USyd Is Done With Its Sex Scandal-Ridden Colleges, Ready For Drastic Action

Following on from the horrific allegations of slut-shaming, sexual misbehaviour, and all-round douchebaggery at the University of Sydney‘s colleges, the uni has enlisted former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick to lead a joint task force to clean up the campus’ “toxic culture”.

Broderick’s eight years as commissioner included leading four investigations into gender discrimination in the Australian Defence Force after the 2011 Skype sex scandal. She’s currently the United Nations Special Adviser for Gender Equality and ergo, like the Wu Tang Clan, ain’t nothing to fuck with.

Fairfax reports that USyd is considering drastic moves to enforce the colleges’ compliance, including stripping them of their lands (not entirely legal), or forcing them to publish details of students’ inappropriate incidents online.

The earlier reports – which includes allegations that details of the alleged sexual assault of former student Kendra Murphy was broadcast over the St Andrew‘s college PA system as part of a slut-shaming weekly announcement – are simply the latest in a number of sex scandals to hit headlines over the past decade and a half.

For example, just days earlier news broke about a journal called Rackweb at Wesley College, detailing the hook-ups of students and assigning various ‘awards’ along the lines of ‘Biggest Porn Star’, ‘Best Cleavage’ and ‘Biggest Sleaze’.

The university told PEDESTRIAN.TV on Thursday that “behaviour that is intimidating, abusive, disrespectful or threatening, including more serious instances of harassment, assault or rape, are not acceptable within our community or on our campuses”, and that they were committed to rejecting any form of such behaviour.

In response, they have set up a new Student Complaints Portal to improve reporting processes, and have taken measures to improve safety on campus such as increasing their security presence and installing better lighting. 

As for the allegations made by Kendra Murphy, the Vice-Chancellor Dr Michael Spence has contacted the author of the original article detailing the allegations, Justine Landis-Hanley, to arrange a meeting.

Source: SMH.

Photo: Facebook / University of Sydney.

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV