The objective of this study was to understand students’ knowledge and perceptions of sexual harassment and sexual harassment policies within the ‘University of uThukela’. Findings derived during focus group discussions to undergraduate students in the Department of Criminal Justice and Department of Law as well as Semi-Structured Interviews to staff members responsible for sexual harassment policy implementation within the ‘University of uThukela’ along with external sexual harassment experts compromised the following themes, (1) The institution has insufficiently trained staff receiving cases of sexual harassment, (2) Sexual harassment is prevalent amongst peers and staff members, (3) Students lack knowledge on the institutions sexual harassment policies and have unrecognised sexual harassment residence awareness campaigns, (4) Culture and dress code are major causes of sexual harassment, (5) Sexual harassment effects students’ academic, health, and social life, (6) Deficiency in student involvement on sexual harassment policy implementation
The institution has insufficiently trained staff receiving cases of sexual harassment
Undergraduate students in the Department of Criminal Justice and Department of Law and staff members responsible for sexual harassment policy implementation within the ‘University of uThukela’ have mentioned that the institution does not have professionally trained staff dealing with cases of sexual harassment towards students which contributes to low reporting rates. It has been argued that the institution uses the Protective Service Department (PSD) to report all crimes within the institution including the ones which are sensitive like sexual harassment and GBV. Furthermore, students have indicated not being comfortable reporting such cases in an open space with other students being present, with receiving unpleasant treatment which is due to untrained staff.
Respondent 1 (female): “I think low reporting rates are caused by unprofessional staff receiving sexual harassment cases, student rather not report than be treated harshly”.
Respondent 2 (male): “Having untrained staff receiving complains, whereby a student will have to wait long hours to be attended to”.
Respondent 3 (female): “I also think having people who respond harshly and unprofessional to those that come to report contributes to low reporting rates”.
Respondent 4 (female): “I personally would not go to report such cases in the PSD offices as there are other students who come and report other crime there, I do not think it would be comfortable reporting while other students are also around”.
Staff members responsible for sexual harassment further mentioned:
Respondent 1 (male): “Regarding this institution, I can say it is untrained staff receiving complaints of sexual harassment. Some students also claim to not know who to trust in terms of reporting”.
Respondent 2 (male): “If perhaps students go to the PSD to report a sexual violence incident, they might find a person who is unapproachable, having bad treatment, and being unattended too. Students might not be comfortable in the manner that the person helping is asking the questions”.
Similar conclusions were reached in the institution not having professionally trained individuals to monitor, receive and deal with cases of sexual harassment within the ‘University of uThukela’. Obnoxious treatment for those who come forward to report such incidences have been noted to be a major cause of low reporting rate of sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is prevalent amongst peers and staff members
Sexual harassment has been seen as operative within the ‘University of uThukela’ through students themselves and staff members to students. Students have claimed to have observed sexual harassment being active within the institutions Facebook social media group, through some staff members who are matrons, PSD, student leaders and lectures, whereby position overpower is used to harass students. Students feel residences as breeding grounds of sexual harassment within the ‘University of uThukela’, from male senior students towards females, especially first year students. Catcalling and smacking of buttocks have been experienced by first year female students within their residences premises which is normally done by senior male students in the institution. Students further mentioned to feel more comfortable wearing shorts going to the mall than within the campus.
Respondent 1(female): “Even some of the student leaders in this institution take advantage of us as female students, when we come to ask for help, they would invite us to their residences for some drinks or two and start touching and asking us out”. I have also observed harassment within our Facebook group page whereby it was a trend to post someone else’s picture and other students would pass negative sexual comments on the posted picture”.
Respondent 2 (female): “Oh! Well, if I can share my personal experience, during my first year, when I first arrived at student residences, it was on orientation week when I usually stayed at the east residence. There are boys who normally sit near “Vusi” tuck-shop, you see those boys, they normally sit in circles, so when I passed next to them to go buy bread at the tuck-shop, there is this guy, which I did not even know who just smacked my buttocks very hard and commented “if I could get one of this one, I would do it until I balance with this huge ass”. I was very angry and was about to respond to him, but I just walked helplessly as I noticed that it was a senior guy. I have never reported this matter as I never knew where to report or even if these matters can be reported”.
Respondent 3 (female): “There is one male who perpetrates sexual harassment amongst students, he works at the PSD but does not wear a uniform like the other PSD members. He is well known to harass students, there is also a matron from the west residence who also perpetuate harassment amongst students, and there are a few lecture cases of sexual harassment on campus that I know of.”
This is evident of sexual harassment being a crucial issue in the ‘University of uThukela’ which is practiced within student residences, by staff members and among students themselves.
Students lack knowledge on the institutions sexual harassment policies and have unrecognised sexual harassment residence training and awareness campaigns.
Results obtained from the students’ knowledge test, which was responsible to test the knowledge that students from the Department of Criminal Justice and the Department of Law have on the institutions sexual harassment policy revealed that students have a general knowledge of sexual harassment, but poor knowledge of the sexual harassment policy in the institution.
The graph above shows an analysis of the Knowledge Test marks of male and female student participants in the two departments in this study. Results from both the departments were similar according to each question. A reasonable expectation of student excellent knowledge of sexual harassment and its institutions policy can be said to be 80%, although 100% knowledge would be ideal. Student participants got only 10 out of the 21 questions with an average of 80% and above, with the rest being below. The researcher had believed students from the Department of Criminal Justice and Law should in relative terms have a greater understanding of the Law and sexual harassment polices compared to those from other departments. Having such results makes the researcher note that other departments might have even less knowledge of the sexual harassment related document at the ‘University of uThukela’.
