4th quarter

Equal Opportunities

• On November 25, 2022, the event "30 Years of Equality Work at the TU Clausthal" took place in the Aula Academica. The university celebrated this anniversary with a diverse program and an exhibition on the 30-year history of equality at Clausthal University of Technology, giving many modern food for thought. It was a successful event with around 100 guests.

The press release for this can be found under the link: https://www.tu-clausthal.de/universitaet/einrichtungen/presse-und-oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/pressemitteilungen/artikel/30-jahre-gleichstellung-an-der-tu-clausthal

• The first mentoring program WiMINToring for master’s students ended with a celebratory closing event on October 14, 2022. 15 mentees received their certificates. The mentoring program started in April 2022 with a focus on shaping your own career and the transition between studies and professional life. In addition to the exchange of experiences with mentors, the program also included regular networking events and workshops.

The press release for this can be found under the link: www.tu-clausthal.de/universitaet/einrichtungen/presse-und-oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/pressemitteilungen/artikel/mentoring-fuer-masterstudentinnen-erfolgreich-beendet

• The women's network "Women&Science TU Clausthal" currently has around 25 members. Furthermore, women meet regularly once a month and work on personal development and their own careers under the supervision of professional coaches. In addition to monthly network meetings, three workshops (including "Rhetoric of speech and discussion" and "Female perspective in dealing with power in the leadership process") and two networking 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 in which the new board was elected and the women worked on developing potential in the workshop. The network is currently working on the internet presence, regulations for the admission of new members and planning of the events for the year 2023.

Until the end of 2023, the women's network will be financed from the "Empowerment of the Network Women&Science TU Clausthal" project.

• The Schnupperstudium/Taster Course for schoolgirls took place again (since 1996) during the Lower Saxony autumn holidays (October 16th - October 21st, 2022). As every year, we had prepared an exciting program of internships and leisure activities at the TU Clausthal and its surroundings. The students have the opportunity early on to get to know the many facets of the different courses and student life in order to make a well-founded decision for their future studies.

• On November 9, 2022, the Steiger evening took place on the topic of "Steigerinnen", which focused on women and their careers. Five women from the region presented their careers to encourage and inspire our students. Ms Binder was one of the speakers and she was also awarded a "Steiger Prize". In my role as the university's full-time Equal Opportunities Officer, I gave the greetings. As part of the Steiger College, the Equal Opportunities Office organizes a workshop on the subject of female empowerment in each round.

The press release for this can be found under the link: https://www.tu-clausthal.de/universitaet/einrichtungen/presse-und-oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/pressemitteilungen/artikel/steiger-abend-im-pferdegaipel-1

• As one of the further training offers within the framework of our personnel development concept in the field of equality, on November 4, 2022 the half-day digital workshop "Strengthening Financial Independence for Women" will take place. This training was open to all employees of our university and 15 women took part. Overall, the feedback was very positive.

• • On December 15, 2022, the digital workshop “Sexual Violence - Identify. Name. End.”, which was carried out by an external speaker, Mrs. Verena Arps-Roelle (www.actandprotect.de). The workshop was aimed at female students and had the aim of recognizing and classifying sexualized violence, such as sexism that violates boundaries and discriminatory stereotypes.
• Since 2020, Clausthal University of Technology has had the option of applying for a doctorate completion grant if there is no other way of financing the completion of your 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) (3 at the Graduate Academy and 1 at the Equal Opportunities Office) were received and the selection committee approved funding for 3 months at 1,500 euros each.

DiversityManagement

• As part of the Diversity Audit, the last planned workshop, the so-called 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 closing event for the auditing process with the presentation of the certificate is scheduled for February 14, 2023.

• According to the digital accessibility criteria (WCAG 2.1), an audio description should 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 with a manual description. There are now a large number of services that (partially) automatically create transcripts from the video audio so that the spoken word is then available as text. The implementation of the "Speech to Text" services, with which subtitles can be (partly) automatically generated for recordings, videos, etc., is currently the biggest task of the TU Clausthal in the field of digital accessibility.

Family Services

• The Award for Outstanding Scientific or Student Achievements During the Family Phase was awarded on October 28, 2022 as part of the academic ceremony. This year it was the tenth award ceremony and the selection committee decided on two equally placed candidates: a student (Mr. Mawugnon Kodjo Dossou) and a research assistant (Dr.-habil. Jelena Fiosina). The award is endowed with prize money of 1,000.00 euros.

• On December 1, 2022, our traditional Christmas baking and handicraft campaign took place in the canteen. This campaign was again jointly organized by the Family Service of the TU Clausthal and the Studentenwerk OstNiedersachsen. The participation was very large and the afternoon was a lot of fun for both the big and the little ones.

• The Association of Friends donated an amount of 2,000.00 euros to the day care center Campuszwerge. This money was used to procure age-appropriate and modern furniture for the children cared for there. The association of friends thus actively supported the childcare offers at our university, for which we are very grateful.

The press release for this can be found under the link:

https://www.tu-clausthal.de/universitaet/einrichtungen/presse-und-oeffentlichkeitsarbeit/pressemitteilungen/artikel/campuszwerge-vom-verein-von-freunden-unterstuetzt    

• The project "Expansion of the Family-Friendly Infrastructure at the TU Clausthal", which is financed from the Equal Opportunities Funds of the DFG research project 2397, will be continued next year. The speaker of this research group is Prof. Thomas Turek.

The focus in 2023 will be on the campus-wide equipment of nursery facilities and the creation of a campus card to access the family-friendly infrastructure, as well as the establishment of additional parent-child offices.

• Regrettably, on December 31, 2022, Ms. Tatjana Methfessel from Family Services left our university. She will pursue her childhood dream and break new ground as a teacher. It is a great loss for the Equal Opportunities Office and for the entire university.

The most important programmes of the family service will continue to take place.