The Union President introduced the discussion by explaining that there will be a quick presentation and discussion about the Southampton Says Enough Campaign, and he handed over to the VP Welfare and Community, Aycha Ates-Di Adamo.
The VP Welfare and Community, started by giving a trigger warning to those present as the campaign refers to sexual harassment and violence and said that if anyone feels the need they can leave and rejoin later. She proceeded to summarise the goal of this campaign which was to tackle sexual violence and misconduct as they had noticed many students had wanted to feel safe in their city, enjoy nightlife, feel safe in their journey to and from the university and also feel safe at university. She explained that after speaking with students, a few had experienced sexual harassment and sexual violence firsthand and personally she has had friends who spoke to her about similar experiences. She added that there are many scenarios that such situations can happen.
As a result, she wanted to launch a campaign with different elements attached to this campaign, that would make students feel safer not only at university and at the Student Union but also in the greater, wider city of Southampton. They looked at the statistics and figures and found that there were many things impacting students, for example across Southampton violent and sexual offenses are the most prevalent crime category at 14795 offenses reported between October 2021 and September 2022 which is high across an entire year. She added that they found that 62% of students have been sexually assaulted at UK universities across 153 different institutions where the survey was taking place at. From this data, only 2% of individuals who had experienced sexual violence felt comfortable reporting it and were happy with the reporting procedure. From analysing this data, they also thought it was important to investigate the impact on staff and according to a UCU survey 39% of those surveyed had personally suffered or seen sexual violence in the previous 5 years. They also analysed the violence against women and girls survey which was a survey distributed across Hampshire and Isle of Wight and it asked inhabitants of these areas in what public spaces they experienced sexual harassment. As a result, they were able to map across the city where they saw high points of sexual harassment and lower points of sexual harassment. She pointed out that the top 3 areas were outdoor spaces such as footpaths, parks and high streets, public transport at stops or stations but also on the bus or train and at nighttime economy venues such as pubs, bars and clubs and educational settings such as schools, colleges and universities. Furthermore, they investigated what students wanted to see as physical improvements, which was also a question as part of the violence against women and girls survey, and it was shown that students wanted to see physical improvements such as street lighting and CCTV, to increase education and awareness about harassment and violence against women and girls and to see increased sentences or more convictions.
She proceeded to go through the 10-point plan that came out of this overall investigation, regarding collaboration with external stakeholders to tackle violence and harassment across the Southampton area.
The first point regarded individuals having safe ways to get home after participating in the nighttime economy since they found it is not only important for those going to clubs and other venues but also those working on shifts, at the hospital or within the nighttime economy and then getting home safely. Suggestions included introducing safer bus stops, implementing a lit route scheme which is a lit walking route home through Southampton with increased street lighting, CCTV, police patrols, street pastors, medical support, taking you from the centre of Southampton up to our halls of residence, Solent halls of residence and main areas of Southampton such as Portswood, Highfield as well as the city centre. Additionally, they have asked the council to implement better quality street lighting in line with what students have said they wanted to see, and they are working with the University of Southampton and Solent University to be involved in decisions made regarding the U1N which is the nighttime bus. Regarding the U1N, they want it to work better for students, such as timely arrivals and lower costs.
The second point is that they want to work with the council to implement safe spaces, welfare teams and welfare rooms as part of licensing agreements for venues. She moved on to explain that the recent Manchester Arena enquiry resulted in a lot of legislation regarding safe spaces, welfare teams and how welfare rooms and support should look and that they want Southampton City Council to review this data and implement it within venues and nightclubs and other nighttime venues, so people have support when they are out.
The third point is to invest greater resources in young people and services and to educate people when they are at school and college so that when they come to university, they already have a brief awareness. After talking to students, it was understood that some students did not have any education on basic consent and were not aware of things that could have been implemented earlier in their education. As a result, she is trying to contact schools and other educational settings to be involved.
The fourth point is to introduce a nighttime economy forum to act as a working group between universities, Student Unions and external stakeholders such as the Violence Reduction Unit within the police and charities such as Yellow Door and No lLmits and also Solent university and Student Union. They also want to update and be updated by many more stakeholders.
The fifth point is to review own procedures and policies by ensuring that there are appropriate, up to date written policies and procedures with a step-by-step guide created so students can access the information and see processes clearly and visibly when reporting sexual harassment and violence.
The sixth point is awareness of practical support to ensure that nighttime venues, universities and Student Unions have resources available for students such as posters, having a welfare team or welfare venue. Within SUSU there is a zero-tolerance policy to encourage more students to come forward and report sexual violence and harassment in a safe environment.
As the seventh point, she notes that she wants staff involved by making them more educationally aware of the impact of sexual misconduct, violence and abuse on students but also train nighttime economy staff regarding this and having specific members of staff to deal with such issues.
The eighth point involved student education, which they will implement by having students participate in a consent module and in an active bystander training module.
The ninth point was to review data that students report to universities and Student Unions and collect comprehensive data on the type of incidences, crimes and their locations and the actions taken. The tenth point is linked to the ninth point as they want to use the aforementioned data to streamline the processes of reporting sexual harassment and violence to universities and Student Unions.
To conclude she added that there was a successful launch event for this campaign, and it proved to be a great opportunity to reach the community of Southampton and work with external stakeholders as the Student Union wants to have an increased voice within the community. The support, resources and engagement that has been coming as a result has been great and they are grateful for the involvement.
She lastly added that there are operational groups for each element, and they are going successfully and most work from these groups will be finished at the end of the first term. Furthermore, she added that the student nighttime economy forum will be advertised soon for Solent and University of Southampton students and applications will be assessed after the winter break. The goal of this forum is to establish preventative measures rather than reactive and responsive measures.
Both VP Welfare and Communities and the Union President asked if there any questions but there were none.
