Speaking on Friday, December 20, 2021, at a meeting of students led by the Guild President Shamim Nambassa and other student leaders, they said that until the policy is taken to student leaders, efforts at the top of the university will be ineffective.
In 2018, the university revised its policy on sexual harassment to define different terms, outline goals, enforcement principles, and strategies, procedures for handling complaints, investigations, penalties, and appeals, and more.
It was through the same policy that the Directorate of Gender Mainstreaming was recommended to handle all complaints of sexual harassment rather than the heads of each department. This was done to avoid retaliation against the victims.
Students say they don’t know how to report abuse two years later because they didn’t understand the process well enough.
Brian Tukundane, a student from the School of Education suggested that information about sexual harassment should be given to students all the time and not just at University events.
Maureen Nabukera, who is a students’ representative from the School of Educatio says that student leaders like her should be trained and given the authority to listen to students’ complaints.
She said that leaders are more accessible to their coworkers who don’t want to talk to people from the Gender Mainstreaming Directorate.
Rispah Akulo, from the School of Social Sciences, said that students should be taught how to look for signs of sexual harassment before they report it.
Director of Gender Mainstreaming, Dr Euzobia Baine said that even if victims aren’t sure if they can report crimes, a lot of cases have been handled since the report was made public, which is good news.
There have been 22 complaints of sexual harassment against the staff of the university since 2019. The Gender Mainstreaming Directorate has heard from them.