TW: mentions of SA
When I called Oliwia Charowska, founder of Safe Education, it was another Saturday morning at university for both of us. Her at Durham, me at Cambridge. As I began the interview, the topic felt familiar. The casual pervasiveness of sexual harassment at university. It reminded me of a conversation I’ve had with my girl friends countless times. We will be debriefing about the night before, and someone will say “That guy in the club was really weird with me last night”, or “I felt really unsafe walking back”, or “They wouldn’t leave me alone”. Usually veiled in euphemistic language and hushed tones, we will quietly disclose experiences of verbal, and sometimes physical assault, attempt to counsel each other, and then carry on with our day.
This normalisation of sexual violence is exactly what Safe Education is fighting against. And, this time, my conversation with Oliwia was different. Safe Education has a practical plan to tackle high levels of sexual assault and rape culture on university campuses. A student-led campaign based at Durham University, they are already collaborating with Right to Equality, Amnesty International, Edinburgh University, and now The New Feminist, to spread awareness and share their practical solutions so we can make university campuses safer for everyone. As they say in their open letter, “Safety on campus is the bare minimum, it is not a luxury or a privilege; it is a right”. Here’s everything we learnt:
Maddy: What is the extent of the normalisation of sexual violence in UK universities? How does it manifest itself?
Oliwia: There are so many different layers to unpack. I speak as a young female, and my experience is that the culture of sexual violence has been ingrained within my university life. One thing that Safe Education has been pushing for is for the university to recognise the intersectionality of sexual violence. All forms of harassment, whether that’s racism, classism or homophobia, compound the impact of sexual violence and lead to its normalisation. When you already have a prejudice against one group, it is much more likely that you will devalue or dehumanise another group, for example, women.
Another form of normalisation happens due to the lack of consent training. Currently, there is a lack of statutory duty of care for universities, so the level of consent training varies dramatically across different universities. This means there is a clear lack of institutional accountability. A recent Platinate interview revealed that over a third of students haven’t done Durham’s mandatory training. What does that say about how seriously this issue is taken, and how enforced consent education actually is?
At universities, students are more likely to be assaulted than in any other occupation. Universities are multi-million-pound institutions, and we’re talking about addressing sexual violence, which is a human rights issue. It is the right to feel safe, the right to bodily autonomy, the right to dignity. This is why we are lobbying the government to redefine universities’ statutory duty of care; in no other institution, workplace, hospital or school is this type of negligence legal.
So, because there is no legal requirement for universities to address this issue, data has stopped being collected on this issue. A recent BBC investigation revealed that under half of universities in the UK can provide up-to-date statistics on sexual violence. We’re in a landscape where sexual violence is so normalised that we’ve stopped counting.
M: What is the “Red Zone” and why is it important? How does it underline the significance of a lack of consent education?
O: The Red Zone is the first term of university. It’s called the Red Zone, because it’s the time when students are most likely to be assaulted, particularly as freshers. So the Red Zone highlights the importance of stage one of the solution we are proposing, which is the precautionary and preventative consent training. Even a few weeks into term, for many survivors, is too late. Two-thirds of students experience sexual violence at university in the UK, and much of it occurs in this dangerous time. Students are away from home, they have not established a support network yet, and they are in a very vulnerable position.
M: The idea of the Red Zone resonates with me. At university, without institutional support, our friends do the emotional labour, trying to counsel us on issues they are not qualified for. Moving forward, what’s the best way we should approach prevention and institutional support for students? Let’s start with changing attitudes.
We need to stop the double standards. Alcohol consumption is doubly weaponised to blame victims for their own assault and excuse their perpetrators. Despite how much we are told not to ask people what they were wearing, or drinking, the language is still too prevalent. The only way to challenge that is through education from the bottom up.
Even at Safe Education, we continuously educate ourselves; I’m learning something new every day. When we engage with these issues, we must approach them with curiosity and empathy. Education is not to catch people out, it is to learn and develop together so we can get to a place in society where sexual violence is not the norm, but proactively challenging, calling out, and being part of the solution is.
Part of the behavioural change we need to see is the simple act of believing survivors. We should empower each other by showing there is no shame or blame and it is the institutions which need to change. I love Laura Bates’ phrase “Fix the System, not the Women”. As a society, we must shift to a mindset where we demand the systems to be better, not the women themselves.
M: As individuals, we can only do so much. What are the institutional changes we need to see to keep us safe?
O: Some examples from our open letter, which we are working on at the moment are:
- Mandatory consent education which is actively enforced and monitored, including “Active Bystander training”.
- A survivor-centred Centralised Support System for tackling sexual violence.
- A One Advocate system for survivors: one staff member to support a survivor and act as their advocate and liaison, who can support and inform them on their rights.
- Clear Signposting and Accountability List: the university should have a clear policy on sexual violence which comprehensively defines misconduct and disciplinary action.
- And finally, we need government change. A statutory duty of care would force universities to have greater accountability. Part of taking accountability is also keeping up to data on the issue.
Working in the feminist space can feel pretty bleak sometimes. I find myself reading article after article about new cases of sexual violence and wonder how, as individuals, we can ever begin to tackle such a systemic issue. My conversation with Oliwia was a breath of fresh air. The simple truth that safety, dignity and bodily autonomy are human rights stuck with me. Sexual violence is so normalised we’ve forgotten to hold our institutions accountable. Safe Education reminded me why I started working in this space. Caring deeply about an issue and building a community that dares to demand better for ourselves and each other is enough to make a tangible difference.
You can follow the work of Oliwia Charowska, and Safe Education @safe_education_du
