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Whose business is it? Violence Against Women at the University of

the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica

Taitu Heron

November 25, 2013 Commemorating IDEVAW, Halls of Residence, the Counselling Unit & IGDS Mona

The occurrence of Violence Against Women on a University campus is not new. If it

violence against Women occurs in the wider society, the University is a reflection

of this; a manifestation of the range of social ills that contribute to violence against

women, and not exceptional or immune to it.

What I want to look at today is the extent of its occurrence, what the data says and

the various initiatives or lack thereof regarding the occurrence of violence against

women at UWI. I will then focus on what prevails on other university campuses

elsewhere in the world and the approaches that University administrations

elsewhere have taken. What lessons can we learn from other University Campuses?

What can the student body do? What can other entities, such as Campus security,

the police and so do, do to address VAW on campus.

The student population

Student population on campus: 15,392 and the gender distribution of the total

student body has been approximately 70% female to 30% male (2010).1 Students

in the 24 and under age group account for approximately 52% of total registration,

while the 25-34 age group accounts for 27%. The Mona Campus comprises

predominantly a commuting student population. Only about 18% of the total on-

campus student population resides in halls of residence on the Campus.

Violence on campus is global reality and the nature of it varies from violence against

women in wider society, specific to the dynamics of a University campus including

spatial layout, design of buildings, design of walkways, and the extent to which

1 http://www.mona.uwi.edu/opair/profile/academicprofileofstudents2008-09to2010-11.pdf

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buildings, lighting etc are put up and later altered bearing in mind the reality of

violence on a university campus…not only violence against women.

The reported incidents of violence against women on campus occur primarily but

not exclusively to female students, with the exception of one case, a female security

officer who was physically assaulted by a male student. I suspect that it is not only

the student population that this happens to but this is what the data captures for

the time being.

The reports of physical assault, which I will get into, happened to a mix of students

who were either commuting students or lived on campus. The survivors of rape

were primarily off-campus students that got raped going home in the Kingston 6

and 7 areas. The other incidents of rape and sexual assault occurred by men known

to the students.

All of the domestic disputes reported to the Office of Security Services, concerned

students who lived in a hall of residence.

Table 1: Violence Against Women (Students) On The UWI Mona Campus

Incidents 2010 2011 2012 Total by incident

Sexual harassment 3 3 5 11

Physical assault 4 5 9 18

Domestic disputes 5 4 8 17

Stalking 2 6 2 10

Rape 1 2 2 5

Indecent assault 1 1 1 3

Wounding 0 0 2 2

Total Incidents

Reported 16 21 29 67

Source: Compiled from Incident Reports 2010-2012, Office of Security Services, UWI Mona2

2 All victims are female students. The incident reports provide more detail on reports between men and between

women.

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Physical assault and domestic disputes reveal the highest number, followed by

sexual harassment and then stalking. It is increasing with each year. Why should

these numbers matter when they are low in comparison to the prevalence of

violence against women in the wider society? It is a mirror of society, but the

situation requires policy and programmatic intervention like many other areas that

the University administration has sought to address since its inception, depending

on the priority that it is given. This in my view is a priority. Why is it not a priority?

Violence against women occurs in Jamaica in a particular context that unfortunately

normalizes it. In different ways we are all guilty of being complicit to the occurrence

of violence against women, whether by disregarding it as a private issue and not

reporting it, by self-esteem issues, among others. But basically high levels of

victimization, coupled with cultural acceptance of rape myths that she had to have

done something to “deserve it” or a man beating a woman is an expression of love

and a form of “discipline” when his partner gets out of hand…. All create an

environment where victimized students are disempowered and alienated from

their University experiences. This environment has resulted in impediments to

academic success, lower graduation rates, health problems, and persistent mental

health issues. Students cannot learn in an atmosphere where they do not feel safe.

This is why it should be a priority. Students cannot learn in atmosphere where they

do not feel safe. Looking at the situation of violence against women on campus,

gives us an opportunity to think about how we can create safe learning spaces for

all students by examining and re-imagining our institutional and educational

processes, structures and cultures to truly embrace “gender democracy”.

Because the demographics of the student population have changed – we have

significantly more females than males and this demographic would definitely have

implications. IDEVAW marks the day for the elimination of violence against women

and the University has a critical role to play in eliminating violence against its female

students. This is not the first time that violence against women on campus has

come to the attention of the University administration. In April 2007, a group of

students from Mary Seacole Hall called the Society for the Upliftment of Women

via Education (SUAWvE) – made a presentation to the Joint Select committee of

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parliament at that time reviewing the Offences against the Person Act and the

Incest (Punishment) Act, which eventually became what we now know as the

Sexual Offences Act 2009. This group of students argued in parliament that violence

against women on campus required specific attention. The 2007 report of the Joint

Select Committee records:

“The representative of SUAWvE is calling to our attention the high

incidence of “acquaintance rape” on the University [of the West Indies]

campus and stressed the need for a change in the “culture”3.

