University of Sydney Women's Collective Rallies Against Sexual Violence

By Emma Goldrick

Today the University of Sydney Women’s Collective, along with support from the NUS Women’s Department, EROC and four other university women’s collectives rallied for the end of sexual violence on university campuses across Australia. After countless years and incidents of horrendous acts of sexual assault and rape on the campus of USYD and its affiliated colleges, the rally called for better reporting systems, stronger and enforced punishment and support services for survivors.  While the peaceful rally was met with an excessively large police presence, this did not deter victims from sharing their stories and speaking out against the University’s rape culture and the insitutions mechnisms at combating this epidemic. 

Speakers acknowledged that sexual violence is a gendered epidemic on university campus across Australia. All speakers emphasised the lack of support the university has given survivors, whether this is in the form of simple assignment extensions or trained professional counsellors. On numerous accounts speakers, many of which are survivors of sexual assault on campus, explained the toxic abuse of power at the university by executives of clubs and societies. One speaker mentioned the trauma experienced by a student from a senior club executive on a first year camp, explaining that even after speaking out about what had happened the perpetrator was not scrapped of his position. 

End Rape on Campus (EROC) representative Anna Hush explained that the organisation is “a grassroots feminist advocacy group, that advocates for survivors of sexual violence in university communities. Our goal is to end sexual violence in higher education. We believe that this is a matter of educational justice - when survivors are avoiding university, dropping subjects, or even dropping out of their degrees due to the effects of trauma and of institutional betrayal, it’s a matter of access to education”. Anna also mentioned “the tireless work of campaigner, journalist and advocate Nina Funnell, who is one of the co-Directors of EROC”.

Nina Funnell will be speaking at Pulp Media Series, which will be an event held on the 29th of August where Nina will speak on how she handles sensitive stories with empathy and care for the survivors that choose to share their experiences publicly, followed by a Q&A.