Last week Oxford completed its update of university policy and procedures on harassment following work with OUSU and other student organisations.
OUSU’s Vice-President for Women Anna Bradshaw announced the update on OUSU’s website on Thursday 4 December.
Bradshaw told Cherwell, “It Happens Here and successive Vice-Presidents for Women were absolutely instrumental to lobbying for an updated policy. After years of work, the update was agreed to about a year ago, and since then we have worked closely with the University on the drafting of the updated Policy.”
She also tweeted, “So proud & happy to see the new Harassment Policy- result of the hard work of many incl @mssarahpine & @YuanfenYang.”
Director of Student Administration and Services Emma Potts confirmed OUSU and other organisations played a role in raising concerns about the need for updates, although the improvements did also come as part of a general policy review.
Potts commented, “The input from students via Oxford University Student Union representation, along with working party membership from other relevant parts of the collegiate university, was instrumental in formulating the new Policy.”
She went on to detail how these “major improvements” seek to clarify processes and resolutions to cases, adding, “The major change is the development of a clear Procedure for student complaints of harassment against other students.
“The office of the director of Student Welfare and Support Services will be a clear point of contact for advice and support, which is particularly important for cases involving students [or staff] from more than one college or department, or where students may feel unsure or uncomfortable about approaching their own college or department.”
The updates to policy also include separate guidance for staff on dealing with cases involving sexual assault or violence raised by students and clarify the level of support available to those students who have been subject to harassment or harassment complaints.
Bradshaw similarly underlined the clarity of the new updated policy, stating, “Some of the most important improvements include how much clearer and easier to use the Policy and Procedures are, a vastly increased focus on welfare, and the new guidance for staff on handling cases of sexual violence.”
Nonetheless, despite a university-wide update to policy, OUSU’s Vice-President for Women was quick to highlight that changes will not be immediately implemented in college and so she urged students to play an active role in encouraging their colleges to respond to the updates and follow suit.
She said, “Changing the University’s harassment policy does not change colleges’ policies, and if students want to get involved in updating their college’s policy then they should get in touch with me at [email protected].
“Another easy thing that students can do to help is to write to their Head of House, Dean, or other senior members of their college saying how excited they are that the University has updated it’s policy, and how they hope the college will respond to this.”
OUSU confirmed in its online announcement that it will be working hard to ensure the policy is effectively introduced in individual colleges. One of the purposes of the newly-formed Harassment Policy Working group, which includes members of WomCam, It Happens Here, CRAE, the LGBTQ Campaign and Disabled Students Campaign, is to combat this issue.