The group SUAWvE further recommended an additional category on how to treat

victims of acquaintance rape. They made the following recommendations that they

felt would assist in providing a just and equitable treatment for victims of

acquaintance rape: -

Qualification of the definition of rape; qualification of the definition of

consent; special briefing of jurors; automatic no-contact order; dedicated

court (s) to hear cases of sexual crimes; sexual crime units at medical centres

and hospitals; private (in-camera) court proceedings for sexual crimes during

victims’ testimony; restriction of evidence of previous sexual history of

complainants; and establishment of a Disclosure of Campus Security Policy

and Campus Crime and Statistics Act and a Student Right-to know and

Campus Security Act 4.

The Joint Select Committee suggested that SUAWvE should contact the Justice

Reform Task Force to deal with the issue of the dedicated court(s) to hear sexual

crimes and the Faculty of Law to address the issues relating to the development of

security policy for the campus5. A news report was made of their presentation to

parliament to which the University did not respond as favourably as it should.

Shortly afterwards, the student group was called in to the Principal’s office and

reprimanded for bringing the University into ill-repute. The primary concern was

3 Final report of the JSC on Reviewing the Offences Against the Persons Act & Incest Act 2007, p. 7. 4 Ibid. p. 30. 5 Ibid.

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not that the incidents of violence against women occurred but rather that speaking

about it in an open forum made the University look bad.

The group was charged to clarify the matter in a letter to the Mona Campus

Principal at that time, and argued as such:

....media representations of the discussions held in parliament were

neither completely accurate nor balanced. The stance taken by

SUAWvE is not one founded on selfish intentions but rather concern

over the lack of a centralised and comprehensive approach by the

University in dealing with sexual assault on the campus. These

sentiments include student perceptions about the inadequate avenues

for reporting incidents of sexual assault .... the climate on the campus

...is not supportive of women who experience acquaintance rape.

These perceptions have led us to believe that the University does not

consider the issue of sexual assault worthy of attention and policy

considerations5.

The SUAWvE went on to elaborate in their letter to the Principal various initiatives

which they had undertaken and participated in, that related to violence against

women, including the University’s Sexual Safety Intervention (Policy) Project and

the HIV/AIDS Policy Implementation Committee.

It is also known that the University Health centre and the Counselling Unit handles

cases of sexual assault and has offered and continues to offer counselling services

to students who have been traumatised by sexual violence in particular. The matter

of domestic disputes as the office of security services calls it, however, occurs with

limited attention beyond complaints and reports to security.

Sexual Safety Intervention (Policy) Project and the HIV/AIDS Policy Implementation

Committee both cover gender and health issues related to violence against women

and it was acknowledged by both initiatives that more needed to be done by the

University strategically to address violence against women.

5 Letter to the former Principal, Prof. Elsa Leo Rhynie, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, April 12, 2007.

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That was in 2007. This is 2013.

Unfortunately to date, there is no centralised approach to violence against women

or even generally speaking gender based violence on the University of the West

Indies campuses. Why has the earlier positive contributions to addressing the

problem of violence against women at the university have not been acted upon?

Could it be a preoccupation with other matters such as University funding, fees,

beatification and expansion? Could it be because of the predominance of male

leadership in the university administration? Could be a lack of sensitivity on their

part even though the student body is largely female? I don’t know, but we have to

wonder and we have to ask. Time did not allow me to find out precisely why.

Is this an issue that the Guild of Students has addressed since it is the main student

body that negotiates and argues for a range of students’ needs on the Campus?

Isn’t this an urgent student need? Does the male dominance of leadership of the

guild of students have anything to do with why this is not yet a matter to be raised?

I do not know, but we have to wonder and we have to ask.

The numbers say that this is not a matter that should be ignored by the

administration, by the student body or by the staff.

So what to do? And what kind of approach should we explore?

So far the approach to violence in general on campus is to do with Safety and

Security, not just personal safety but also personal and university property,

breaking and entering, traffic violations, truancy, larceny, among a range of violent

incidents – altercations between men, between women, plus the categories of

violence against women that I spoke to before. On examination of the incident

reports, the security and the police on campus are extremely busy and must be

commended for their work.

Violence against women is a manifestation of broader social patterns in Jamaica

where, based on official data, an average of 3 women are assaulted or raped daily

and an average of 24 women each day are victims of intimate partner violence or

‘domestic violence’. Recognising this is important because it avoids the problem of

interpreting the incident as failure of University security measures, and instead

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locates it more within pervasive patterns of social behaviour. I further argue that

violence against women on campus must be understood within a continuum of GBV

ranging from sexual harassment to femicide and that in fact, if we look at hospital

data from the Ministry of Health, rape by a stranger is far less common than a range

of other problems such as intimate partner violence and acquaintance rape. This

tiny bit of research also brought to my attention that is also gendered and requires

mention - homophobic violence and attacks on men who reject dominant

stereotypes of masculinity and corrective rape – when men rape lesbians who they

think need “straightened out”. Three incidents that occurred in 2009 came to my

attention but had not reached the police or campus security because of the

illegality of same-sex conduct under Jamaican laws; however, had reached the

counsellors.

