The landmark report into sexual harassment and assault at University of Sydney colleges has "disappointed" student collectives and advocacy groups who question whether the university was "managing reputational issues" or genuinely seeking to address sexual violence.
End Rape on Campus Australia, the National Union of Students Women’s Department, Fair Agenda, The Hunting Ground Australia Project, the University of Sydney SRC and the University of Sydney Women’s Collective today issued a joint statement listing issues with the report.
The report was commissioned by the university and five of its residential colleges and released last month.
End Rape on Campus ambassador Anna Hush said it was "telling" that decades of media reports, and the stories of survivors that she said triggered the review, were "completely absent" from the report.
"The report is incredibly sanitised and fails to capture the entrenched culture of sexual violence at the colleges," Hush said.
"It reads as more of a PR exercise to protect the colleges’ reputations than a robust and critical inquiry."
Some of the issues raised by the groups include: the report did not include a single case study of sexual assault or hazing (initiation ceremonies), and did not quote sexual assault survivors; 35 people were interviewed in a group setting, instead of the 120 one-on-one interviews initially proposed, and only 17 alumni were interviewed.
Former St John's College student and 2017 women's officer at the University of Sydney, Katie Thorburn, said students interviewed in a group setting were not going to "rat out the college".
"There is no way I would have said a bad word because then everyone would know I said it," Thorburn said.
"[The survivors] are the people who would have left after a semester, who aren’t included. The people who are pushed out, who are there less than one year, who don’t want to go back ... you need to speak to them."
The Australian Human Rights Commission this week released a report card on the steps universities have taken to prevent sexual harassment and sexual assaults.
All 39 universities have accepted the majority of the recommendations made by a nationwide report commissioned by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins and released in August. You can see what steps the universities are taking here.
"For too long, these colleges and their councils have protected acts of misogyny, racism and homophobia by their residents," University of Sydney SRC president Imogen Grant said.
"It’s crucial to recognise that due to the insular nature of the college community, current college students often have very different views to alumni, who have had some time to reflect on their experience, and feel less immediate social pressure to defend their institutions."