The recent tragic deaths of Sarah Everard and Blessing Olusegun have prompted an outpouring of public and media discussion about violence against women and how we, as a society, respond to it. Several of our students have contacted us about what we’re doing to tackle this, and we wanted to take the opportunity to share our thoughts.

Firstly, violence is never justified and has no place on our campus. Everyone has the right to feel safe at all times, day and night, regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race or religion – in fact, for any reason at all.

To help achieve this, we’ve done a number of things.

Our #NeverOk campaign promotes a culture of respect and inclusivity for all. Anyone who experiences violence, bullying, harassment, or discrimination can report it by email at neverok@reading.ac.uk. Our Student Welfare Team will respond and provide support and advice, as well as helping you to contact our Disciplinary & Complaints Team or Police to take action as appropriate.

RUSU has introduced mandatory welfare training for student clubs and societies, as well as specific training for their security team on how to identify and deal with sexual harassment.

While our ultimate goal is for this not to be needed, our Security team offer a ‘Chaperone’ service to any student who feels uncomfortable walking home on campus. We understand some people may be worried about their personal safety and we have published advice on staying safe on Essentials.

All this being said, we know that there is scope to do more. We intend to work with our students to identify how best to tackle this together and, to this end, are establishing a project to identify how we can build a stronger community culture where every member of the University stands against all forms of violence and harassment. We will also be reviewing and updating our safety advice.

If you have feedback or would like to get involved, you can email Bandy Karki, RUSU’s Welfare Officer, at welfareofficer@rusu.co.uk.

RUSU would also like to invite students to attend an online vigil to show respect to the women who have died due to violence on Friday 26 March from 4-5pm.

Paddy

Dr Patricia (‘Paddy’ Woodman), Director of Student Services

Bandy

Bandy Karki, RUSU Welfare Officer, Reading University Students’ Union