There is need to shift the perspective that focuses exclusively focus on physical

security. It would not be effective in the cases of physical assault and domestic

disputes, which has more complex social underpinnings. Instead there is need for

measures that also intervene at the level of gender norms and social life and where

this insects with the students and wider University community.

How can we develop a politics of care on the university campus?

What I have seen in my preparation for this lecture is that on other university

campuses, in the UK, in South Africa, in California, in Denver (USA) and in Zambia,

to name a few, and one thing was common: Crisis response service for students.

This encompasses increased support and an expanded mandate for existing

student support services, going beyond victim counselling and into proactive

awareness-raising campaigns, and diversity-sensitivity training courses. The most

urgent proposal I see for the UWI is for an efficient, accessible and trusted 24hour

crisis response service. There would be a single contact point known to all staff and

students that would mobilize the appropriate psychological, medical, forensic,

social and security support without placing any additional stress on the victim. This

would require personnel specifically trained to respond to these crises effectively

in a sympathetic and supportive way, giving psychological support while also

making all the other necessary arrangements to support the victim and co-ordinate

their access to the full range of services. It should definitely not simply involve

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reporting incidents to the guards and security system. Such a service would not only

assist victims in their moment of vulnerability, but also demonstrate to the entire

university community that the problem was being taken very seriously. This would

help to overcome the problem of under-reporting and encourage other victims to

come forward, and would also send a strong deterrent message to prospective

perpetrators that effective action will be taken against them and that the University

cares about the core of its students’ wellbeing.

Recommendations – policy and action

In developing policy, it would address the problem that while there is considerable

expertise within the university, it is fragmented and not effectively co-ordinated;

for example, by translating teaching and research into policy it would ensure that

GBV is not narrowly and disparately conceived by different sectors (security,

counselling, halls of residence, the Institute for Gender & Development Studies,

campus police, etc.) in a way that fails to understand the complexity of the problem

as a whole. These recommendations implies investing in the student population,

finding financial and human resources and mobilizing considerable authority within

the university, and would represent a significant addition to its internal structures.

While such innovation tends to be resisted, it can easily be justified in terms of

increased student safety, improved public image of the university, an enhanced

role in producing democratic citizens oriented towards equality, non-violence and

mutual respect, and overall structural efficiency on the campus. We can set an

example for the wider society --- wouldn’t that be brilliant!

However, to make things more challenging, the University itself has increasingly

adopted a management ethos in which it views as itself as a corporation offering

education as a service, a brand to be managed, or a factory in which workers are

locked into technical job descriptions and performance indicators (e.g. the

personnel performance management systems now in place). While individuals try

to continue to do the good work that is not recognised within this ethos, the

institution itself is increasingly blind to the larger social, psychological and

ideological structures within which it is embedded, As a result it treats its failures

as public relations problems with its target market, or as failures of mechanisms or

breakdowns of incentive structures and instrumental effectiveness – rather than

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creating the kinds of positive spaces and advancing more positive social values that

would challenge the prevailing attitudes that lead to high levels of GBV. This must

be resist and make every effort to dialogue and negotiate for. There may be some

reality and practicalities of the University’s management ethos that we cannot get

away from, however a University is nothing without its students. Therefore it is

imperative for the leadership of the University to meaningfully develop and

cultivates a politics of care and policies and programmes to match it in order to

address violence against women on campus because students cannot learn in an

environment where they do not feel safe.

References

American College Health Association. "Shifting the paradigm: Primary prevention

of sexual violence." (2008).

Barry, Donna M., and Paul M. Cell. Campus sexual assault response teams: Program

development and operational management. Kingston: Civic Research

Institute, (2009).

Cantalupo, Nancy Chi. "Campus Violence: Understanding the Extraordinary

Through the Ordinary." JC & UL 35 (2009): 613.

Collins, Anthony, et al. "Nobody's business: Proposals for reducing gender-based

violence at a South African university." Agenda 23.80 (2009): 33-41.

Gibbons, Roberta, et al. The Evaluation of Campus-Based Gender Violence

Prevention Programming: What We Know about Program Effectiveness and

Implications for Practitioners. (2013).

Government of Jamaica, Final report of the Joint Select Committee Reviewing the

Offences Against the Persons Act & Incest (Punishment) Act 2007.

Society for the Upliftment of Women via Education, Mary Seacole Hall, University

of the West Indies, Mona Campus. Letter to the Principal regarding sexual assault

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on campus and presentation to parliament, University of the West Indies, Mona

Campus, April 12, 2007.