Respect. Now. Always. - Supporting survivors.

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Last year UON joined 39 other Australian universities in the Respect. Now. Always initiative to address sexual harassment and sexual assault in university communities. As part of the University’s efforts on this important matter, I established the Sexual Misconduct Working Group in April this year with wide representation from stakeholders across the University.

Professor Liz Burd

The Working Group has examined staff resource needs for supporting students making a disclosure; improved our reporting frameworks, support services and education programs for students; and reviewed policies relating to sexually-based misconduct (including sexual assault and sexual harassment). The Working Group has also consulted with key external partners (including NSW Police and the NSW Rape Crisis Centre) to make sure our policies and processes reflect best practice.

Guidance for staff

Whether academic or professional, staff are often the first ‘port of call’ for students looking for support or guidance on a range of issues both inside and outside the classroom. As a staff member, it is possible that you may receive a disclosure from a student about an instance of sexual misconduct. This can often be a distressing and challenging experience for both the student making the disclosure and the staff member receiving it. Understanding how to manage disclosures, as well as the support available both inside and outside the University, is important to ensure that needs are met at the time of disclosure and the days and months following.

With this in mind, the Working Group sought feedback from Heads of Schools and Course Coordinators – who will often be on the ‘front line’ of discussions with students and receiving potential disclosures. Early outcomes indicated that upon receiving a disclosure of sexually based misconduct, staff primarily seek advice from senior staff and the UON website. This consultation has provided insight that has helped to further focus our enhanced support and training strategy.

The enhanced support and training strategy includes a new online training course Responding to Disclosures of Sexual Violence, which UON has developed with Oxford University Press through Epigeum. The course covers best practice for handling a disclosure in line with UON policies. It takes around 30 minutes to complete. I recommend all staff consider taking the course, but particularly those who have a role in supporting students or who may potentially receive a disclosure. You can access this course in Discover.

For staff members who are in specialised support roles, such as counsellors and student support advisors, additional specialised training and increased capacity is scheduled over the next two weeks.


UON’s headline advice for anyone who becomes aware of an incident of sexual misconduct is to:

  1. Ensure the environment is safe for yourself and the student
  2. Support the individual by helping them, with their permission, to reach out to Campus Care.If the incident occurs out of hours contact NSW Rape Crisis, Security Services or NSW Police.


Support for students

The University has a range of support mechanisms in place for students who have experience sexually based assault and harassment for example, Campus Care, Counselling, Student Support Advisors, GP services and the Dean of Students.

In January, UON launched the Consent Matters online training for students. This online training course is specifically designed to help our students understand how to seek consent, how to recognise it, and how to identify situations where consent cannot be given. The course was developed in consultation with UON’s Student Living leaders and is now compulsory for all residents in UON on-campus accommodation. It is also available for all students to enrol via Blackboard and I encourage you to discuss this with students.

A new website has been developed and will be live next week. The site provides details on reporting incidents and supporting survivors, as well as links to other resources on dealing with incidents of sexual misconduct. A simplified online reporting process is also available. This new process enables students and staff to inform Campus Care through an online form about an incident, and also provides an option for anonymous reporting.

A new policy and procedure on managing sexual misconduct is being developed and will be available through the policy library in the coming weeks.

What’s next?

As part of the Respect. Now. Always. initiative, the Australian Human Rights Commission has conducted a large-scale prevalence survey to understand the nature and scale of sexual assault and harassment across the sector. Results will be available both at the national level and for each individual university.

The findings of this survey and the submissions made through this process will be released on 1 August 2017. This data will provide important insights and help our ongoing efforts to support students and staff on matters of sexual misconduct. UON’s Senior Executive will provide briefings once the survey results are released.

UON is committed to providing a safe environment for work and study and we do not tolerate behaviour that compromises the safety and wellbeing of staff or students.I will continue to keep you updated on enhanced services and initiatives in the coming weeks.

If you find that this article has raised personal concerns, I encourage you to seek support from the services that are available including Campus Care, EAP, NSW Rape Crisis, or NSW Police.

For information about the University’s initiatives or to discuss any of the matters above, please email pvc-lt@newcastle.edu.au.

Liz


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