University of Wollongong's recently appointed director of the Safe and Respectful Communities (SARC) program has assured students she wants to work with them on sexual assault and sexual violence issues.
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Dr Nancy Huggett said the university was committed to a trauma-centred approach supporting students first and foremost, then ensuring they had the counselling services needed and were guided through the reporting and investigation process.
Dr Huggett has even reached out to Wollongong Undergraduate Students' Association (WUSA) general secretary Imogen Draisma
Th UOW student spoke to the Mercury about the start of Universities Australia's (UA) second national survey into sexual violence on campus.
"I'm new in this role so I think it will be really good to have a chat to her and her fellow office holders to try and work together to make a difference," Dr Huggett said.
'There is always ways we can improve in this space
"We never I think can do enough so we will keep on trying and talking and I'm confident that we can provide the support and the cooperation within the university that really makes a difference for our students that are going through difficult times."
UOW also welcomed the survey, conducted on behalf of UA by the Social Research Centre (SRC). It follows on from the previous survey conducted in 2016 as part of the Respect. Now. Always. initiative.
In a message sent to all students following the survey's launch earlier this week, UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Patricia M. Davidson urged the selected 10,000 students to take up the opportunity to participate.
"Your feedback will play an important role in informing university services and responses for student safety and wellbeing.
"Please use your voice and your experiences to help UOW build a culture that recognises that even one incident is one too many.
"Sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination have no place at our university. Let's work together to create a culture of respect, safety and support for all," Professor Davidson said.
The latest survey comes after about five years' of work for UOW implementing the recommendations from the previous survey report Change the Course.
In the intervening years UOW has implemented many initiatives under its SARC program to provide information, education, training to its students and staff in order to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment and, when it does occur, to ensure trauma-informed support and investigations.
Initiatives already implemented under the SARC Action Plan include new information and training resources for staff and students, the establishment of the Improper Sexual Conduct Response Policy, as well as other service and procedural reviews to improve UOW's incident response and management and improvements to support services.
The entire UOW Executive team recently participated in a training workshop on sexual assault and sexual harassment and first level responder training programs are being run weekly for appropriate staff and students in conjunction with other tailored online training programs such as the ACON Pride Sexual Assault in LGBTIQ Communities.
Dr Huggett nevertheless understood the difficulties some students had accessing help in a big organisation such as UOW.
"That is why we are trying to make sure that we've got the information front and centre on our Safe and Respectful Communities webpage. We've got a 24-hour crisis line where students can talk to trained counsellors. Our trained staff are also careful to provide care for students that are trying to make a disclosure and deciding what they want to do with their experiences," she said.
"I want to assure students that my new team are working around the clock to try and make sure that we're providing the services needed for our students.
"The team has worked very hard to make our campus and online environments safe and respectful and, under the leadership of our new Vice-Chancellor, we are committed to engaging more closely with students, academic experts in the field of sexual assault and sexual harassment and with our community partners to ensure the SARC team is accessible to all members of the community and responding to best practice and feedback.
"We welcome insights from the National Survey and feedback from our staff, students and community members at any time via the SARC team."
The UA survey will run throughout September with results expected to be released in February 2022.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
