The start of Universities Australia's (UA) second national survey into sexual violence on campus has been welcomed by University of Wollongong students such as Imogen Draisma.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association (WUSA) general secretary expressed some concerns in relation to conflict of interest but hoped UA would provide a full and mediated response in addressing report recommendations.
The survey, which started yesterday, allows 10,000 students per university the opportunity to share their experiences with sexual violence during their time at university.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had major effects on the nature of sexual misconduct at universities and Ms Draisma expects to see this reflected in the survey.
She agrees with the sentiments of the National Union of Students (NUS) that COVID19 has driven sexual misconduct mostly online and emphasises the verbal and visual forms that harassment can take.
"Particularly we are seeing a huge impact of staff cuts across the tertiary education sector in Australia, and as a result we are seeing less student services, we're seeing less support for students as well in being able to take the relevant action that they deem fit if they are subject to sexual harrassment and assault on campus," Ms Draisma said.
She also agrees with NUS that the pandemic proves that universities should not be responsible for on-campus sexual harassment and assault alone.
Universities' responsibility extends to wherever student and staff perpetrators utilise their education as a prop to commit violence against others.
Ms Draisma hopes she doesn't experience 'groundhog day" again and universities, including UOW fail to properly act on recommendations.
Her concerns stem from a preliminary survey undertaken by WUSA earlier this year which collected almost 40 accounts from students detailing sex assaults as well as incidents of harrassment and other health and safety concerns, allegedly occurring both on and off campus.
"The students didn't feel supported by the university to undertake the relevant reporting and disciplinary action," she said.
"We're not hopeful anything will change from this report. UOW didn't do nearly enough after the damning findings of the Australian Human Rights Commission report in 2017.
'The new VC [Professor Patricia Davidson} has said the right things but it is still too early to tell if any substantial policies will be introduced.
"Our biggest concern is that it is going to be the same old, same old and the university will not implement the changes and policies needed to impact real change.
"You look at the [2017] report in response to the recommendations UOW handed down and you can point out a number of recommendations or changes that they were going to make, that haven't fully happened yet.
"We really need to see a commitment from the university to make the appropriate changes but also to stop compartmentalising the response to safe and respectful communities but to make sure that this is a campus wide response. By campus wide I mean our regional campuses as well, not just here in Wollongong.
"We need to ensure when we come back to campus after COVID that the university is on the front foot making sure that particularly first year students are aware of the behaviour that is expected off them.
"Perhaps we also need not to sugarcoat what university life is like. We can't just say it is a wonderful experience, we need to be also highlighting the real risks there are to students and what is expected of students."
Comment was sought from UOW but not received before deadline.
Read more: 300 evacuated from Wollongong unit fire
The Illawarra Mercury news app is now officially live on both iOS and Android devices. It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play.