New allegations of student misconduct at University of Sydney college
Fresh allegations of misconduct, including sexism and hazing, at a University of Sydney college have emerged two years after a landmark review highlighted a high incidence of sexual violence and the need for cultural change on campus.
University newspaper Honi Soit has reported fresh allegations of sexist, racist and hazing incidents at the residential St Andrew’s College.
Hazing: St Andrew's College at the University of Sydney.Credit:Jessica Hromas
Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick wrote a report on a $1 million review of sexual violence at the university colleges. The Broderick review into Cultural Renewal at the University of Sydney Residential Colleges was released in late 2017.
It found that 25 per cent of women across the colleges, and up to 32 per cent of women at one college, had experienced sexual harassment and 6 per cent of female students had experienced sexual assault.
The Broderick review, which was criticised for not digging deeply enough, recommended the need for cultural change at residential colleges. Despite calling for the end of hazing rituals and sexual misconduct, which St Andrew's College responded to with a zero tolerance policy, allegations of misconduct have continued.
Honi Soit alleged that so-called hazing practices, which involved "auctioning" first-year students to second-year students, known as "walkabout" at St Andrew’s, had continued since the release of the Broderick review.
The newspaper reported that first-year students were forced to kneel on their hands and knees during "bidding" and less popular students were "sold" for as little as $5. Popular students were "sold" for several hundred dollars. The money was donated to charity, it said.
The successful bidders often take the "purchased" students out and drop them off somewhere, including in remote locations.
One student told Honi Soit she was abandoned in rural NSW in 2018 as part of "walkabout", described the auctioning ritual as demeaning and dangerous. Another said she was forced to steal and break street signs.
Honi Soit reported that first-year students were forced to drink copious amounts of alcohol before being taken to an unknown, often remote, location and left to find their way back home with little money.
Screen shots of closed Facebook posts from September last year refer to college residents hitting on a 50-year-old woman with others making references to group sex including "tunnel buddies".
One post from May 2019 shows a video of faeces left in a hallway.
Honi Soit reported that the college hallways "are a common target of faeces, and urine and vomit are often found in the showers. The clean up is left to college staff".
The student newspaper said it had also obtained an image shared in a messenger conversation between two former St Andrew's students, showing a man, naked from the waist down, who had defecated in the room of a female student and fallen asleep on her floor.
The Herald is seeking comment from The University of Sydney.