campusreview. com. au
POLICY & REFORM
Safer spaces
An advocacy group’ s submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission criticises the response of many universities to the sexual assault and harassment of their students.
By James Wells
A
female student was raped by a male student at a university party. Afterwards, she reported the matter to campus security.
She was told by security that as there was no CCTV footage of the incident, and as“ it was her word against his”, there“ wasn’ t much point” in investigating the matter. She wasn’ t told to contact police or to file a report to university management.
Meanwhile at another off-campus party, a male student was raped by another male student. Both were enrolled in at least one course together, meaning the victim would encounter his perpetrator at least once a week in lectures and classroom tutorials.
The victim reported this to the university and requested that the perpetrator be moved to another class, but the victim was told by the university that this couldn’ t be done unless a report was filed to police. The victim made this report, without any assistance from the university, and then went back to the university with his previous request.
The victim was subsequently told that the university couldn’ t do anything because the police were now involved.
Eventually, the victim obtained an Apprehended Violence Order that legally prevented the perpetrator from being in the same class as him.
The victim was never made aware, by the university, of its student code of conduct, sexual harassment and assault policies, or the formal complaints processes available to him.
These are just two of the incidents contained within Connecting the Dots: Understanding sexual assault in university communities, End Rape on Campus Australia’ s( EROC) submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission’ s‘ University Sexual Assault and Harassment’ project.
The advocacy group’ s submission, using university data obtained via Freedom of Information requests lodged between 2011 and 2016, alleges that 575 formal complaints of sexual harassment and assault were reported across 27 Australian universities during that period. Of these, 145 specifically allege rape.
The documents also reveal that 153 rapes and sexual assaults, which have been specifically reported to police, occurred at the street addresses of universities in NSW, Western Australia, Victoria and the ACT.
Furthermore, population data indicates that EROC’ s reported numbers are likely a gross under-representation of the true situation within university communities. The 2012 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey showed that 67.2 per cent of women and 67.9 per cent of men, who were sexually assaulted by a male, did not report the matter to police.
The University of Sydney’ s Creating a Safer Community for All report, which surveyed 1926 students, showed that only 1.4 per cent
of those who were raped reported the incident to the university.
Conducted through the AHRC, Universities Australia has funded a survey to build a reliable, national evidence base on sexual violence at Australian universities.
“ All 39 of our member universities asked the commission to do this work to guide continuing improvements in support services and policies,” said UA chief executive Belinda Robinson.
“ The commission will publish its report by mid-year. The findings of this landmark survey and the submissions made through this process – which was initiated by universities – will guide further action.”
Robinson also thanked the victims who came forward to tell their stories as part of the process.
EROC Australia’ s report says university reporting mechanisms are rarely“ trauma-informed or survivor friendly”. Issues identified in the group’ s submission include:
• Sexual assault and harassment policies that are difficult to locate and to comprehend. This includes details of relevant policies scattered throughout multiple documents, and university webpages dedicated to sexual assault that don’ t provide any information about policies.
• Not informing victims about the result of their report, thus potentially placing universities in breach of legislation regulating tertiary education standards.
• Letting residential colleges handle these allegations. EROC Australia identified this as an issue as“ university residences frequently deal with reports of sexual assault on an ad hoc basis, and often do not comply with university policy. This means that survivors have no certainty as to how their report will be managed, are often not afforded procedural fairness or appropriate confidentiality, and often have no ability to effectively advocate for themselves or exercise rights of appeal”.
• Mandating police involvement. EROC Australia says this is inappropriate as it provides a mechanism for universities to defer responsibility and because many victims don’ t want police involved.
Further, data in the also report shows that one regional university“ punished” a student for sexual misconduct with a $ 55 fine, eight hours of community service and a requirement that the student write an apology letter to the victim.
At James Cook University, former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick is reviewing its policies after Douglas Steele, a staff member who digitally raped a student, was promoted following the incident.
Writing in the EROC report’ s foreword, Macquarie University’ s professor Catharine Lumby, a board member of Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, said:“ Our universities spend millions of dollars promoting their commitment to excellent research and teaching. Yet, all of that means nothing if they do not fulfil their basic duty of care to prevent the assault and harassment of students and to support survivors.” ■
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, support is available. Call 1800 RESPECT( 1800 737 732).
13