Uni of Sydney’s scandal-plagued colleges told to regulate alcohol

Sydney University’s scandal-plagued colleges told to regulate alcohol and enforce a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct.

Former Sex Discrimination Commission Elizabeth Broderick has told the University of Sydney’s scandal-plagued colleges to regulate alcohol. Picture: iStock

Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has told the University of Sydney’s scandal-plagued colleges to regulate alcohol and enforce a zero tolerance approach to sexual misconduct by students to deal with a culture that has long accepted hazing and denigration of women.

In a detailed study jointly commissioned by the university and colleges, Ms Broderick said that 26 per cent of women and six per cent of men said they had been sexually harassed since commencing as students at the colleges.

“Six per cent of women and one per cent of men reported that they had experienced actual or attempted sexual assault,” she said, launching her report on cultural renewal at the colleges yesterday.

“In 95 per cent of the incidents and in all the incidents reported by women, the alleged offender was male. The data is compelling.”

Ms Broderick’s review also found that 11 per cent of women students in the colleges had felt they should have sex to fit in or be accepted.

And 50 per cent of students said they had witnessed bullying, intimidation, hazing or pressure to participate in humiliating activities since joining their college.

The five colleges involved in the report — St John’s, St Andrew’s, Wesley, Women’s and Sancta Sophia — said they would fully adopt all the recommendations from the Broderick review within two years.

The college’s performance will be assessed in another study in three years time and Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence yesterday warned them if they failed to remain committed to reform their independence was at risk.

“It is something the (NSW) minister for education is watching,” he said.

Currently the colleges are independent from the university with their own NSW acts of parliament.

Ms Broderick’s findings followed interviews with over 40 per cent of the 1500 or so current students at the colleges, either conducted either one-to-one or in group discussions.

She said that for women, the college experience was often different to their male peers, including experiencing exclusion or isolation, pressure to drink alcohol, sexist remarks, the pressure to have sex or hook up to fit in, experiences of sexual harassment and of sexual assault.

She also called on the colleges to clamp down on alcohol consumption in the college bars, and bring in qualified managers to run them and hold the liquor licences.

She said all colleges should have a common policy so students couldn’t “alcohol shop” and they needed to end the practice of offering “free” drinks funded by student club fees.

Ms Broderick also said the colleges’ bullying and harassment policies must “strictly prohibit hazing or any other behaviours that compromise students’ physical or psychological safety and wellbeing’.

“Swift action should be taken in relation to those who breach this policy,” she said.

On sexual misconduct Ms Broderick went a step further and said the colleges needed a stand alone, zero-tolerance policy with a commitment to strong action against breaches and proper support for victims and survivors.

One Sydney University college, the all-male St Paul’s, refused to join the Broderick review until six months ago. It relented after an abusive incident earlier this year — in which a student posted a sexually denigrating message on Facebook which was liked by a large proportion of students — led to extreme pressure from the university to institute reforms.

Vice-chancellor Michael Spence said then that the college had a culture of “deep contempt for women” which went to its “very licence to operate”.

Because St Paul’s joined the Broderick review late the report on its culture is not yet complete.