Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / CDU Vice Chancellor says there are big changes coming to the university following a survey into instances of sexual harrassment

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CDU Vice Chancellor says there are big changes coming to the university following a survey into instances of sexual harrassment · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now. Yesterday, Universities Australia released its National Student Safety Survey,
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  Speaker 1: which reports on the scale and nature of university student
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  Speaker 1: experiences of sexual assault and sexual harassment. More than nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy Charles Dawen University students participated in the
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  Speaker 1: October twenty twenty one survey and findings unfortunately showing twelve
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  Speaker 1: point four percent of students at Charles Dalen University who
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  Speaker 1: participated had experienced sexual harassment since starting at the university.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to tell us a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more about the situation and really what work
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  Speaker 1: is going to get under way hopefully to try and
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  Speaker 1: sort this issue. It is the Charles Dalen University Vice
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  Speaker 1: Chancellor Scott Bowman. Good morning to you, Scott.
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  Speaker 2: Hi KD Scott.
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  Speaker 1: Have these findings shocked the university and how concerning are
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  Speaker 1: some of the stats?
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  Speaker 2: Look, they've kind of shopped us, and they haven't shopped us.
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  Speaker 2: They've shopped us the people having to endure this stuff
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  Speaker 2: in the university. But we know that this is a
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  Speaker 2: massive problem in society. We've tried really hard to make
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  Speaker 2: university a haven where people can come and not have
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  Speaker 2: to put up with these behaviors. So we shocked to
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  Speaker 2: see that even in the university people are being arrassed.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, not a good report.
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  Speaker 1: No, I mean, are there programs in place or had
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  Speaker 1: there already been programs in place that address issues of
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  Speaker 1: harassment at the union And are we going to see
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  Speaker 1: some changes as a result of these statistics?
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  Speaker 2: Well yes and yes. So we did a similar survey
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  Speaker 2: around about five years ago, respect now all ways, and
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  Speaker 2: I think the figures were worse back then, but really
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  Speaker 2: not a lot worse. And we've put a lot of
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  Speaker 2: effort in, you know, put in training in for people,
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  Speaker 2: really making people aware of what services that are available,
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  Speaker 2: and they haven't had a massive impact. So I met
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  Speaker 2: with the chair of the Student Council yesterday and we
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  Speaker 2: were kind of discussing that, were do we go now,
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  Speaker 2: what can we do next? And we've got some ideas
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  Speaker 2: around that. So yeah, look at it is a continuous
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  Speaker 2: problem for the university, I think, and for all universities.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And look, I guess it's a hard one as
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  Speaker 1: a parent, and I know that there'll be other parents listening,
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  Speaker 1: maybe thinking is CDU a safe place you know, for
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  Speaker 1: my child to go when they get to that age.
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, I don't want to say there's anything good
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  Speaker 2: about this report, because if one student has been harassed
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  Speaker 2: on campus, this is not a good report. But if
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  Speaker 2: you compare us with the rest of the sector, we
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  Speaker 2: have much lower incidents than the average of universities in Australia.
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  Speaker 2: So compared with other universities, you know, this is CDU
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  Speaker 2: is not exceptionally In fact, it does better. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so I'd say that first of all, but I say again,
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  Speaker 2: if there's one person being harassed, then we need to
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  Speaker 2: do something about it. And you know, the harassment comes
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  Speaker 2: from students a student, So we have students harassing students
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  Speaker 2: and we have staff to students as well, and we've
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  Speaker 2: got to really look at how we address both of
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  Speaker 2: those groups, make people aware of what is acceptable and
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  Speaker 2: what isn't. I think we also, I've been thinking a
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  Speaker 2: lot about this KD and you know, we kind of
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  Speaker 2: think that harassment, the harassment is them. It's those people
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  Speaker 2: over there, these squeazy, dirty old men that are arrassing
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  Speaker 2: our students, how young, let's face it, female students. And yes,
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  Speaker 2: there are some people like that, and I think in
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  Speaker 2: some ways they're the easy ones to deal with. They're
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  Speaker 2: the ones that we can deal with and get rid
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  Speaker 2: of from the university and say there's no place for there.
