Author: Hank Nuwer

Here is the story link

And an excerpt

Damning new research has exposed the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment at Australia’s universities.

WA university students were among the 30,000 surveyed nation-wide by the Australian Human Rights Commission last year for the Change The Course report, the findings of which were declared “concerning”.

Half of all students said they were sexually harassed on at least one occasion in 2016, and one in five experienced it in a university setting.

Seven per cent of students overall experienced a sexual assault while 1.6 per cent of these took place at a uni itself in 2015 or 2016.

Hundreds of deeply personal submissions were also received and many are included in the report, such as the story of a male student exposing his genitalia to a female in the middle of a lecture.

The Vice-Chancellors of WA’s five universities issued a joint statement today saying they stood together to make campuses safer for students and the community.

Eeva Leinonen, Vice-Chancellor at Murdoch University, said 456 Murdoch students took part in the survey, and confirmed that the reported incidence of sexual assault at the university was much lower than the national average.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Dawn Freshwater said the university had recently introduced a new system at the campus tavern known as “Ask for Angela”, where students were encouraged to ask for “Angela” if they were feeling unsafe or pressured.

UWA had also initiated a review of its sexual harassment policies and procedures earlier this year.

Sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins spoke of women being groped by men during class, a rape that took place after a college party and a female student who was repeatedly sexually harassed by a lecturer during their commute home on public transport.

“A woman told us she was raped by a senior student leader who was running (an orientation week camp),” Ms Jenkins said at the report’s launch.

“She later heard that he had previously raped another student at one of these camps and no action was a result.”

Sex assaults were likely to occur at university or residential college social events, within the college setting or on public transport, she said.

“We also heard about hazing and other college traditions … these have been widely documented in the media,” Ms Jenkins said.

“The fact these behaviours continue to exist and that they involve sexual assault and harassment is deeply concerning.”

There was a perception among students that college staff were aware of such conduct but “did nothing to prevent it”.

The vast majority of victims took no formal action, saying they didn’t know where to go for help or weren’t sure how serious the incident was.

Perhaps adding to the reluctance to report assaults or harassment was the finding that 45 per cent of victims knew the perpetrator.

Universities Australia calls for ‘zero tolerance’ on sexual assault

“It’s confronting to learn that sexual assault and sexual harassment is an all-too-common part of (university) life,” Ms Jenkins said.

Professor Margaret Gardner of Universities Australia, which commissioned the report, announced an initial 10-point plan to tackle the problem.

“We send a strong and clear message today that these behaviours are not acceptable. Not on our campuses — and not in Australia society,” Professor Gardner said.

They include the development of a “respectful relationships” program, more specialist training for counsellors to support victims, a 24-hour support line and broader first responder training for uni staff.

“The 10 major initiatives we announce today signal our resolve to ensure our students study and live in a safe and respectful culture, and to ensure that students who experience and report unacceptable behaviour receive the right response of compassion, care and support,” Professor Gardner said.

In addition to these national initiatives, universities across Australia will respond to the recommendations by taking specific local action to build on initiatives already in place, she said.

The Change The Course report — findings

* 51 per cent of university students sexually harassed at least once in 2016.

* One in four students was harassed in a university setting (on campus, while travelling to university, at a university-endorsed social event or in university employment).

* One in three harassment incidents happened on university grounds or in classrooms.

* 6.9 per cent were sexually assaulted (about one in 15).

* 1.6 per cent of students were assaulted in a university setting (almost one in four of the total who were sexually assaulted).

* One in five of these assaults happened at university or residence social events.

* Women almost twice as likely as men to be harassed, and more than three times as likely to be assaulted.

* Men overwhelmingly reported as the perpetrators.

* 51 per cent of those who reported assault or harassment knew the perpetrator – most likely to be a fellow student.

* 94 four per cent of those harassed and 87 per cent of those assaulted at university did not make a formal complaint or report.

* Six in 10 students said they didn’t know how to formally report or complain about incidents.

Here is the story link

Excerpt from the Daily Mail

The Australian Human Right’s Commission survey, released Tuesday, details the sexual assault and harassment of students across the nation’s universities, with more than 1,849 personal submissions.

The survey also detailed a range of hazing challenges, such as where first year female students or ‘freshers’ were made to ‘run the gauntlet’ along a corridor of male residents.

The women were then made to ‘kneel before each male resident and drink from his sack’ – which was a bag of wine hidden in their trousers.

Another college reportedly held an annual ‘feral women’s night’ where female residents were force-fed alcohol, told to remove their tops and were subjected to derogatory comments and sexist chants.

The survey also revealed that women were four times as likely as men to have their most recent sexual assault or harassment incident occur at a residential college.

‘Although the survey did not distinguish between college and university social events, these events were the most common setting where students experienced sexual assault,’ the report stated.

While one astonishing claim said that ‘the administration knew about this and they condoned this.’

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said there was a worrying perception colleges were aware of the hazing and college traditions and had done little to prevent them.

‘The fact that these behaviours continue to exist in colleges and that they involve sexual assault and sexual harassment of students, who in some cases are in their first week or even their first day in college, is deeply concerning,’ she said.

Commissioned by Universities Australia, the survey was undertaken after allegations institutions were covering up claims from victims.

Results came from more than 30,000 students across 39 universities and showed that ‘women are almost twice as likely as men to be harassed, and more than three times as likely to be assaulted.’

In addition, 94 per cent of those harassed and 87 per cent of those assaulted had not make a formal complaint or report, with a large proponent knowing the perpetrator.

