THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOUR HAS NO PLACE AT OUR UNIVERSITY
JAMES Cook University has sworn to “stamp out” sexual harassment and assaults within the university on the back of the release of a damning report.
Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick headed up the Effectively Responding to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault at James Cook University review, commissioned after a rape scandal involving a staff member earlier in the year.
The report was filled with evidence from staff and students detailing a dominant masculine culture with “pockets of entrenched sexism and exclusion” and the need for an institution- wide response to sexual harassment and assault.
JCU Vice- Chancellor Sandra Harding said the university would adopt all 32 recommendations of the report and had already implemented significant changes, including starting a review of campus security.
“This sort of behaviour has no place at our university,” she said.
“We will not tolerate it. We will stamp it out. “No one is untouchable.” Ms Broderick said she believed JCU was the first university in Queensland to undergo this kind of review, and one of the first in Australia.
“I strongly commend JCU for taking this bold step, for facilitating an external and independent examination of its culture,” she said.
“Not only that, I commend them for making the findings public.
“Sexual harassment and sexual assault are preventing JCU from reaching its full potential as a world- leading education and research institution, but what is so encouraging is seeing the university visibly stepping up to take action.”
Ms Broderick said implementing the recommendations would make JCU a leader among Australian and international universities.
“They include recommendations to enhance the physical safety of the campus, to strengthen the complaints and reporting system, to take swift action when reports are made, and to hold perpetrators to account,” she said.
“Equally, a robust system that provides support for victims and which responds sensitively and expeditiously is required.”
Another recommendation is an independent review of sexual harassment and assault within the residential colleges, expected to take place before the end of the year.
The report identified issues within the residential college system, including a tradition called quad cricket, where female students were made to act as “bikini girls” serving sandwiches and beer or else do a “slut dance”.
John Flynn College principal Michael Bongers said he was told about the issues with quad cricket when he started his role at the college in 2015.
“Good leaders came forward to me and told me I had to do something about it, and that was the first I knew about it, and I’d like people to know that I acted,” he said.
“The term quad cricket is fine, we’re still having quad cricket this year, but in 2015 the inappropriate aspects of that particular student event, they came to an end.”
Mr Bongers said he comed the recommendation for an external review with the other colleges.
“I think it could be put in place towards the end of this year, certainly so we can get on to the new year with that report available.” . wel- The university will also look at ways of “de- risking” field trips, after the report identified it as a problem area. “I think it would be a great shame if we ever got to the point where we thought we couldn’t proceed with this unique feature of our u n i v e r s i t y , ” Professor Harding said.