Madina Omaid-Quraischi is Diversity Officer

I have been actively involved in the areas of diversity and anti-discrimination for more than 16 years. I was particularly influenced by trade union youth education work during my training, where I led seminars on topics such as anti-sexism and anti-racism early on as a team leader.

For several years now, I have been giving freelance seminars, workshops and training sessions together with a committed network of academics, with a particular focus on universities, which have their own special habitus. We deal with topics such as prevention and protection against sexual harassment, discrimination and violence, gender training and raising awareness of equal opportunities and bias-free appointment procedures, to name just a few examples. My professional experience in the public sector since 2008 and at universities since 2017, especially in science and research, teaching and administration, helps me to understand the specific challenges and needs of the university community and to work in a target group-oriented manner.

In addition to my studies at an economics and law faculty, I am a certified systemic coach with a focus on mindfulness and resilience in organizations, have various team leader training courses as well as special pastoral care training and have been actively involved in employee advocacy.

We all carry implicit prejudices based on unconscious patterns of perception that influence our interactions and relationships. This is human. In a higher education institution, both valorization and devaluation can manifest themselves in many different ways. It is therefore crucial to identify a central contact person to whom you can turn if you experience discrimination. Both employees and students can contact me in confidence in such situations. There are then various options for support. Our university is already well positioned in many areas. I would therefore naturally like to draw on the expertise of various stakeholders at our university. The type of support should always be considered individually and assessed together with the person seeking advice. For me, confidentiality is the top priority during the conversation.

At the beginning of the process, transparency regarding existing services and networking with colleagues are important. To do this, we need fixed structures and procedures - in prevention, in professional action in specific cases and in monitoring. I will therefore primarily focus on analyzing the current situation at the university and drawing up an appropriate concept based on the specific needs of our university of applied sciences. I can very well imagine anchoring the mission statement and integrating the processes in a guideline and in an anti-discrimination guideline for our university.

My personal wish for a diverse, equal-opportunity and non-discriminatory university culture is to raise awareness - both of the relevance of the topic and of the added value for all of us through diversity-competent behavior. In addition to coordinated and structured support and assistance for individuals who have experienced discrimination, I can also imagine more training and coaching formats in the future. This will enable us to strengthen an environment in which all people are treated respectfully and fairly, regardless of their origin, orientation or identity.