Growing Strong
By Kimmy Dibben and Vivienne Guo
wealthy and privileged. They are notorious for being hotbeds of sexual violence and hazing. Sexual violence is concerned with power and power structures not only enable the violence but fuel it by silencing survivors and protecting perpetrators. What has the University done? ViceChancellor Michael Spence certainly doesn’t give a fuck. He’s previously said that the University is powerless to stop the violent hazing that happens at the start of every year. The lack of repercussions makes for a complete l a c k of accountability within colleges and a lack of support for survivors.
CW: Graphic accounts of sexual violence and hazing In 1977, an 18 year old girl was found raped and murdered on the oval at St Paul’s College. In the decades since, throwing dead fish on first years, setting fire to pubic hair and ejaculating into shampoo bottles, have all remained part of a deep-rooted hazing culture at the University of Sydney colleges, St Paul’s, St John’s, St Andrew’s, Wesley, Sancta Sophia and the Women’s College. In 2012, 30 St John’s residents nearly killed a peer in a hazing ritual. And yet nothing has changed. WoCo’s Dismantle the Colleges campaign has been one of our most radical and necessary campaigns to date. The burning need for structural change was made clear by End Rape on Campus’ Red Zone Report (2018), which draws attention to the horrors that universities seek to keep out of the public eye for fear that they will impact enrolment numbers and thus the University’s revenue. Women and vulnerable students are forced to bear the brunt of this; that is the cost of the University of Sydney saving face.
At the colleges, students pay $30,000 a year in rent, ensuring that only the rich are able to buy their way into their hallowed halls. Amongst this highly privileged demographic, most of the residents are white men, usually from a small pool of private schools in Sydney. It is no secret that boys private schools often allow for the misogynistic ‘old boys’ mentality. Case in point is the Wesley College journal from
Simply put, the colleges are elitist and deeply sexist institutions that mostly house the 19
