1. Athena Update
June 2015

2. Athena Change of title and remit of working group
Mentoring and Coaching for staff
Changes to Athena Working Group Mentioned before that ECU are widening Athena’s remit to include all genders, and professional and support staff. In addition to the impact of that, the University has asked each dept to appoint an Equality Champion (ours is Jane Hill). The remit for the post is much wider than our existing Athena Group and so we are proposing to change the title to Equality and Diversity Working Group (EDWG).
Athena will still be discussed within it, but other diversity matters will be included. For example, we hope our Disability Officer will join and receive wider support than currently, and we are considering widening membership of the group to include professional and support staff.
This is quite a big change and many of us feel that it is not before time.
If you have any comments on this please send them to Jane or I, and there will be a full discussion at the next Athena working group meeting.
Coaching & mentoring This came up at the last Athena meeting and I wanted to remind staff that there is a highly-regarded University coaching scheme which is available to all staff. Details can be found at