RLT Allegations: Prevent training session

Several allegations have been made surrounding a Prevent training session issued to Residential Life Team (RLT) staff in October.

Prevent is the government’s strategy for tackling extremism, with a specific gearing towards places of education to keep an eye out for signs of it.

People present in the training session have come forward with their concerns, with even more doing so following the publication of all the allegations made against the RLT.

Allegedly, racist language and stereotypes were used in the session, specifically regarding Muslim students.

It was apparently suggested that the signs that might indicate mental health issues in Caucasian students (isolation, sadness, and so on), should instead be looked for in Muslim and Middle Eastern students as a sign of radicalisation.

When someone in the session voiced concerns about the discriminatory nature of Prevent and the training, the individual running the session allegedly responded: “I am a Muslim, and I don’t agree with you.”

When someone in the session voiced concerns about the discriminatory nature of Prevent and the training, the individual running the session allegedly responded: “I am a Muslim, and I don’t agree with you.”

When senior RLT management were later questioned, they reportedly said it was a “legal obligation” and did not respond to the numerous people who voiced concerns over racist language in particular.

This, if true, breaches the Dignity at Warwick policy by not taking allegations of racism seriously and dismissing staff’s concerns.

An informal complaint was made after the session by one member of the RLT, which was apparently improperly handled and took over four and a half months to address.

Their complaint was passed on to the Head of the Prevent Working Group, who then proceeded to carry out the investigation into the complaint themselves.

Upon contacting the university regarding this complaint, the Boar was told the same person who carried out the initial investigation had been told of the complainant’s unhappiness at the outcome.

There are still questions over who approved this training session.

The update to the university policy on Prevent was not finalised until 27 January 2016, meaning the training session occurred months before final policy was released. There are still questions over who approved this training session.

The university said: “The training was delivered by The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.”

The Boar can also reveal that a letter of recommendation was sent to Vice-Chancellor Stuart Croft after the session, signed by several RLT staff members present.

This was sent to alert him to the “significant concerns…raised by some members of the RLT on the tone, manner, content and delivery of the training session and more importantly, wider concerns on the University’s engagement with the Prevent duty.”

A source commented: “I would say there is perhaps an issue that those, as far as I can think of, at the top level of the system are all fairly privileged middle aged white people.

“Although I would not claim they are not there to try and support the students, I think the lack of diversity means they don’t see why something like Prevent can raise such anger.”