Ms Jenkins said the Commission heard numerous accounts of women being sexually assaulted by people they described as close friends who they trusted.

‘In submissions people described feeling anxious about being on campus because they were afraid of seeing the perpetrator.

In June, allegations of rampant sexism, misconduct and bullying at the elite St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney were uncovered by Daily Mail Australia.

Several women, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed the extent of the ‘slut shaming’ that emanated from the elite college.

One woman described the abuse as an ‘every day pervasive experience,’ where she would be ‘degraded’ for her sexuality.

According to claims, student’s would allegedly throw alcohol and drug-fuelled sex parties in the college’s Rogers Room.

Referred to as the ‘Bone Room,’ the floor of the area would be covered in mattresses.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4748730/Shocking-college-hazing-rituals-revealed-new-report.html#ixzz4oUwJVpSE

Here is the Link

Here is an excerpt from St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A former University of Missouri-Columbia freshman who was hospitalized last September with alcohol poisoning has sued Kappa Alpha fraternity and three of its members for negligence surrounding a hazing ritual.

Brandon Zingale was an 18-year-old pledge at Kappa Alpha when he was “coerced by active members of (the fraternity) to drink so much vodka that he nearly died” at the fraternity house in Columbia the night of Sept. 27, 2016, the lawsuit alleges.

After Zingale passed out, fraternity members left the freshman alone after putting him to bed and attaching a backpack in an effort to keep him from rolling over and suffocating. The next morning, Zingale was found unconscious and foaming at the mouth when paramedics arrived.

Defendants in the suit include the fraternity’s national organization Kappa Alpha Order and its Alpha Kappa chapter at Mizzou. The fraternity knew of the risk of hazing traditions involving heavy drinking and did not do enough to prevent its members’ dangerous activities, according to the suit.

Moderator:  I am sharing academic Gentry McCreary’s excellent blog post with a link and excerpt.

See also Scholarship from The National Study of Student Hazing

Excerpt:

Hazing’s Perfect Storm – The American College Fraternity

We are all familiar with the meteorological term known as the “perfect storm.”  It is that rarest of phenomena in which multiple weather abnormalities converge in just the right place at just the right time to create a weather event of terrific magnitude.  The term “perfect storm” has been generalized in modern culture as a catch-all phrase used to describe any situation in which circumstances align themselves to produce rare, and often dramatic, events.

The title of this article may lead you to believe that my intention is to suggest that hazing is uniquely a problem with fraternities.  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  The National Study of Student Hazing demonstrated that hazing exists in a large number of organizations on the college campus.  The study showed that hazing is more prevalent in varsity athletics than it is in fraternities, and demonstrated that nearly half of all students involved in clubs and organizations in college have experienced hazing in high school.  Aldo Cimino (http://www.aldocimino.com/) has documented the evolutionary psychology of hazing, arguing that the hazing of newcomers in groups is ingrained in human behavior, and that virtually all groups engage in some form of newcomer hazing.  Hazing is certainly not a fraternity, or even a college, problem.

The NSSH findings, while exonerating fraternities from the title of “most likely to haze,” belie an inescapable truth – the most egregious cases of hazing, particularly those resulting in serious injury or death, belong almost exclusively to fraternities.  The obvious exception to this rule is the 2011 death of Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion, who died after being beaten in a hazing ritual known as “Crossing Bus C.”  In scanning the list of hazing deaths in the United States (https://www.hanknuwer.com/hazingdeaths.html), one must go back another ten years to find the next non-Greek casualty on the list – the 2001 death of University of Minnesota-Duluth rugby player Ken Christiansen.  During the ten years between Christiansen and Champion, there were 31 fraternity-related hazing deaths in America.  Sororities are certainly not exempt from scrutiny, as there were three hazing deaths in sororities during that same time period, but that number pales in comparison to fraternities.  The American college fraternity stands head and shoulders above any other organization on or off the college campus when it comes to hazing resulting in death.  No other group even comes close.

When confronted with these brutal facts, one must conclude that the American college fraternity brings together a perfect storm for hazing.  The rare combination of environmental factors present in the college fraternity converge to make it an environment that produces hazing of a terrific magnitude.  But what are those variables?  What about the college fraternity creates an environment so conducive to dangerous, deadly hazing?  Examining these questions and truly understanding the unique factors that contribute to the fraternity hazing culture is the first step in moving towards an effective fraternity hazing prevention strategy.  It is critically essential to understand what makes fraternity hazing so unique in order to properly address it.  This article offers an examination of two factors, unique to the fraternity culture, that contribute to hazing’s perfect storm.

Read the story at this link

Excerpt from 12 News

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Chandler police said both the principal and former football coach at Hamilton High School denied having any knowledge of hazing happening among players on the school’s football team. However, evidence collected during the investigation into allegations of sexual assault suggests otherwise.

Newly obtained police documents claim both principal Ken James and then head coach Steve Belles knew of the hazing and sexual assault allegations as far back as last year — but did not report it until a month later.

According to the documents, James had a meeting in November with two parents claiming their son was assaulted by other football players. The parents told police James took notes and then interviewed the victim without proper training, and did not notify police.

A binder containing notes from that meeting was found in James’ office when police served a search warrant at the school in June.

The report indicates Belles knew of the allegations as far back as May 2016 and eventually was instructed by James to handle the situation.

Police cite interviews with players who claim the coach, on several occasions, warned the players against hazing — allegedly telling them to “stop raping each other.”

Detectives also say Belles denied having a conversation in January with administrators about the hazing allegations, despite an email sent to him about the issue.