The graph illustrates that all participants got most of the questions above 50% correct. 5 questions overall proved to be difficult for most student participants. These were questions 3,13,16, and 21. According to the Knowledge Test, there is a thematic trend in these questions as they are to a greater extent linked to the sexual harassment policy documents and reporting procedures of the institutions. Results have revealed that students have excellent knowledge on sexual harassment but still lack knowledge of sexual harassment policy in the ‘University of uThukela’.
This has also been noted during focus group discussions with students, as they claimed they have never been educated about sexual harassment policy during awareness campaigns. Students further mentioned, they do not remember the institutions having sexual harassment awareness or training within on campus and off campus residences.
All respondents: “No, we do not know and have never received or seen any sexual harassment related policy from the institution”.
All respondents: “No, we have never been into any sexual harassment programmes in our residences, and never heard of any within residences”.
Findings have revealed that the ‘University of uThukela’ does not educate about sexual harassment policies during student awareness campaigns. Furthermore, it has been noted that this institution has not yet hosted training and awareness campaigns within student residences while it is evident that sexual harassment is operative within student residences.
Culture and dress code are major causes of sexual harassment
Students mentioned seeing cultural upbringing and social norms as one of the major causes of sexual harassment. They see females’ submissive expectations and males’ masculinity expectations as a contributing factor of sexual harassment. What is taught within societies is brought within the institutional society, practiced and learnt by others which includes sexual behaviours. Students see these cultural and social norms as what causes most men to perpetrate sexual harassment and for females to be victimsed. This asserts with the socio-cultural theory as it argues that the way culture and society have normalised different expectation in gender, makes perpetration be mostly of males rather than females.
Respondent 2 (male): “I think it is constituted by the persons upbringing, from the society as well as the household. Sometimes as individuals we intake alcohol and drugs, which when intoxicated we find it easy to do as we please to women”.
Respondent 6 (female): “I guess it how we are raised; we learn bad things and contribute it to other societies”.
Students from both departments argued that female dress code is what contributes to sexual behaviour. This reveals that most students from the ‘University of uThukela’ see students who wear revealing clothing as contributing to their own victimisation. This is saddening to note since this institution has majority of African students who are familiar with female students not being fully dressed during certain maiden ceremonies, but when it comes to westernised clothing they seem to see females as the ones who are seeking male attention.
Respondent 3 (male): “Another thing is the way a person dresses up; I believe us as African people are taught during our upbringing on ways that women and men are expected to dress/present themselves. For example, a person who is a prostitute, at night, it is easier to notify that they are prostitutes from the way they are dressed, so when a student is dressed as a prostitute on campus, what does one expect the male domination to react to that. I think individual anger issues does contribute as well”.
Majority of female students rejected the dress code argument as they argued that women experience sexual harassment regardless of what they are wearing. Female students believe perpetrating sexual harassment comes from an individual act and not because of what a person sees.
Respondent 4 (female): “There was a time where I walked past a beautiful lady, with big breasts and buttocks, she was not even wearing any revealing clothes, it is just that one could see from her walk that she was very confident, and a man passing by started whistling at her, she did not respond, and later she was yelled at, by saying “look at that female, who does she think she is?”, for just walking. So sometimes I do not think the way that we dress contributes to harassment as you guys mentioned it earlier”.
Sexual harassment effects students’ academic, health, and social life.
In terms of the likely effects of sexual harassment on a victim’s well-being and the ability to study further at an institution, similar conclusions were reached during semi-structured interviews to the staff responsible for sexual harassment policy implementation in the ‘University of uThukela’ and sexual harassment external experts. They linked the students’ dropout rates and engaging in substance abuse to the sexual harassment problem. Furthermore, they agreed that affected students tend to have post-traumatic stress, low self-esteem, academic strain, fear of coming back, and depression.
Respondent 1 (male): “Some students might not be able to cope with their studies. A student survivor that we have been with before, who have been sexually harassed by her colleague, could not attend classes anymore as they shared the same class with the perpetrator”.
Respondent 2 (female): “Student normally claims to suffer emotionally, whereby they feel guilty of being victimised, they feel depressed and isolated most of the time, and have a lowered self-esteem”.
Respondent 3 (male): “They suffer from academic strain and social problems like isolation and depression”.
This is evident that although some may take cases of sexual harassment lightly, it has a major effect towards students if not taken care of or eliminated within the institution.
Deficiency in student involvement on sexual harassment policy implementation.
Since the ‘University of uThukela’ previously did not have the SRC on board, it claims that it recently ensured that there was student involvement on policy review and implementation in 2020. Thus, it invited only the SRC members to have an input in the institution’s sexual harassment policy, which is not sufficient for senate, as ideally, it should be every employee and student, not just a few individuals in units. This begs the question whether the evaluation of sexual harassment policies in ‘University of uThukela’ by council is effective.
Respondent 1 (male): “Students have lived experiences of sexual harassment, and they would understand how best the policy would serve them, so yes students being involved in the review of the sexual harassment policy is pivotal, which was only passed in 2020 in the ‘University of uThukela as in some years we did not have an SRC”.
Respondent 2 (female): “As we were doing the policy review, we have invited the SRC members for them to be able to produce any input they wish to add according to what they think will be good/beneficial for students, which means if they were there as student representatives it would serve a huge purpose as students are the ones who mostly experience being victims of sexual harassment”.
The SRC argued that they needed a bigger role in policy formulation and implementation so that their voices too are included as well as student.
Respondent 6 (male): “Students does not have the rich information in terms of accessing the policy, there is also nothing much talking about students in it , it was all about staff members you may ask a few students where to access this policy, they might be blank as they do not know of it, which then led us as SRC members to request a meeting for us to add a voice within the institutions policy, because we are the people who knows the students and who normally engage with them on our daily basis, not the policy makers”.