At a time when there's more information and education on sexual consent than ever, this story is very disheartening: UCD sexual assaults and harassment have increased over the past two years.
According to the College Tribune, five sexual assaults were reported to UCD campus security between 2014 and 2016, and 11 students have also reported instances of harassment to campus services since 2014.
In the internal campus services report, seen by the Tribune, no reports were made by students between 2011 and 2013, and only one was registered for 2014, but five instances of sexual harassment were reported in both 2015 and 2016.
It has also been revealed that there were six reports of sexual offenders being on or near the UCD campus between 2011 and 2016.
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What's worse is UCD's sexual consent workshops were dropped by the UCD Students' Union last month. UCDSU explained in a statement released to the University Observer: “The Students’ Union have spent €1,800 on trialling consent workshops during the last 12 months. Over this period, attendance has been generally poor… So far the Students’ Union has been the only stakeholder in UCD putting serious money into the issue of consent.”
Readers may also remember the reported rape on campus late last year. The Irish Times reported a student at the Belfield campus told gardai she was attacked after a night out in November. This incident created a demand for UCD's Walk Safe service where campus security can be called to escort students across campus at night, with 20 students using the service in November 2016, and 37 in December.
Two UCD students, one who was raped, and one who was the victim of sexual harassment, spoke to the Tribune about their experience dealing with the college after the incidents.
One second year student who was raped said while the Gardaí were dealing with the criminal investigation she sought support from the college. She said she had gone to UCD with her concerns of seeing her rapist on campus, but the college advised her to seek counselling support, which she felt was inadequate.
She said the college is more concerned with not inconveniencing the alleged perpetrators than protecting the victims. ‘I’m tired of fighting an institution that is refusing to change, or refusing to acknowledge what’s happening’, she said.
Another student who worked in UCD’s on-campus accommodation said she had been sexually harassed by a group of five male students and when she reported the issue to campus residential management, she was moved to an alternative residence, while the boys were fined as punishment and would continue to live in the residence.
‘I was informed that I could pursue the issue further with the university, but that I should consider their [the five boys’] academic futures, and if I wanted to be responsible for damaging them’, she said.
A spokesman from UCD said that the incidents were ‘allegations of’ sexual assault and harassment and did not comment on what steps UCD are taking to combat the issue of sexual assault and harassment on campus.
The Student Union President Conor Viscardi said ‘there is no excusing the college’s failure to act in the past, and it led to a public clash between the SU and university management last year.
UCD is currently reforming its Dignity and Respect policy, which will make it easier for students to seek help or lodge a formal complaint to the university if they are the victim of harassment. Professor Colin Scott, the university’s vice-President for equality, diversity and inclusion, said a ‘revised policy and procedure’ has been drawn up and is in the process of being implemented.
What are your thoughts? Do colleges do enough to stop sexual assaults and harassment, and support victims?