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  Speaker 2: But the more I'm thinking about this, this is a
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  Speaker 2: continuum and although it's very uncomfortable to say, I think
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  Speaker 2: we're all on that continuum somewhere, you know, and we've
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  Speaker 2: got to get you know, people thinking. You know, have
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  Speaker 2: you glanced at a student for a bit too long
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  Speaker 2: which has made them feel uncomfortable? That's harassment. You know that,
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  Speaker 2: you know that is harassment if you're making and you
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  Speaker 2: know there were men that reported being harassed, but this
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  Speaker 2: is mainly men for women. But let's not beat around
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  Speaker 2: the bush. Let's look at all of our behaviors. You know,
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  Speaker 2: have we made a joke which has made women feel uncomfortable?
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  Speaker 2: Have we made a comment that makes people uncomfortable? Have
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  Speaker 2: we used language? Have we been swearing which has made
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  Speaker 2: women feel uncomfortable? So, you know, one of the things
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  Speaker 2: I want to talk about in the university, this isn't
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  Speaker 2: a problem of them, it's a problem of all of us.
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  Speaker 1: And so Scott, to anybody out there listening this morning,
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  Speaker 1: who is thinking, what is the you know, what's the
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  Speaker 1: university going to do about this? It does sound as
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  Speaker 1: though this is top of mind for you. Are there
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  Speaker 1: going to be some changes or are they going to
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  Speaker 1: be some measures implemented sooner rather than later.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. Sure. So, Look, we've all we've done a lot
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  Speaker 2: of training on this. But one of the things if I
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  Speaker 2: was talking to the students a council about yesterday, was
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  Speaker 2: most of that training has been online. And you know
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  Speaker 2: the training you have to do a lot of training
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  Speaker 2: when you come and work at the university, and you
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  Speaker 2: know students have to do some online training about academic integrity.
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  Speaker 2: I think that for this we need to go a
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  Speaker 2: lot deeper. I'm not sure that just online training is enough.
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  Speaker 2: We need to get people in a room. We may
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  Speaker 2: be have to appeal to get some of our really
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  Speaker 2: strong women that have been subjected to this to come
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  Speaker 2: into that room and say this is what's not acceptable.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you might think this is acceptable, but this isn't.
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  Speaker 2: Let's discuss that, and I think you need to do
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  Speaker 2: that in a face to face context, not just a
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  Speaker 2: sort of superficial online kind of training. So I definitely
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  Speaker 2: am looking to introduce that for staff, for students. I
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  Speaker 2: know that it's been reported in the press that one
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  Speaker 2: University down South has got absolutely terrible results in this survey.
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  Speaker 2: They are going to start consent training for all their students,
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  Speaker 2: so you won't be able to enroll in that university
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  Speaker 2: unless you've done consent training. Our figures are much better
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  Speaker 2: than that, but I still think that's something we could
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  Speaker 2: look at and I'm going to reach out to that
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  Speaker 2: union and say, well, if you've got some materials you're
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  Speaker 2: going to use who maybe we could use them as well.
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  Speaker 1: So we could end up in a situation at CDU
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  Speaker 1: where every student has to do consent training before they
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  Speaker 1: begin their degree or before they begin their studies.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly right. I mean to our students have come
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  Speaker 2: in from many different cultures, and I'm not talking just
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  Speaker 2: about international cultures but that's an issue, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: different cultures from within Australia where you know, maybe some
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  Speaker 2: of the behaviors which I won't say acceptable but are
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  Speaker 2: kind of there in those cultures are just not acceptable
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  Speaker 2: in a university. We need to start exploring that and
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  Speaker 2: getting people to understand that. And I think, you know,
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  Speaker 2: putting somethink in where we say all students have to
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  Speaker 2: do academic integrity training as part of their enrollment, you're
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  Speaker 2: not going to achieve well, maybe we need to say
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have to do this consent training because
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  Speaker 2: you are not going to arrest once you're in the university.
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  Speaker 1: Well c dou Vice Chancellor Scott Bowman, I appreciate your
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  Speaker 1: time this morning. Unfortunately we've run out of time, but
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate you having a chat with us, and please
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  Speaker 1: keep us up to date, let us know what decision
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  Speaker 1: is made in that space.
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  Speaker 2: Great talking to UKD and next time it's going to
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  Speaker 2: be good news.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much for your time this morning.