4th quarter

Reporting period October 01 - December 31, 2022

On November 25, 2022, the event "30 Years of Gender Equality Work at Clausthal University of Technology" took place in the Aula Academica. The university celebrated this anniversary with a varied program and an exhibition on the 30-year history of gender equality at Clausthal University of Technology, providing plenty of modern food for thought. It was a successful event with around 100 guests. The press release can be found under this link.

The first round of the WiMINToring mentoring program for female Master's students came to an end with a festive closing event on 14 October 2022. 15 mentees received their certificates. The mentoring program started in April 2022 with a focus on shaping one's own career and the transition between studies and professional life. In addition to sharing experiences with mentors, the program also included regular networking events and workshops. The press release can be found under this link.

The women's network "Women&Science TU Clausthal" currently has around 25 members. Women continue to meet regularly once a month and work on their personal development and careers with the support of professional coaches. In addition to monthly network meetings, three workshops (including "Speech and discussion rhetoric" and "Female perspective on dealing with power in the management process") and two network evenings (including "Relevance of networks for careers") were held as part of the network in 2022. In addition, the members of the network celebrated the annual meeting, at which the new board was elected and the women worked on developing their potential in a workshop. The network is currently working on its website, regulations for accepting new members and planning events for 2023.
Until the end of 2023, the women's network will be funded by the project "Empowerment of the Women&Science TU Clausthal Network".

The taster course for schoolgirls took place again (since 1996) during the fall break in Lower Saxony (16.10. - 21.10.2022). As every year, we had prepared an exciting program of internships and leisure activities at Clausthal University of Technology and in the surrounding area. The students have the opportunity to get to know the many facets of the different degree programs and student life at an early stage in order to make an informed decision about their future studies.

On November 9, 2022, the Steiger evening took place on the topic of "Auf-Steigerinnen", which focused on women and their careers. Five women from the region presented their careers to encourage and inspire our female students. Ms. Binder was one of the speakers and was also awarded a "Steiger Prize". In my role as the university's full-time Equal Opportunities Officer, I gave the welcoming address. As part of the Steiger College, the Equal Opportunities Office organizes a workshop on the topic of female empowerment every year. The press release can be found under the link.

The half-day digital workshop "Strengthening financial independence for women" took place on
on November 4, 2022 as one of the training courses offered as part of our personnel development concept in the area of gender equality. This training course was open to all female employees at our university and 15 women took part. The feedback was very positive overall.

On 15 December 2022, the digital workshop "Sexualized violence - Recognize. Name. Stop.", which was held by an external speaker, Ms. Verena Arps-Roelle from act & protect® was held. The workshop was aimed at female students and aimed to recognize and classify sexualized violence, such as sexism that violates boundaries and discriminatory stereotypes.

Since 2020, TU Clausthal has offered the opportunity to apply for a doctoral scholarship if no other funding is available for the completion of the doctorate. The aim of this program is to support young researchers whose completion of their doctorate has been delayed for family reasons or for reasons of particular hardship. This year, a total of 4 applications (men) were received (3 by the Graduate Academy and 1 by the Equal Opportunities Office) and the selection committee approved funding for 3 months of 1,500 euros each for all of them.

As part of the diversity audit, the last planned workshop, known as the certification workshop, took place on November 14, 2022. We are currently in the process of writing the final report, which will be reviewed by a group of experts. The final event for the auditing process with the presentation of the certificate is scheduled for February 14, 2023.

In accordance with the criteria of digital accessibility (WCAG 2.1), an audio description is to be provided for all live and recorded video content. This was already discussed in the working group in 2019, but was not implemented at the time due to the lack of software and the high personnel costs of manual description. There are now a large number of services that create (partially) automated transcripts from the video audio so that the spoken word is then available as text. The implementation of "Speech to Text" services, with which subtitles can be generated (partially) automatically for recordings, videos etc., is currently the biggest task of Clausthal University of Technology in the field of digital accessibility.

The sponsorship award for outstanding academic or student achievements during the family phase was presented on October 28, 2022 as part of the academic ceremony. This year was the tenth award ceremony and the selection committee chose two equally ranked candidates, a student (Mr. Mawugnon Kodjo Dossou) and a research assistant (Dr.-habil. Jelena Fiosina). The sponsorship award is endowed with prize money of 1,000.00 euros.

On December 1, 2022, our traditional Christmas baking and craft event took place in the canteen. This event was once again jointly organized by TU Clausthal's Family Service and Studentenwerk OstNiedersachsen. There was a great turnout and the afternoon was great fun for both adults and children.

The Association of Friends donated a sum of 2,000.00 euros to the Campuszwerge day care center. This money was used to purchase age-appropriate and modern furniture for the children cared for there. The friends' association thus actively supported the childcare services at our university, for which we are very grateful. The press release can be found under this link.

The project "Expansion of the family-friendly infrastructure at Clausthal University of Technology", which is financed from the equal opportunities funds of the DFG research project 2397, will be continued next year. The spokesperson for this research group is Prof. Thomas Turek. The focus in 2023 will be on the campus-wide provision of baby changing facilities and the creation of a campus card for family-friendly infrastructure as well as the establishment of further parent-child offices.

Regrettably, Ms Tatjana Methfessel from Family Services left our university on December 31, 2022. She will be pursuing her childhood dream and embarking on a new career as a teacher. This is a great loss for the Equal Opportunities Office and for the entire university. The most important offers of the Family Service will continue to take place.