This morning I am DELIGHTED to announce that, after much pushing and shoving, our MSc Petroleum Geoscience students @ImperialRSM will no longer attend a Oman-based carbonate fieldtrip due to the location being unsafe for our LGBTQ+ staff and students https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥳" title="Partying face" aria-label="Emoji: Partying face">

Thanks to my friends and colleagues for helping make this happen. Going to Oman fundamentally challenged aspects of @imperialcollege’s values in general, as well as their membership of the @stonewalluk Diversity Champions Programme: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/equality/accreditations/stonewall/">https://www.imperial.ac.uk/equality/...

Highlighting the risk to students and offering them the chance to self-withdraw from what was, until recently, a compulsory module(!), risked students having to *out* themselves. This was simply not on.

Also, offering those students opting to withdraw an ‘alternative learning experience’ in Derbyshire (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧐" title="Gesicht mit Monokel" aria-label="Emoji: Gesicht mit Monokel">) was *not* appropriate for many, many, many reasons...

This experience has just shown me that trying to make changes in academia is super-hard. Some people do not want to make hard choices. The concerns of minorities are pushed to the edge in favour of the experience of the majority.

The fact that nobody has *yet* to be arrested or imprisoned during the previous 4 years of running the trip, is not a solid basis for a risk assessment...