On the second day of the USU’s Welcome Fest, current and prospective students rallied outside the Quadrangle and marched down Eastern Avenue against sexual violence on campus.
Organised and chaired by the SRC Women’s Collective (WoCo) and the Queer Action Collective (QuAC), the rally focused on the culture of sexual violence and harassment within the residential colleges. Demonstrators called on the colleges to be abolished and transitioned into safe and affordable student housing.
Among their demands were an end to rape on campus, implementing the findings of the Red Zone Report, abolish the colleges’ system of self-goverance, establish safe and accessible housing at 25% of students’ income, institute mandatory peer-led consent training, and offer free semester housing for international students and students on rolling visas.
The snap action comes after reports in Honi of extreme violence at a St Andrew’s event, in which a student’s ear was bitten off, and Drew’s students being disinvited from an inter-college dinner after being accused of “acts of intimidation, misogyny and homophobia.”
2024 SRC Women’s Officer Eliza Crossley opened the rally, speaking about the colleges’ status as “sexist, elitist institutions” that “perpetuate violence on-campus and beyond. Despite claims that this culture has miraculously improved, nothing has changed.”
Esther Whitehead, SRC Queer Officer, also chaired the rally, speaking particularly on issues of homophobia and transphobia in the colleges. Along with co-officer, Tim Duff, Whitehead condemned a college culture which forces queer and gender-diverse students to mask their identities to avoid discrimination and harassment from their peers.
Sexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment (SASH) Officer, Martha Barlow, also reiterated the importance of defunding and transitioning the colleges into affordable student housing. Barlow mentioned the NSW Greens’ campaign in collaboration with the SRC to abolish the colleges.
Final speakers Juneau Choo and Olivia Lee supported the rally’s mission, joining with speakers in an open-mic section to build demonstrators’ enthusiasm.
The group walked from the Quadrangle to F23 Michael Spence Building through the Welcome Fest stalls on Eastern Avenue.
Chants of “red tape won’t cover up rape” and “USyd’s silence perpetuates violence” were among the march’s rallying cries.
The rally also comes after, the previous night, posters appeared in the Graffiti Tunnel on campus, detailing explicit instances of sexual violence and hazing at four residential colleges – St Andrew’s, St John’s, St Paul’s, and Wesley College.
The posters – accompanied by messages of “ABOLISH THE COLLEGES: A TIMELINE” and “NOTHING HAS CHANGED: ABOLISH THE COLLEGES” – describe situations in which male students avoid consequences for sexual assault and harrassment, and female students are subjected to horrific behaviour during their time at college.
The Feminist Liberation Collective will be hosting a forum for public housing at 6pm on Wednesday 21 February at Resistance Bookshop in Ultimo, focusing on abolishing the colleges and establishing safe and affordable student housing.
Contact the SRC Women’s Collective on Facebook and Instagram for more information on the colleges campaign.
