsen Technikum was there together with a former participant to promote the Niedersachsen Technikum at Clausthal University of Technology. Charlotte Korb, a technician from the last round at Clausthal University of Technology, spoke on stage about her experiences.
  • The first excursion as part of the Niedersachsen Technikum took them to the Youth Academy atRammelsberg together with the technicians from TU Braunschweig, where they learned about the past and present use of copper. The Youth Academy "Learning from Miners" was developed jointly by the Rammelsberg World Heritage Site and the Institute for Processing, Recycling and Circular Economy Systems (IFAD) at Clausthal University of Technology. The aim is to impart knowledge about the collection and recycling of old electrical appliances and the extraction and recovery of copper. After a guided tour of the Roeder mine, they experimented with the topic of raw material scarcity and recycling. The press release can be found under this link.
  • The Equal Opportunities Office recently offered a tailor-made taster day at Clausthal University of Technology for interested schoolgirls, supervised by student assistants from the Equal Opportunities Office. In July, two schoolgirls took advantage of this exclusive offer.

Diversity management

  • One of the central measures in the diversity audit is the development of TU Clausthal's diversity strategy. The strategy group took on this task and discussed the final draft of the diversity strategy with the entire steering committee of the diversity audit in the last workshop on June 13, 2022. After incorporating the steering committee's comments, the agreed draft of the diversity strategy was submitted to the university's committees for approval. On July 8, 2022, the Senate Commission for Gender Equality recommended that the Senate approve the diversity strategy (unanimous resolution). The diversity strategy was the subject of the Executive Board meeting on July 12, 2022. The Senate took note of and approved the diversity strategy of Clausthal University of Technology on July 19, 2022 (unanimous resolution).the diversity strategy of Clausthal University of Technology can be found at this link.
  • The certification workshop with peer review is planned for November 14, 2022. The final event for the auditing process with presentation of the certificate is scheduled for March 2023.
  • On July 5, 2022, the DFG announced that the aspect of diversity will be included in the so-called research-oriented equality standards, which will now be called "Research-oriented equality and diversity standards". In addition to the topic of equality, diversity is also to play a greater role in the DFG's own funding activities. As statutory objectives, both topics are of paramount importance for the DFG's work. As part of a voluntary commitment, the members of the DFG anchored further diversity dimensions in the research-oriented equality standards that have been in place since 2008. In addition to gender and gender identity, they now also include ethnic origin, religion and ideology, disability or chronic/long-term illness as well as social background and sexual orientation. The combination of several dimensions of difference in one person (intersectionality) should also be given appropriate consideration. In addition, the DFG members acknowledge their responsibility towards members of their institutions and other persons with regard to protection against sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying. The DFG's research-oriented equality and diversity standards can be found at this link.
  • Following TU Clausthal's participation this year in the International Day against Homo-, Bi-, Inter- and Transphobia, a Round Rainbow Table was set up on the initiative of the Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Initiative in Clausthal (SLIC, recently renamed the queer community in the Harz region). Various stakeholders from the mountain and university town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, the district of Goslar and Clausthal University of Technology meet regularly to design and coordinate anti-discrimination measures for members of the LGBTIQ+ community. In my role as Diversity Officer at Clausthal University of Technology, I am part of this discussion group in order to take into account the interests of students from the LGBTIQ+ community.
  • Clausthal University of Technology is already well positioned in the area of "digital accessibility" and is continuously developing in this direction. Since the timely implementation of accessible websites in September 2020, the Accessibility Working Group has been working on further topics such as accessible or low-barrier forms and documents. To this end, training courses have recently been held for employees of the Press Office, the Study Center and the Clausthal International Center. Clausthal University of Technology's corporate design has also been checked for accessibility (including the TUC logo, font, templates and layout) and a handout on accessibility within Clausthal University of Technology's corporate design has been developed. The handout on accessibility within the corporate design of Clausthal University of Technology can be found under this link.
  • A workshop for our Asian students was organized by Bildungsbrücke China-Deutschland e.V. in cooperation with the China Competence Center, the Studentenwerk OstNiedersachsen and the Equal Opportunities Office. The workshop dealt with anti-Asian discrimination in post-corona times and in a relaxed and safe space, our students were able to take the opportunity to exchange experiences and strategies on this topic.

Family service

  • During the summer vacations, the popular two-week vacation care program (the first and last full week of the school vacations), the so-called Children's Summer University, took place again at Clausthal University of Technology. A total of 34 children of primary school age took part in this program and visited various activities at the institutes and facilities of Clausthal University of Technology and in the region. As always, the childcare program was coordinated by the Family Service team and took place in cooperation with the mountain and university town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The press release can be found under this link.
  • As part of the expansion of the family-friendly infrastructure at Clausthal University of Technology, office workstations are being prepared for family-friendly use and mobile equipment is being made available. The mobile parent-child office includes a playpen, a resting place for breastfeeding or feeding, a high chair and toys. The basis for the loan will be a guideline for equipping existing offices as parent-child offices at Clausthal University of Technology. The offer is primarily aimed at employees with children up to the age of one who are planning to return to work after maternity leave or after or during parental leave, or who do not yet have a childcare place for their children. The equipment for the mobile parent-child office was financed by equal opportunities funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) from research project 2397, in which Prof. Thomas Turek is the spokesperson. The press release can be found under this link.
  • The award for outstanding academic or student achievements during the family phase has been announced again. Proposals were submitted to the Family Service by the deadline of August 15, 2022. The applications are currently being processed by the selection committee in accordance with the guidelines and the award ceremony will take place during the next Academic Ceremony in the Aula Academica. The award is endowed with prize money of 1,000.00 euros.